MIKEMUN

Iraqi TV Airs Tape of Purported Confession

By MAGGIE MICHAEL

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Syrian intelligence officer who appeared on the U.S.-funded Iraqi state television station had a stark message about the insurgency - he'd helped train people to build car bombs and behead people.

"My name is Anas Ahmed al-Essa. I live in Halab. I am from Syria,'' he said by way of introduction - naming what he said was his home in Syria. Halab is another name for Aleppo, a city north of Damascus.

"What's your job?'' he was asked by someone off-camera. "I am a lieutenant in intelligence.''

Then a second question. "Which intelligence?'' The reply: "Syrian intelligence.''

And so began a detailed 15-minute confession broadcast by al-Iraqiya TV on Wednesday, in which the man, identified as 30-year-old Lt. Anas Ahmed al-Essa, said his group was recruited to "cause chaos in Iraq ... to bar America from reaching Syria.''

"We received all the instructions from Syrian intelligence,'' said the man, who appeared in the propaganda video along with 10 Iraqis who said they had also been recruited by Syrian intelligence officers.

Later, al-Iraqiya aired another round of interviews with men it said were Sudanese and Egyptians who also trained in Syria to carry out attacks in Iraq.

Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the claims, which were not possible to authenticate independently.

An Iraqi special forces commander, Brig. Gen. Abu Al-Walid, said his forces arrested the men in Mosul on Jan. 29, one day before the national elections. He said they included eight Syrians, one Lebanese, 12 Egyptians and 10 Sudanese.

He said the men were found with explosives, weapons and maps for balloting centers in Mosul.

On Thursday, Iraqi police said they arrested four other suspected terrorists during raids in Baghdad - two Syrians and two Iraqis believed to have carried out other attacks.

The videos were broadcast as the Bush administration steps up pressure on Syria to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs by allowing insurgents to cross into the country to fight coalition troops and by harboring former Iraqi regime members. Syria has denied the charges.

Top officials in Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government have called on Syria to hand over former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who fled there after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, which Syria vehemently opposed.

Al-Iraqiya TV can be seen nationwide and is believed to be widely watched by Iraqis - mainly those who cannot afford satellite dishes offering the Persian Gulf-based Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya stations. But the station, which went on the air in May 2003 with help from the Pentagon, is viewed by many Iraqis as an American propaganda tool.

Wednesday was the first time the channel showed someone it claimed was a Syrian intelligence officer.

All those interviewed in the first video apparently were detained in the northern city of Mosul. It was not known where the interviews were made, and no date was provided.

A man identified as one of al-Essa's aides, Shehab al-Sabaawi, said the group used animals for training in beheadings. Al-Essa said it required "at least 10 beheadings'' for a member to be promoted to a group leader.

"I had to send a report to Syria about how the operations are going,'' he said.

Weapons, explosives and equipment were all provided by Syrian intelligence, the man claimed, adding that group members received $1,500 a month.

Al-Essa said money was his motive for accepting an offer by a Syrian intelligence colonel he identified as Fady Abdullah to carry out attacks inside Iraq.

``I was trained on explosives, killing, spying, kidnapping ... and after one year I went to Iraq with Fady Abdullah,'' al-Essa said.

He claimed he infiltrated Iraq in 2001, about two years before the U.S. invasion, because Syrian intelligence was convinced that American military action loomed.

An unidentified Iraqi officer introduced the video, saying all insurgent groups in Iraq were covers for Syrian intelligence. He named a number of well-known groups, including one which has killed and beheaded foreigners.

Al-Essa claimed to be leader of the al-Fateh Army, a group that had not been heard of previously.

Al-Sabaawi described himself as a former lieutenant colonel in Saddam's army. He said he was recruited at an Iraqi mosque in 2001 by an Iraqi man named Abu Bakr, whom he described as the al-Fateh Army's leader.

"He offered to take us on a training trip to Islamabad,'' the Pakistani capital, al-Sabaawi said. "He told us that we could develop our skills, give us information about how to make car bombs and carry out kidnappings.''

Before returning to Iraq, al-Sabaawi said he spent 11 months in Pakistan. He did not say who trained him there.

After Saddam's fall in 2003, al-Sabaawi said he spent a month in Syria, where he claimed to have received training from Syrian intelligence on how to behead hostages.

"Syrian intelligence officers were supervising our training. We were ready to fight the Americans because any Iraqi and any Muslim can't live under occupation,'' he said.

Afterward, he crossed the border and carried out attacks against U.S. military targets.

He said the group started by making car bombs targeting American troops and Iraqi National Guardsmen before beginning a campaign of kidnapping and beheading Iraqis.

The Sudanese and Egyptian nationals in the video broadcast later in the day did not belong to al-Fateh, the station said.

