Seeds of Chaos
The Baghdad Files: A trove of secret intelligence reports shows how Saddam Hussein planned the current insurgency in Iraq Long before the invasion that toppled his regime was even launched
Militant Shiites, primarily the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, also have fought fierce battles with coalition forces in Najaf and Baghdad, although Sadr reached a cease-fire in October with the United States and Iraq's interim government. In addition, according to the intelligence reports reviewed by U.S. News, Iraq's next-door neighbor, Iran, set up an intelligence network in Iraq in the months after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam, helped finance Sadr, and trained terrorists and planned attacks against U.S. forces. Iran's role in Iraq was detailed last month by this magazine.
Whatever their motivation, the insurgents all want the U.S-led coalition out of Iraq. To that end, there have been some strange marriages. Ansar al-Islam, a Sunni Muslim group of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs that has carried out some of the most violent attacks, is believed to have ties to the Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary force. But the terrorist group also has worked with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to intelligence reports. Saddam's regime and Tehran were bitter enemies; the two countries fought a brutal eight-year war in the 1980s. "We think a lot of the groups will work together, short term, for tactical benefits," a senior U.S. military intelligence official says. "The short-term goal is to get us out of [Iraq], and that allows for tactical cooperation."
Whether Saddam has discussed his role in the insurgency with his captors isn't known, but there is little question about the importance of that role. In the fall of 2002, according to a report issued by the Pentagon's Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, Saddam ordered between 1,000 and 1,200 officers to undergo guerrilla training at military facilities at Salman Pak and Bismayah, near Baghdad. "Young and talented officers" from the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the Directorate of Military Intelligence, and the Directorate of General Security "were chosen to attend two months of training," the task force report says. "The officers were assigned numbers and aliases while in training. Saddam Hussein numbered himself 'No. 1.' " The officers "were told to prepare themselves for recontact following the collapse of the regime," the report says. In August, as the insurgency grew more violent, the report continues, the officers were directed to begin attacks on the coalition: "Network commanders stated they were prepared to provide money, cars, and explosives."
The officers weren't alone. The Army of Muhammad and another militant group linked to Saddam known as Hizb al Awda (the Party of the Return) also began planning attacks, according to other military intelligence reports.
They were to include bombings against oil pipelines, electrical plants, and military convoys, the report says, as well as assassinations of Iraqi government officials and other Iraqis "suspected of cooperating with western and U.S. militaries."
The Army of Muhammad, a Baathist group composed of former intelligence, security, and police officers in Saddam's regime, has been a particular source of trouble. It publicly claimed credit for downing an American Chinook helicopter in November 2003, near Fallujah, that killed 16 Americans. It was also heavily involved in the recent battle in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. In an intelligence report in late 2003, an analyst at coalition headquarters in Baghdad wrote that the Army of Muhammad "uses cash bonuses, as well as health and death benefits, to recruit members." Army leadership, the report says, uses "a combination of nationalism and Sunni Islamic zealotry to motivate its fighters." Another report identified Sayf al-Din Fulayyih Hasan, who was chief of staff of Saddam's Republican Guard, as a principal leader of the group. He remains at large.
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