CONNECT, ONLY CONNECT:

Intercepted call linked Saddam to al-Qa'ida terror cell (Andrew Buncombe, 07 February 2003, Independent)

The name of the man who made the telephone call as he drove through the rugged landscapes of northern Iraq towards the borders with Syria and Turkey has not been revealed. But his alleged position in the al-Qa'ida network was made clear. Information gathered by the intelligence services of the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan shows he is the deputy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of an Iraqi-based al-Qa'ida cell.

Though he would not have known it at the time, the deputy's congratulatory telephone call to two men accused of murdering the US diplomat Laurence Foley last October - killed in the garden of his Amman home by a volley of eight shots - was an error of incalculable proportions. The call was intercepted by Western intelligence services, possibly America's National Security Agency (NSA) or Britain's electronic eavesdropping service at GCHQ, Cheltenham, and allowed coalition operatives to trace the man from Syria, then to Turkey.

When he arrived in Turkey, those intelligence operatives took the decision to pounce. The al-Qa'ida deputy was seized and taken to one of the interrogation centres covertly operated in the region by the US Central Intelligence Agency. In many cases, America prefers certain prisoners to be questioned by the intelligence services of countries where the rules governing the use of torture or psychological pressure are less strict. In this instance, it appears America led the interrogation, using, in the words of one official, "unspecified psychological pressure" to obtain information.

US officials quoted by The New York Times say the deputy revealed that Zarqawi was operating a cell out of Iraq, that he had been given medical assistance there and that he was planning and conducting attacks across Europe and the Middle East with up to 24 al-Qa'ida fighters. Mr Foley, 62, head of America's Agency for International Development mission, was the first of the cell's targets.

In his address to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State, relied heavily on this information when he accused the Iraqi regime of having links with al-Qa'ida. "[The al-Qa'ida cell members] have been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months," he said. "Iraqi officials deny accusations of ties with al-Qa'ida. These denials are simply not credible."

The battle with Saddam is the war on terror. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2003 9:34 PM