Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
Jointly published by the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum
  Vol. 3   No. 4 Table of Contents
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April 2001 


Intelligence Briefs: Iraq

Iraqi-Iranian Relations Deteriorate
SCIRI Denies Powell Meeting (5 March 2001)
Iraqi Spies Reportedly Arrested in Germany (16 March 2001)
Saudis Have Signed $600 in Contracts with Iraq (21 March 2001)
Iraqi Military Developments Reported (21 March 2001)
Kurdish Scholar, KDP Official Assassinated (30 March 2001)

Iraqi-Iranian Relations Deteriorate

A Gulf source tells MEIB that relations between Baghdad and Teheran are deteriorating. The Iranians are very worried about Iraq's unconventional weapons programs and are certain that, in the absence of UN weapons inspectors, Saddam is producing chemical and biological weapons which may one day be used against them. The Iran believes that the US is not serious about dealing with Saddam Hussein.

The source also explained that Iran was behind the two recent bombings in Baghdad. The first, on February 24, injured one person. A second, much bigger, bombing, occurred on March 16, killing two people and wounded 27. Publicly, Iraq blamed the Zionists and Americans, but the source affirmed that Iraq knows well that Iran is behind the attacks.

SCIRI Denies Powell Meeting
5 March 2001

Jomhour-ye-Eslami (Tehran) reports that Baqir al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq rejected reports that Hakim had met with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Hakim's spokesman emphasized that SCIRI had nothing to say to the US government and that the Iraqi people, not foreign governments, made decisions on issues affecting Iraq.

However, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmad Chalabi visited Tehran several weeks later, following a US decision to provide funding for INC activities inside Iraq. Subsequently, al-Hakim announced his willingness to meet with US officials, explaining that the entire world, including the Palestinians and the Syrians, were speaking to the Americans, so why shouldn't the Iraqi opposition?

Iraqi Spies Reportedly Arrested in Germany
16 March 2001

Al-Watan al-Arabi (Paris) reports that two Iraqis were arrested in Germany, charged with spying for Baghdad. The arrests came in the wake of reports that Iraq was reorganizing the external branches of its intelligence service and that it had drawn up a plan to strike at US interests around the world through a network of alliances with extremist fundamentalist parties.

The most serious report contained information that Iraq and Osama bin Ladin were working together. German authorities were surprised by the arrest of the two Iraqi agents and the discovery of Iraqi intelligence activities in several German cities. German authorities, acting on CIA recommendations, had been focused on monitoring the activities of Islamic groups linked to bin Ladin. They discovered the two Iraqi agents by chance and uncovered what they considered to be serious indications of cooperation between Iraq and bin Ladin. The matter was considered so important that a special team of CIA and FBI agents was sent to Germany to interrogate the two Iraqi spies.

Saudis Have Signed $600 in Contracts with Iraq
21 March 2001

Arab News (Jeddah) reports that Saudi companies have signed contracts worth $600 million with Iraq within the framework of the U.N.-supervised oil-for-food program. A Saudi official explained that the Kingdom was waiting for a green light from the UN to reopen the Arar border crossing. It was necessary for the UN to designate an agent to oversee the border trade. The crossing was recently opened for commercial traffic after a ten-year closure. But the UN inspector failed to turn up, forcing merchants to export their goods to Iraq through Jordan.

Iraqi Military Developments Reported
21 March 2001

Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London) reports that Iraqi authorities have recently recalled Air Force officers to the Air Force Command Headquarters in Baghdad in order to return them to active service. The officers were subsequently transferred to an air base at Mosul.

Also, new Iraqi military units have been formed to enhance internal security in the north. In Ninawa, a force known as the "Military Brigades" and another known as "Defense and Duty" were created to follow the movement of smugglers and citizens across the Iraq-Syrian border. In Kirkuk, an armed battalion called the "Contingency Force," composed of members of the Ba'ath Party who have completed military service was created. Kirkuk authorities organized a military parade that coincided with the escalation of a media campaign against the Kurdish parties that administer northern Iraq.

Kurdish Scholar, KDP Official Assassinated
30 March 2001

Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London) reports on the assassination of a prominent Kurdish scholar and historian, Muhammad al-Ruzbayani, in his home in Baghdad on March 27. Ruzbayani, 88, had been an adviser to the Iraqi government on Kurdish affairs after the 1968 Ba'athist coup. Most recently, he was reportedly receiving financial support from institutions in the Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq, a factor which may have aroused the suspicions of Iraqi authorities. Ruzbayani was killed under particularly brutal circumstances, his assailant having used an axe for the murder. This follows on the assassination of a senior KDP official, Francois Hariri, a few weeks before.


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