SwiftVets.com

[Rdtf]

'The Observer' is connected to 'the Guardian' and we all know that it's liberal crap - but this article seems legit.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1329439,00.html


Saddam aide in exile heads list of most wanted rebels
A former Baathist based in Syria has been identified as the Mr Big behind
terrorism
Peter Beaumont
Sunday October 17, 2004
The Observer

A senior Baath party organiser and Saddam Hussein aide, Mohammed Younis
al-Ahmed, has been named by western intelligence officials as one of the key
figures directing the Sunni insurgency from his hiding-place in neighbouring
Syria.

Sources have told The Observer that Younis al-Ahmed - who has had a $1
million price tag placed on his head by the US - is one of between 20 and 50
senior Baath party figures based in Syria who, they believe, are involved in
organising the guerrilla war against the US-led multi-national forces in
Iraq and against the new Iraqi security forces.

The naming of Ahmed comes amid growing concern that hardline factions in
Syria are providing protection for cells still loyal to the old Iraqi regime
who were involved in organising the flow of money, people and material for
fighters in Baghdad and the Sunni triangle. This is despite Syrian moves to
tighten up its border with Iraq after complaints from Washington and London
that arms and foreign terrorists were crossing into Iraq.

The intelligence officials believe the activities of the Syrian-based former
regime members - who quickly formed into cells after the fall of Saddam -
may be a considerably more significant threat to the interim government of
Ayad Allawi than the more widely visible activities of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
who has been behind a series of beheadings and suicide bombings.

Before the $1m bounty was placed on his head, Ahmed, also known as 'Khadr
al-Sabahi', had been travelling between Syria and the Sunni triangle to
direct fighting and disburse funds. More recently, however, say sources, he
has remained in Syria, choosing not to risk capture by crossing the border.

The naming of Ahmed, and the allegation that he is basing himself
permanently in Syria, seems designed to pressure the Syrian authorities to
clamp down on the activities of ex-regime officials operating there.

Little is known about Ahmed save that he was a senior regional Baath party
organiser with links to Saddam's feared internal intelligence service, and
there is some suggestion he may have received training in Moscow at some
point.

'The main organisational strength behind the insurgency is Baathist military
intelligence types who enjoy safe refuge in Syria,' said one official. 'So
although Syria has clamped down on the border, they have not done anything
about the planners and organisers. We are talking about 20-50 people who
have access to funds, who know how to organise and use existing networks and
are adept at reforming into cells.'

The new assessment that former Baath party officials in hiding in Syria
might, in reality, be more significant than Zarqawi and his foreign
fighters, suggests an important change in emphasis in the understanding of
the increasingly more violent insurgency.

Zarqawi, some officials now believe, could not survive 'if he was not
tolerated and exploited by the old Baathists'.

The claim that Ahmed is continuing to direct the insurgency from inside
Syria is a further embarrassment for the Anglophile President Bashar Assad,
who has been keen to modernise his country. It follows an number of
incidents of mortar-fire across the Syrian border towards US positions
inside Iraq, most recently on Friday. And the disclosure of Ahmed's role
from Syria comes amid growing concern in Baghdad and western capitals over
the increasing evidence of destabilising external interference in Iraq's
affairs.

Both Arab and western diplomats admit that there is evidence of arms, money
and fighters coming into Iraq from Saudi Arabia but that it is almost
impossible to quantify at what level. Indeed, Saudi officials are as
concerned with weapons coming into Saudi.

The Saudis are also worried that a failed state in Iraq would allow
terrorists to set up camps close to its vast border to target the kingdom.
Officials believe Saudi money is helping to finance the jihadist groups in
Iraq - like Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group - but are not certain what
amounts are involved.

And while UK forces have been brought in to help seal the smuggling routes
in the desert areas that border Jordan, control of the Iraq-Saudi border
area is complicated by the huge distances, awkward terrain and difficult
helicopter flying conditions.

Iranian factions, centred around the Republican Guards and religious leaders
in Qom, have also been accused of financing of Iraqi Shia political and
militia groups including the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr with the aim
of 'pricking the US'. The disclosure, however, that it is largely regime
officials who are leading and funding the insurgency, tapping into a
widespread discontent among many Iraqis, will raise questions again over
whether the resistance is conforming in large part to a plan prepared before
the fall of Baghdad.

'The idea that it was organised before the war is beginning to reassert
itself,' says Dr Rosemary Hollis of Chatham House. 'There is a thesis that
is gaining some currency with Arab nationalists that this definitely
required a lot of preparation. There is also an increasingly long-term view,
that they are playing a long game and, with a properly managed resistance,
this is a conflict that can be won and that the Americans can be forced to
go home.'

[blue9t3]

Syria, Iran, gee go figure?
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MOPAR-BUYER