Refuting claims his group served as a liaison between al-Qaeda and Saddam, Krekar threatened to document ties with U.S.

OSLO, February 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As the U.S. claims that an Islamic group based in northern Iraq could be the missing link between Iraq and Osam bin Laden's al-Qaeda, the leader of the group on Saturday, February 1, repudiated allegations that his group served as a liaison between al-Qaeda and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Najmadin Fatah, who goes by the nom de guerre Mullah Krekar, said he was opposed to the Iraqi leader and that his group Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam) had no links with al-Qaeda and disclosed pre-9/11 ties with the U.S..

"I never had links with Saddam Hussein's family, Saddam Hussein's government, Saddam Hussein's party, not in the past, not now, not in the future, and not inside Iraq or outside, not directly, not indirectly.

"As a Kurdish man, I believe that he is our enemy, and as an Orthodox Muslim also, I believe that Saddam Hussein and his group are outside Islam's zone," Krekar, who enjoys a refugee status in Norway, told the BBC.

Krekar threatened in an interview published Saturday to produce evidence of his contacts with Washington prior to the September 11 attacks, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I have in my possession irrefutable evidence against the Americans and I am prepared to supply it ... if (the United States) tries to implicate me in an affair linked to terrorism," Mullah Krekar told Al-Hayat newspaper.

He told the Arabic-language daily he had been approached by the United States before September 11.

"I had a meeting with a CIA representative and someone from the American army in the town of Sulaymaniya (Iraqi Kurdistan) at the end of 2000.

"They asked us to collaborate with them ... but we refused to do so," he stressed.

British and U.S. news reports this week claimed that Krekar and Ansar al-Islam would be key elements of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's proof of links between Al-Qaeda and Baghdad to be presented to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

Kurdish officials said the Americans have been paying particular attention in recent month to a mountainous enclave controlled by Ansar al-Islam fighters in Kurdistan near Iran.

Powell told reporters on Monday, January 27, Washington had mounting evidence that suggested such links and that U.S. officials were increasing confident that they existed.

"We have seen contacts and connections between the Iraqi regime and terrorist organizations, to include al-Qaeda," the Washington Post quoted Powell as saying.

"As we've been able to focus on this more and look back in time, I think we're more confident of that assessment.

"We see no reason not to believe that such contacts and the presence of al-Qaeda elements or individuals in Iraq is a reasonable assumption, and we have some basis for that assumption," he claimed.

Supporting Powell, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said there is every reason to form a nexus between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime.

"They share similar interests: hatred of Israel…enmity toward their common nemesis, the U.S.," said a CIA official.

Joining Powell, hawkish Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that the Bush administration is merely waiting to reveal ironclad evidence of the link.

"It may make sense to discuss that publicly, but not today," the Post quoted him as saying.

Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside al-Qaeda, agrees with skeptics who say that Washington has yet to present concrete evidence of links between Ansar al-Islam and the Iraqi government.

"Ansar al-Islam has links with al-Qaeda - in fact it is an associate group of al-Qaeda. The group has had a significant presence in Afghanistan. The group did have relations with the Taliban," BBC quoted him as alleging.

Ansar al-Islam, which has some 700 fighters, has seized areas near the town of Halabja, close to the Iranian border.

It is challenging the two main Kurdish political factions – the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) – in northern Iraq.

"[Ansar] al-Islam is a kind of Taliban," charges PUK leader Jalal Talibani.

"They are terrorists who have declared war against all Kurdish political parties. We gave them a chance to change their ways ... and end their terrorist acts. But if we can't do it through dialogue, we are obliged to use force."

Assembling evidence of a direct link between Iraq and al-Qaeda - or better yet, proving that Saddam was complicit in the September 11 attacks - would give Iraq war planners something they don't have: a compelling do-it-now reason for unleashing war on Baghdad.

According to a USA Today poll, 86% think Baghdad is giving support to terrorist groups planning to strike America, and more than half think Saddam had a hand in 9/11, CNN said.