IYAD ALLAWI IS MAKING SOME INTERESTING allegations against Iraq's former leader. Those allegations were published recently by al-Hayat and brought to my attention at Power Line. They point to a possible relationship between Hussein and al Qaeda.
The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period...
"...The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period," Allawi affirmed, "and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country," he said.
Allawi's remarks come after statements to al-Hayat by King Abdallah II of Jordan over Saddam's refusal to hand over al-Zarqawi to the authorities in Amman. On this question Allawi said: ''The words of the Jordanian King are correct and important. We have proof of al-Zawahiri's visit to Iraq, but we do not have the precise date or information on al-Zarqawi's entry, though it is likely that he arrived around the same time."
There is more and it is not a long read. Allawi is even naming names. The charges rise only to the level of allegations right now, but it will be intersting to see if he can offer any proof in the coming months. I don't see that he has much to gain by lying. Certainly it is too late to convince America to free his country from Hussein's murderous regime.
Of course, even if Allawi proved everything, fat chance anybody in the American media would print it anyway.
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