*****

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...91.htm&sc=1107

They are coming out of the woodworks...

lulldapull

Boy this guy implicated pakistan Sudan Egypt and the whole mouzlum world with this pathetic and alleged 'Syrian" intelligence officer?

Warmonger.......get a cheap life already!

Ray

Julie,

This vindicates my post that I wrote in the other thread where you asked why the Syrians gave asylum to the Baathist Iraqis.

Lull,

This much you have to admit that the Islamic world does not view the war on Iraq in the same light as the remainder of the world. Hence, it is not surprising that a 'nexus' is identified by those captured and interrogated.

Further, Sudan and Pakistan were the nodes from where the Taliban emanated and therefore there will be the infratructures still in place to foment Islamic radicalism. It may not necessarily mean the overt influence or encouragement of the govts involved. I am sure you are aware of the Moslem Brotherhood that impacts the social and religious life in Egypt as also in Sudan. In fact, they were the ones who sent the first consignment of the Islamic fighters to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.

Given the state of governance and the popularity of the radical Islamists in the countries mentioned, there is the possibility of the statements given by those captured being authentic and true.

Confed999

Good, the evidence mounts...

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

dalem

I honestly didn't think Assad was this stupid. I figured he would reluctantly smell the way the roses were blowing on the wall and at least stay neutral. But actively fighting us in Iraq and now wasting a noted Lebanese reformer...

I mean, do you have to study to get that stupid, or is it just a natural talent?

-dale

smilingassassin

Something to do with the drinking water maybe?

Bluesman

I just made that point in another thread. Israel is trying to tie the Syrians to this, and if they DO...Assad should get a resume' together, because he may be looking for work soon.

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

dalem

I think Bush's new slogan should be "Slow down, folks - one new democratic movement at a time."

And harking back to that Lebanese guy - that's gotta make you & your bros feel pretty good. First the Iranians begging to be invaded by you, now some Lebanese.

-dale

ZFBoxcar

Hahah true. Especially if you are following whats going on Egypt, and the small steps made by the Saudis. Mubarak announced he will allow opposition candidates to run against him elections and he asked parliament to change the constitution to allow for opposition parties. The Saudis are holding local elections (although women are still barred, just like they are from everything in Saudi Arabia). The Syrians are being pressed to get out Lebanon. The Palestinians held elections and are on the way to statehood. Iraq had their elections and are writing their constitution. Freedom IS on the march. If in 2008 we had a democratic Egypt, a somewhat more accountable government in Saudi Arabia, a democratic Palestine, a democratic Iraq, a reformed Libya, and a free Lebanon...wow. Obviously Bush would not be able to take credit for everything, but he has been putting pressure on the Egyptians, Saudis and Syrians, and he has been supportive of both the Israelis and the Palestinians. His policies have had a major impact in all of these developments and could possibly make Bush presidency one of the greatest in terms of foreign policy. If it doesn't all blow up. And this being the middle east, I would not bet against it blowing up.

Bluesman

One of the things that always struck me about the movement towards democracy and away from communism in Eastern Europe was the all-fired SPEED at which it all took place. I know I'm not the only one that remembers the accelerating to an out-of-control RUSH by which a new border control policy in a semi-captive Soviet satellite state turned into a total system collapse all across the Iron Curtain.

It was disorienting to watch it. One couldn't get up in the morning without seeing a new headline of the old totalitarian status quo imploding, collapsing, reforming, and morphing. I remember clearly the talking heads on a morning show interveiwing some cartographers who were in total despair of ever having a correct world map for that year. Borders, country names, national flags, and provinces-***-nations were in a flux that shifted so rapidly that the State Department decided to freeze all diplomatic activity for three months in that part of Europe, because the exchange of ambassadors' credentials, recognition of new states, and so many other things swamped the beaurocracy's ability to deal with it all. Then they abandoned the freeze because History simply wouldn't wait, and demanded to be addressed.

Deja vu all over again. I get the idea that while dominoes in SouthEast Asia in the '70's may fall one way, they do so with usual communist inefficiency. But when captive and oppressed populations in a ferment for their freedom find their own power...don't be standing under THOSE dominoes.

I'm not saying that every Muslim that is in the hands of an autocrat will have a purple finger by the time our kids are back from Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale, but just think how radically our world has been transformed in the past year. If anyone had posited that we'd be seeing this kind of historic change EVEN JUST BEFORE OUR OWN ELECTION, we'd have all thought he was daft. I never doubted that all downtrodden and oppressed peoples everywhere yearn to breathe free. But I had no idea that our world could look like THIS, this soon.

