Files show al-Qaeda's grip on IraqLeaked documents show how al-Qaeda arrived in Iraq after the US military overthrew Saddam's government.Andrew Wander and Gregg Carlstrom
Oct 25 2010
"
If you're asking, are there al-Qaeda in Iraq, the answer is yes, there are. It's a fact, yes." Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, August 2002
It was one of the key American justifications for the Iraq war. But the theory that al-Qaeda was present in Saddam-era Iraq, much cited by the Bush adminsitration in the run-up to the invasion, has been undermined by the content of secret US military documents.
The files contain only half a dozen references to the group for the whole of 2004, the year records begin. But under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who had met Osama bin Laden while fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the classified reports show that al-Qaeda established itself as major player in the carnage as the conflict wore on.
The infrequency of al-Qaeda-related files early in the war suggest that
US officials were wrong when they accused Iraq of harbouring the group's fighters in the years prior to the invasion. Instead, the narrative that emerges from the classified reports indicates that the US presence itself was what attracted them to the country.
Experts have always doubted the existence of a link between the secular Baathist government of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. =snip=
In truth, the Wikileaks Iraq war files tell us little that we did not already know about al-Qaeda in Iraq. But they do serve to underline the great irony of the US war in Iraq; that
the invasion, billed as part of the so-called "war on terror", did more to inspire al-Qaeda activity in Iraq than it did to undermine it.It is an irony that has not been lost on former spymaster Manningham-Buller. "Arguably, we gave Osama bin Laden his Iraqi jihad," she said earlier this year.
The thousands of incidents detailed in the leaked documents show just how grateful al-Qaeda was.
Much more:
http://english.aljazeera.net/secretiraqfiles/2010/10/20101024185141883364.html Al Jazeera English are doing another 1 hour special about the files shortly, this one will be focusing specifically on this subject.
Part 1 of their series of hour long specials was posted
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x518301">here.
(There is no copyright notice on Al Jazeera Eglish's website)
The Logs: http://wikileaks.org/iraq/diarydig Click on the banners for more disclosures from the logs...http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq-war-logs">
http://english.aljazeera.net/secretiraqfiles/">
http://www.iraqwarlogs.com/">
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