Iraq regime linked to terror group

If there is a theme to the correspondence, it might be the efforts of the ADF and its leaders to become a more important player in world terrorism. The letters chronicle the African group's efforts to obtain Iraqi funding for an "international mujahideen team whose special mission will be to smuggle arms on a global scale to holy warriors fighting against US, British, and Israeli influences in Africa, the Middle East, and Far East," according to one.

In a letter from April 2001, Mr. Nassir vows that his group will "vet, recruit, and send youth to train for the jihad" from a center in Baghdad, which he describes as a "headquarters for the international Holy Warrior network."

The ADF leader, who says his operatives are already "on the ground working in Baghdad," also outlines his group's "actions to paralyze and control the hostile intelligence actions of the CIA, Pentagon, Mossad, and MI6."

In another letter, dated March 14, 2001, Nassir writes to Iraqi charge Fallah Hassan Al Rubdie that "team ADF" will be led to Baghdad by its leader Sheikh Jamil Mukulu.

It is not clear from the correspondence whether such an international center for jihad was ever set up in Baghdad, or if the Iraqis ever sent direct funding to the ADF.

But one other letter does discuss agreement on an "appropriate budget," implying either that money figures were indeed discussed at some point, or that ADF officials thought they soon would be.

The March 14 letter goes on to boast of the group's activities. "We are in secret diplomatic contact with several African governments, African diplomats, policymakers, and researchers," it says.

The ADF claims to already have a list of enemy forces in its regions, which it will provide to Iraq so that "we can take concrete actions against these Western bases."

The group is busy recruiting, training, shifting weapons and ammunition and "creating new and confusing guerrilla routes," according to the letters.

Simultaneous attacks on the "US/British/Israeli sponsored regimes of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi" will gain the group tactical advantage, Nassir claims.

"The fall of [these] regimes is in the horizon," he writes his Iraqi contact.

The US has long stated its belief in a connection between Hussein's Iraqi regime and terrorists. Publicly released evidence to this effect, however, has not convinced many critics that solid ties between Hussein and Al Qaeda exist.

Contacted for reaction to the letters detailed in this article, a US official said, "we don't have anything to substantiate links between the ADF and Al Qaeda."

The role of Iraq's Nairobi-based diplomat in the correspondence is unlikely to surprise anyone in the US government, however.

Prior to overthrowing the Hussein regime, the US asked several foreign countries to expel some Iraqi diplomats because the US suspected they had links to terrorists.

In testimony before the House International Relations Committee this past March, Ambassador Cofer Black, coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department, discussed potential Iraqi-terrorist links.

"We have strong indications that Iraqi intelligence officials are assuming stronger authority over Iraqi diplomatic missions overseas," Mr. Black said. "This activity is of particular concern, especially in light of additional indications that Baghdad may instruct its representatives overseas to take actions against Western interests."

Cities mentioned as possible sites for ADF action in the documents include Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya, Kampala in Uganda, Kinshasa in Congo, Harare in Zimbabwe, Lusaka in Angola, and Pretoria, Durban, and Johannesburg in South Africa.

"We in Africa provide our contribution toward this effort," concludes Nassir.

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