The Guardian: Al-Qaida 'planted information to encourage US invasion'

[kpete]

Al-Qaida 'planted information to encourage US invasion'

Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday November 17, 2006
The Guardian


A senior al-Qaida operative deliberately planted information to encourage the US to invade Iraq, a double agent who infiltrated the network and spied for western intelligence agencies claimed last night.

The claim was made by Omar Nasiri, a pseudonym for a Moroccan who says he spent seven years working for European security and intelligence agencies, including MI5. He said Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, who ran training camps in Afghanistan, told his US interrogators that al-Qaida had been training Iraqis.

Libi was captured in November 2001 and taken to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. Asked on BBC2's Newsnight whether Libi or other jihadists would have told the truth if they were tortured, Nasiri replies: "Never".
Asked whether he thought Libi had deliberately planted information to get the US to fight Iraq, Nasiri said: "Exactly".

.............

What is new, if Nasiri is to be believed, is that the leading al-Qaida operative wanted to overthrow Saddam and use Iraq as a jihadist base. Nasiri also says that part of al-Qaida training was to withstand interrogation and provide false information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1949927,00.html

[stop the bleeding]

1. you always find the good stories

:)

[Horse with no Name]

2. Wow.

I wonder how they obtained this information?

[krkaufman]

19. There's nothing to wonder about. They tortured him.

So, not only might al Qaeda have intentionally planted the information (of which I'm skeptical), we have 2 examples of where torture produced bad intelligence, as predicted, and has now lead to over half a million deaths. In the case of al Libi, as mentioned in the above article, and Zubaydah, as well.

Check any of the available Iraq war timelines for info on these two guys, and you'll see that their torture-extracted misinformation was used by the Bush Administration to mislead the US into invading Iraq.

I would think that deliberate use of information extracted through torture, to lead the country to war, would fall within the "high crimes or misdemeanors" classification.

[magellan]

3. Doesn't pass the sniff test

Why wasn't the false information provided by this operative used by BushCo to support their reasons for invading Iraq? If they truly had such information, it would've been paraded before the public long ago.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. It was used; the DIA thought it dodgy, the CIA embraced it

From the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, via Wikipedia:

Postwar findings support the DIA February 2002 assessment that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was likely intentionally misleading his debriefers when he said that Iraq provided two al-Qa'ida associates with chemical and biological weapons (CBW) training in 2000...Postwar findings do not support the CIA's assessment that his reporting was credible...No postwar information has been found that indicates CBW training occurred and the detainee who provided the key prewar reporting about this training recanted his claims after the war...CIA's January 2003 version of Iraqi Support for Terrorism described al-Libi's reporting for CBW training "credible", but noted that the individuals who traveled to Iraq for CBW training had not returned, so al-Libi was not in position to know if the training had taken place...In January 2004, al-Libi recanted his allegations about CBW training and many of his other claims about Iraq's links to al Qa'ida. He told debriefers that, to the best of his knowledge, al-Qa'ida never sent any individuals into Iraq for any kind of support in chemical or biological weapons. Al-libi told debriefers that he fabricated information while in U.S. custody to receive better treatment and in response to threats of being transferred to a foreign intelligence service which he believed would torture him...He said that later, while he was being debriefed by a (REDACTED) foreign intelligence service, he fabricated more information in response to physical abuse and threats of torture. The foreign government service denies using any pressure during al-Libi's interrogation. In February 2004, the CIA reissued the debriefing reports from al-Libi to note that he had recanted information. A CIA officer explained that while CIA believes al-Libi fabricated information, the CIA cannot determine whether, or what portions of, the original statements or the later recants are true of false

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Shaykh_al-Libi

[dorkulon]

8. It was.

Al-libi's fabrications were a major component of the war justification.

[magellan]

10. Thank you both

My bad for not reading the whole article first, which I usually do.

[krkaufman]

20. Ummm... It *was* used, as the Guardian articles details.

This guy's torture-extracted misinformation was among the main claims of the Bush Admin in trying to link al Qaeda to Saddam's Iraq.

[stop the bleeding]

4. does this help? - this post was to answer for post#3

Nasiri said Libi "needed the conflict in Iraq because months before I heard him telling us when a question was asked in the mosque after the prayer in the evening, where is the best country to fight the jihad?" Libi said Iraq was chosen because it was the "weakest" Muslim country.

It is known that under interrogation, Libi misled Washington. His claims were seized on by George Bush, vice-president, Dick Cheney, and Colin Powell, secretary of state, in his address to the security council in February, 2003, which argued the case for a pre-emptive war against Iraq.

Though he did not name Libi, Mr Powell said "a senior terrorist operative" who "was responsible for one of al-Qaida's training camps in Afghanistan" had told US agencies that Saddam Hussein had offered to train al-Qaida in the use of "chemical or biological weapons".

Does this answer your question - I am tired so I may be reading your post wrong.

[magellan]

9. Is your reply to me?

Thank you if so, you cleared it up for me. Slap my paws, I didn't read the whole article; something I usually do before replying, and this is why. :)

[stop the bleeding]

13. yes and your welcome

I am glad to help

It is a slow day at the office - so I have a little more time to read the whole articles today.

