The first of many reports on German “intelligence” linking al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein emerge, ultimately forming the basis for later speculation of an Iraqi link to the 9/11 attacks.
After two unidentified Iraqi men are arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying, a French-based Arab newspaper reports: “The arrests came in the wake of reports that Iraq was reorganizing the external branches of its intelligence service and that it had drawn up a plan to strike at U.S. interests around the world through a network of alliances with extremist fundamentalist parties.” These reports, U.S. intelligence now believes, were planted by Saudi intelligence.
German authorities were supposedly surprised by the extent of Iraqi intelligence activities in several cities. The matter was considered so important that reportedly a special team of CIA and FBI agents was sent to Germany to interrogate the two Iraqi spies.
According to the BBC, a German intelligence report also later claims that Iraq will have nuclear weapons capability within three years and will be able to fire a missile as far as Europe by 2005. Secretary of State Powell, who was visiting the Middle East when the German reports are released, makes the case to Iraq’s neighbors as to the need for continued U.N. sanctions on Iraq. “We have to make sure that we do everything we can to contain him, constrain him, to get inspectors back in under the terms of the U.N. resolutions,” Powell said.
Day: February 25, 2021