Saddam Was Trying To Capture Zarqawi

Saddam Was Trying to Capture Zarqawi

The Bush administration repeatedly made the presence in Iraq of Abu Musab Zarqawi a pretext for invading the country and overthrowing Saddam Hussein. They implied that he was a client of Saddam and that Saddam had arranged for hospital care for him.

Newly released documents from the captured Iraqi archives show that Saddam had put out an APB for Zarqawi and was trying to have him arrested as a danger to the Baath regime!

‘ However, one of the documents, a letter from an Iraqi intelligence official, dated August 17, 2002, asked agents in the country to be on the lookout for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and another unnamed man whose picture was attached. ‘

The document said al-Zarqawi was linked to the “Saudi terrorist” Usama Bin Laden. It suggested that Iraqi police approach local Jordanian expatriates in trying to track al-Zarqawi down, and viewed him as extremely dangerous.

Update: This is the original pdf document as released by the USG. It is at Blackvault.com but does not appear to be listed any longer at the original Ft. Leavenworth site.

(Update 9/9/06).

The September 29, 2002 Denver Post paraphrased Cheney, “He said the evidence presented against Iraq will be long and persuasive, including more details of a relationship between Hussein’s forces and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.”