White House Builds Case That Tape Links Al Qaeda to Iraq

By David Stout, New York Times, 12 February 2003

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12—The White House said today that the latest audiotaped message believed to be from Osama bin Laden was further evidence of an unholy partnership between Al Qaeda terrorists and Iraq. And the head of the Central Intelligence Agency noted that previous messages from the terrorist leader had often been followed by attacks. The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said the latest message’s reference to our mujahadeen brothers and his appeal to Muslims to help Iraq resist an American invasion suggested a strong statement of alliance between Baghdad and Al Qaeda.

If that is not an unholy partnership, I have not heard of one, Mr. Fleischer told reporters today. This is the nightmare that people have warned about, the linking up of Iraq with Al Qaeda.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that he thought that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made a convincing case for an Iraq-Al Qaeda link in his testimony on Tuesday before a Senate committee. Defense Minister Geoff Hoon of Britain, who met with Mr. Rumsfeld today, said the audiotape clearly showed a connection.

He said that, not us, Mr. Hoon said, referring to the man on the tape believed to be Mr. bin Laden.

Even before the latest message was played on Tuesday on the Al Jazeera Arabic satellite station in Qatar, the Bush administration was urging people to think of the campaign against terrorism and the showdown with Iraq as part of the same endeavor, even though American officials have never accused Saddam Hussein of having a role in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that he did not know if the latest message amounted to a call to arms, and was thus a prelude to a terror attack.

But the director noted that two previous messages last autumn were followed by attacks soon afterward. One was on a French oil tanker. Another killed a United States marine in Kuwait. In a third, a bomb destroyed a Bali nightclub popular with Westerners, leaving nearly 200 dead. And in a fourth attack, a bomb exploded in a Kenya hotel, killing 3 Israeli tourists and 10 Kenyans.

So one of the things we’re looking at is, he’s obviously raising the confidence of his people, Mr. Tenet said in response to a question. He’s obviously exhorting them to do more. And whether this is a signal of impending attack or not is something we’re looking at. I can only tell you what the history is.

Mr. Rumsfeld agreed. Whether or not the message foreshadowed an attack, he said, it was clearly an effort to gain recruits and financial support. That’s their life’s blood, he said.

Mr. Tenet said today, as he did on Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, that data gathered recently by American intelligence experts strongly indicated planning for another attack and that that warranted the administration’s recent decision to put the country on a higher level of alert against attacks.

Mr. Tenet told the members of the Armed Services panel today that the intelligence was the most specific we have seen and it is consistent with both our knowledge of Al Qaeda doctrine and our knowledge of the plots this network, particularly its senior leadership, has been working on for years.

The intelligence, which officials have not described in detail, has been strong enough that the Defense Department has deployed vehicle-mounted Stinger antiaircraft missiles at various points in and around Washington, including the Pentagon.

As for suspicions of a partnership between Iraq and Al Qaeda, Mr. Tenet said those feelings are based on a solid foundation of evidence from many sources.

Iraq has in the past provided training and document forgery and bomb-making to Al Qaeda, Mr. Tenet told the Armed Services Committee. It has also provided training in poisons and gases to two Al Qaeda associates. One of these associates characterized the relationship be forged with Iraqi officials as successful.

Doubts about an Iraqi-Al Qaeda partnership stem from Mr. bin Laden’s past denunciations of the Iraqi regime as infidels and from Mr. Hussein’s denials of any tie. Germany, which has harshly criticized Washington’s approach to Iraq, signaled its deep skepticism today about any such partnership.

But the State Department’s chief spokesman, Richard Boucher, told Al Jazeera in an interview late Tuesday that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell believes Mr. Hussein and Al Qaeda are bound by a common hatred for the United States.

Mr. Hoon of Britain, which has been the United States’ staunchest ally against Iraq, agreed with that assessment. If the audiotape is indeed authentic , he said, Mr. bin Laden is urging his followers to join with Iraq and make common cause against their perceived enemy, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Armed Services Committee hearing where the C.I.A. director testified was conducted by the panel’s chairman, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia. Another Republican member, Susan Collins of Maine, noted that Mr. Tenet had estimated that more than a third of the Al Qaeda leadership had been captured or killed.

Obviously and unfortunately, she said, that does not include Osama bin Laden.

At the Pentagon, Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States is just one of 70, 80 or 90 countries chasing the terrorist leader. There have been people on the F.B.I.’s 10 Most Wanted for decades, Mr. Rumsfeld said. It’s a big world.