But once again, a visionary Republican President, acting on principle and taking enormous risks, DID see it. George W. Bush truly IS the idealogical son of Ronald Reagan. When we elected his father, that's what we thought we were getting: an improved Reagan. But he wasn't. His son IS.

I cast my first-ever vote for Ronald Reagan, and to this day, it's the vote I'm proudest of. I voted for him again, and I've always been happy I did. The myopic and out-right blind among us in this country still think he was a terrible President, and they refuse to give him his due as a great man that shook the world, and changed the course of history for the enormous good - maybe even the very survival - of his country, and CERTAINLY for the freedom of countless millions all over the world.

I then cast my vote for what I believed was a continuation, more of the same. I should've known that's not what I was going to get. I didn't crack the code of 'kinder and gentler'. Kinder and gentler than WHAT? Bush was sending a signal that he actually bought the argument of the Democrats (who were obstructionists to everything Reagan was trying to do, almost to the point of treason, sometimes). But I didn't pick up on that signal. After four years, though, I couldn't bring myself to vote for him again. He lost, and I didn't care all that much.

Skip ahead to his son's campaign. I had no sense that Dubya was anything other than what he was running against: a rich frat boy trading on his father's name. I scorned my 'opportunity' to vote for him, figuring it mattered little either way, as we were given a non-choice of a couple of empty suits with no character to back up what were pretty thin resume's.

And then Spetember 11th changed everything. If there is a God, He is a benevolent being that favors our side over our enemies. Because our man was more than equal to the challenge. (If the election had gone the other way - and at the time, I didn't care if it had - that proposition wouldn't have been true.)

So, now, here we are, engaged in the titanic and transformative work of draining the swamp, instead of swatting at mosquitos for the rest of our lives, which would be lived under eternal threat. And who had the vision to see that it was possible, and the sheer moral courage to attempt it, when nobody else saw, and nobody else would face the challenge of DOING it? He's been characterized by his smug, self-righteous opponents as a moron, an idiot, a chimp. Worse, he's been demonized for his supposed moral failings as a liar, a callous, calculating opportunist that puts his political well-being over the welfare of his country.

And yet he wins great victories for freedom, and always seems to do the hard things that may actually cost him politically...because they're the Right Things To Do. Remember how he hung on to Cheney as his running mate, even though Cheney was shown to be a political liability in a close election? Cheney had served honorably and well - was in fact, labelled the 'Indispensable Man' - but after all the character assassination and demonization, he was a drag on the ticket. To cast him off would have been politically wise and understandable, especially when the stakes were so high. But it would have been a breaking of faith with a fine man that had always done his best for this President and this country. So, although it could've cost him the election, Bush took Honor over Practicality, and that's what Character is all about.

Back to the subject:
None of this that we are seeing and discussing now - and seeing in such speed and volume - would have been possible without this President having the qualities in him that we seek in a leader. His enormous moral courage, his vision and his natural abilities to lead are going to be seen in their full scope when History can take a longer view backward. But Der Spiegel should keep their 'Reagan' articles close at hand, because they may need 'em for footnotes sooner than any of us can tell.

Bluesman

Long post, and I'm sorry about that, guys. But I'm particularly inspired by what's going on Over There, and how it stirred my memories of the Berlin Wall's collapse, and the replacing of the Hammer and Sickle with the Russian Tricolor over the Kremlin.

Enjoy living the history, folks. I certainly am.

Confed999

I remember all that too, it was an amazing thing to see happening. I also have made the same comparisons you have. I pray the momentum continues sweeping through the world, for the sake of everyone everywhere.

lemontree

It would have helped if the 'Syrian' had given his serial number, rank and unit name also. The word "syrian intelligence" is a little vague. However, the Syrian involment in Iraqi terrorism is quite evident from other sources, like the supply of Kornet AT-14 ATGMs to the insurgents. Russian has sold these ATGMs only to Syria and India.

__________________

Cheers!...on the rocks!!

dalem

Yeah, I always believed that the USSR would waste away "sometime in the not too distant future", but I had no idea that it would happen while I wasn't looking.

One minute Gorby actually refers to the American Declaration of Independence in a speech and I think "Hm. Better keep an eye out." and the next minute Ceacescu and his wife are put up against a wall and shot.

At least, that's the way it felt to me.

I think it's honestly just starting to sink in now, almost 15 years later. I read or re-read history books and I think "wow, there isn't anymore West/East Germany. Poles aren't getting slammed with water cannon in the streets. The entire Soviet navy is rusting at the quays or sold to China for use as floating casinos."

I mean, HOLY CRAP!

It's pretty cool.

-dale

lemontree

About USSR you are correct, but don't underestimate Russia.
They are going slow with aqusition for their forces so as not to get into the arms race. They are still making top class weapon systems.