[The Count]

5. W, you big patsy.....

Someone please unearth that graphic with OBL in Uncle Sam fashion saying
I I WANT YOU TO INVADE IRAQ
Vindicates Clark too - who always said this war will be a great recruiting help to OBL

I used to have it on a protest sign.

Alsi, I am on record as the first recommend

[LynnTheDem]

7. That isn't "new", al Qaeda wanting to overthrow Saddam.

OBL offered to go into Iraq and murder Hussein.

Al Qaeda has ALWAYS seen Saddam Hussein as their ENEMY.

Most the entire world (other than America, of course) has always known that.

And gee, even bush's CIA have always known that.

bush HELPED al Qaeda get rid of their enemy.

FACT.

[Jim Warren]

28. and who knows more about enabling OBL than almost anybody?

Defense Secretary designate Gates.

[krkaufman]

30. Actually, the degree to which Bush is checking-off bin Ladin's ToDo List items...

... is astonishing.

• Withdrawal of US troops from Saudi Arabia (Check!)
  
• Overthrow secular regime in Iraq. (Check!)
  
• Draw US into a prolonged war in Middle East, as a money-/resource-draining influence on the US and as a unifying conflict for the Muslim world and a recruiting stimuls for radical Islam. (ala the Russian occupation of Afghanistan) (Check!)
  

[SoftUnderbelly]

11. read this

it was a very interesting edition of newsnight last night (for those who dont know, newsnight is one of the most respected news programnes in britain) as they did a 45 minute special on this. if you go to this link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/6155736.stm

click on watch last nights programne to see for yourself.

[krkaufman]

21. I wish they broadcasted Newsnight on BBC America. n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. What Bushit! It was Chalabi and friends that helped plant evidence. Curveball ring a bell???? eom

[krkaufman]

23. No, it is quite realistic -- except for the "al Qaeda" part

There's no question that al Libi provided misnformation (under torture) that was used by the Bush Admin in misleading the country to war in Iraq.

However, I'm doubting that it was a grand al Qaeda misinformation strategy. It was more likely just single guy mapping his torture-extracted comments to what he thought his interrogators wanted to hear.

[BootinUp]

14. To me, this is quite plausible.

proving it is another thing. But there is no doubt we have aided their cause.

[Jacobin]

15. One of bin Laden's goals was to kick Saddam out

Who know?

[buddysmellgood]

17. Dubya (Cheney) knew! He hatched the plan with Osama.

[CJCRANE]

16. This story is a plant n/t

[shadowknows69]

18. Come on

There's compelling testimony that has been given proving this cabal wanted Iraq even before 9/11. Why is the world trying to give this war criminal a pass?

[BurtWorm]

22. The source is questionable, but you state the best reason to disbelieve it.

Nothing could have convinced the Bushists NOT to invade Iraq.

[NNN0LHI]

24. And Al-Qaida used to be called the Afghan Mujahideen who the CIA funded and supported

Same people with a different name. So it kind of makes sense.

Don

[krkaufman]

27. Though there's some overlap, al Qaeda and mujahideen aren't the same.

Have you watched 'The Power of Nightmares'?

bin Laden and other radical Islamists fought alongside the mujahideen, but the groups are not the same.

[NNN0LHI]

31. If this article is correct there appears to be more than "some overlap"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/yemen/Story/0,2763,209260,00.html

Frankenstein the CIA created

Mujahideen trained and funded by the US are among its deadliest foes, reports Jason Burke in Peshawar

Sunday January 17, 1999

Guardian Unlimited


When Clement Rodney Hampton-el, a hospital technician from Brooklyn, New Jersey, returned home from the war in Afghanistan in 1989, he told friends his only desire was to return. Though he had been wounded in the arm and leg by a Russian shell, he said he had failed. He had not achieved martyrdom in the name of Islam.

So he found a different theatre for his holy war and achieved a different sort of martyrdom. Three years ago, he was convicted of planning a series of massive explosions in Manhattan and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Hampton-el was described by prosecutors as a skilled bomb-maker. It was hardly surprising. In Afghanistan he fought with the Hezb-i-Islami group of mujahideen, whose training and weaponry were mainly supplied by the CIA.

He was not alone. American officials estimate that, from 1985 to 1992, 12,500 foreigners were trained in bomb-making, sabotage and urban guerrilla warfare in Afghan camps the CIA helped to set up.

Since the fall of the Soviet puppet government in 1992, another 2,500 are believed to have passed through the camps. They are now run by an assortment of Islamic extremists, including Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist.

Bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan from Saudi Arabia in 1979, aged 22. Though he saw a considerable amount of combat - around the eastern city of Jalalabad in March 1989 and, earlier, around the border town of Khost - his speciality was logistics.

[krkaufman]

25. Parallel LBN thread here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2618651

[ComerPerro]

26. The Al Qaida operative WAS Bush

[alfredo]

29. Osama stated that he wanted to pull the US into a long

bloody war on their turf. His aims were to drain our treasury, weaken our military, and lessen our influence in the Muslim world.

Mission accomplished.