NB: At the 9/11 commission hearing today, NDU's Judith Yaphe (who is not sympathetic to the idea that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 strikes) did, however, explain that Iraqi intelligence was behind the slaying of an Iraqi-American businessman, Fuad Taima, his wife and 16-year old son in May 1999 in their home in MacLean, Virginia. Those murders were carried out very professionally. Authorities never even named a suspect, let alone arrested one.
Yaphe also said that Iraqi intelligence worked with Syria's Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s against the regime of Hafiz al-Assad. That, in fact, is fairly well known and is a demonstration that so-called "secular" regimes can and do work with Islamic militants. The New York Sun July 9, 2003 U.S. Misunderstood Iraq Role In 9/11, Expert Will Testify By ADAM DAIFALLAH Staff Reporter of the Sun WASHINGTON - A major policy and intelligence failure has contributed to a massive misunderstanding of Iraq's role in the September 11 attacks, a witness before the commission investigating the attacks will testify today. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States is today holding a hearing on "Terrorism, Al Qaeda, and the Muslim World." The New York Sun has obtained a copy of the testimony of one witness, an expert on Iraq, Laurie Mylroie. She will tell the commission today that the reasons for going to war with Iraq are misunderstood. Long a promoter of the view that Iraq was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Ms. Mylroie will testify that Iraq was involved with Al Qaeda in executing the attacks of September 11, and that the alleged terrorist mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is a fake identity. "After Al Qaeda moved to Afghanistan, Iraqi intelligence became deeply involved with it, probably, with the full agreement of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda provided the ideology, foot soldiers, and a cover for the terrorist attacks; Iraqi intelligence provided the direction, training, and expertise in the form of figures like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," her testimony says. Ms. Mylroie says that a former senior Israeli military intelligence official says, "it's obvious" that Mr. Mohammed's identity was made up. "The major terrorist strikes against the U.S. that were attributed to 'loose networks' of Islamic militants, including Al Qaeda, are much better explained as Iraq, working with and hiding behind the militants. In short, the 1991 Gulf War did not end with the cease-fire declared back then," she says. "The failure to pursue the question of the identities of the terrorist masterminds is a major lapse in the investigation. Most likely, if that issue were pursued it would provide a definitive tie between Iraqi intelligence and the September 11 strikes, as well as other major attacks." Meanwhile, a former State Department official who, according to the book "The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq," by Kenneth Timmerman, was sympathetic to a group that promoted trade with Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-Iraq Business Forum, was suddenly removed from the commission's list of scheduled witnesses. Mr. Murphy said he had to withdraw due to a scheduling conflict. "They invited me, I accepted, but the original schedule called for the panel that I would be on to be the first of three that day and they had to change the program.I would have been on the third panel which was in a direct conflict with something I had long scheduled in Washington," Mr. Murphy said. A former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Syria, and Mauritania, Mr. Murphy also served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in the Reagan administration. He serves on the board of governors of the Washington-based Middle East Institute, a think tank that accepts funding from members of the Saudi Arabian royal family. Other witnesses testifying today include a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, Mamoun Fandy; a fellow at the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies, Judith Yaphe, and the terrorism expert, Steven Emerson. The commission yesterday released its first interim report since it began work six months ago. The committee's chairman, the former governor of New Jersey, Thomas Kean, and vice chairman, a former congressman, Lee Hamilton, criticized several agencies and departments for their speed in handing over requested documents. Mr. Kean said that the Bush administration "underestimated the scale of the commission's work and the full breadth of support required."
