Officials say arrests in Iraq yield few links to al-Qaida

WASHINGTON -- U.S. forces in central Iraq have detained a handful of people suspected of ties to al-Qaida, but American intelligence officials describe them as mostly low-level operatives with unclear purposes in the country.

Their presence is far from conclusive evidence that the Bush administration's pre-war assertions about al-Qaida links to the Iraqi government were accurate, experts say.

Like the hunt for Iraqi chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs, the search by intelligence and military teams in Iraq continues for proof of a link between Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaida.

And as with the allegations regarding weapons, some Bush administration critics question whether the intelligence on such a link was exaggerated or mishandled.

Intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said documents are being reviewed and prisoners, both Iraqi and foreign, are being interviewed to determine what Iraq-al-Qaida connections actually existed.

High-level al-Qaida prisoners, particularly Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, have denied the terror network worked with Saddam's government, according to U.S. officials. So have Iraqi prisoners, including Farouk Hijazi, a former Iraqi intelligence operative who U.S. officials allege met with al-Qaida operatives in the 1990s, including possibly Osama bin Laden himself.

Before the war, the Bush administration publicized a number of U.S. intelligence reports that hinted at some kind of cooperation between Iraqi officials and al-Qaida associates.

Even then, critics said the reports were far from conclusive. In addition, the U.N. terrorism committee has found no evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaida.

The most specific U.S. allegations involved the movements and followers of a Jordanian named Abu Musab Zarqawi, whom the CIA describes as a high-level associate of bin Laden who believes himself independent of al-Qaida.

'Finding remnants'

In April, U.S. forces near Baghdad captured a man they described as a midlevel terrorist operative who worked for Zarqawi. It is unclear whether the additional detentions are also tied to him, as Islamic extremists have also entered Iraq on their own accord to fight the U.S.-British occupation.

"I think they're finding remnants of the Zarqawi network," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief. "It is still not clear to what degree they received support from the Saddam Hussein regime. That he was promoting al-Qaida is absurd. That there was a tolerance for a Zarqawi network in Iraq seems clear."

Zarqawi has been charged in Jordan in connection with the death of Lawrence Foley, a U.S. diplomat who was shot Oct. 28 in Amman, and in a failed operation to bomb U.S. and Israeli tourist sites in the capital several years ago. He is also suspected of ties to an alleged foiled plot to conduct an attack with poison in Europe.

Zarqawi was in Afghanistan when the U.S. attacked after Sept. 11. He was hurt and fled to Iran, where he received medical treatment, U.S. counterterrorism officials say.

In February, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations, he went to Baghdad in May 2002 for additional treatment.

During that time, roughly two dozen of Zarqawi's followers moved to Baghdad, according to Powell. Their activities in Baghdad are unclear.

Intelligence officials say they presume Saddam's internal security network would have known about Zarqawi. Therefore, officials concluded, Saddam must have at least tolerated Zarqawi's presence. But direct evidence of any sort of cooperation is slim.

Powell said Zarqawi stayed for two months and left. The Jordanian government has indicated he was in Syria in June, but it is unclear whether its information is at odds with Powell's testimony.

It appears that most of the planning for the Foley killing was done in Syria, not Iraq, according to Jordanian prosecutors. In September, Zarqawi briefly was in Jordan.

Also in 2002, Zarqawi's followers made contact with a Kurdish Islamic extremist group, Ansar al-Islam, which operated in an area outside of Saddam's control in northern Iraq.

Powell alleged that one of Saddam's agents was at Ansar headquarters, implying a connection. Other U.S. officials, however, said they were unsure what that agent was doing there; he may have been covertly spying on the group for Saddam.

U.S. forces bombed Ansar during the invasion of Iraq. Zarqawi is now believed to have fled to Iran, U.S. and German officials say. His status there is unclear.

But predictions that Saddam's government would provide al-Qaida operatives with chemical and biological weapons apparently were not realized. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and other officials say there is no evidence that al-Qaida has obtained any of Iraq's alleged-but-unfound weapons.

U.S. officials have alleged other meetings between Iraqi and al-Qaida leaders, including Hijazi's reported get-together with bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998. Hijazi acknowledged meeting with al-Qaida operatives in 1994 in Sudan, but said the Iraqi government established no ties with bin Laden's network.

A senior al-Qaida prisoner claimed operatives sought chemical and biological weapons training in Iraq, and one of them described the effort as "successful." Another defector said Saddam sent agents to Afghanistan to train al-Qaida members on document forgery.

The U.S. government has provided nothing further to substantiate these assertions.