US cannot explain suspicious Zawahri letter passage

By David Morgan Fri Oct 14, 7:42 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence officials who released a letter purporting to be from an al Qaeda leader to Iraq insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi this week said on Friday they could not account for a passage that has raised doubts about the document's authenticity.

The July 9 dated letter, which U.S. officials say was written by al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, appears near its close to urge the Iraq insurgent leader to send greetings to himself if visiting the Iraqi city of Falluja.

"My greetings to all the loved ones and please give me news of Karem and the rest of the folks I know," says an unedited English translation posted at www.dni.gov, the office Web site of U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte.

"And especially, by God, if by chance you're going to Falluja, send greetings to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," it states.

Zarqawi is the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, the most prominent segment of the deadly Iraq insurgency. His organisation has said the letter is a fabrication.

A spokesman for Negroponte, who is the U.S. director of national intelligence, or DNI, acknowledged the greetings passage was confusing but said the intelligence community was confident the letter was addressed to Zarqawi by Zawahri. "We don't know what to make of it (the passage). It's unclear," the Negroponte spokesman said. "But we are absolutely confident that it was intended for Mr. Zarqawi, based on a review by multiple agencies over a protracted period of time."

U.S. officials have refused to disclose details of where, when or how authorities came by the letter, or what methods have been used to determine its authenticity.

Some experts contend the strange passage undermines the letter's credibility.

"This would appear to be conclusive evidence that the DNI was mistaken, and that the letter was written to someone other than Zarqawi," Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists said on on Friday in his e-mail intelligence newsletter, "Secrecy News."

Aftergood cited an article in the online Slate magazine that called attention to the passage as well as the fact the letter was signed with the name, Abu Muhammad.

Experts have already said the letter depicts Zawahri as making unrealistic admissions involving al Qaeda's need for money, the Pakistan army's hunt for al Qaeda leaders and the May capture of al Qaeda member Abu Faraj al Liby.

The greetings passage gained little noticed from initial news coverage of the letter's release, which came days before this weekend's constitutional referendum in Iraq.

News coverage concentrated instead on language that suggested rifts between al Qaeda militants, including Zawahri's advice that insurgents avoid the unpopular killing of civilians and begin seeking public support for an Islamic state. - yahoo.com

read the gaffe here on page 12

U.S. report cites infiltration of Iraqi police

By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - About 5,500 additional Iraqi police have been trained in the last three months, but infiltration of the police by insurgents remains a significant problem, the Pentagon said on Thursday in a report aimed at measuring progress in Iraq.

While the "infiltration harms the ability of the police to combat the insurgency, it does not render the forces incapable," the report said, adding that the "exact extent of insurgent infiltration is unknown at this time."

It said insurgents are having more success infiltrating the Iraqi police forces than the military "because police are often recruited by local police chiefs with little coalition oversight."

The unclassified version of the Pentagon's report appeared to shed little new light on conditions in Iraq as it heads toward a referendum this weekend on a new constitution. Congress demanded quarterly updates as a way to gauge progress in quelling the bloody insurgency and to get guidance on when U.S. troops could begin to be withdrawn. Democrats criticized the latest installment as vague, and another example of President George W. Bush's failure to show how the United States can extricate itself from Iraq.

"Even today, the administration submitted a report to Congress on troop training that again failed to set out a plan," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. "They won't tell American people what they want to know: when the Iraqi security forces will be fully capable of fighting on their own. That's the key to achieving victory."

The report said a total of 67,500 police have been trained and equipped so far, up 5,500 since the last report in July, but behind the goal of having 75,000 police by Saturday's constitutional referendum.

ABSENTEEISM PROBLEM

Police absenteeism is a "significant problem in areas where there is considerable strife, such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra" largely because of intimidation by insurgents, itsaid. With Congress pressing for more progress in training Iraqi military forces to eventually replace U.S. troops, the report said 10,000 more soldiers, sailors and airmen had been trained since the last report in July, bringing the total to 87,000.

The report acknowledged that just one Iraqi battalion is considered fully independent. But it said 36 Iraqi Army and special operations combat battalions had reached "level two" training where they can operate with minimal direct U.S. support, up from 24 in July.

"It is at level two that Iraqi units can take their own battle space, and it is at that level -- where there has been steady progress -- that the coalition is focusing efforts," the report said. It said 52 Iraqi Army battalions were capable of fighting side by side with U.S. forces.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the report showed "the burden for securing Iraq continues to fall squarely on U.S. troops."

Reid said Bush "must in a clear and complete way lay out what military, political and economic progress will be necessary in order to begin to bring our troops home." (Additional reporting by Will Dunham) - alertnet.org

Iran says arrested British agent for twin bombings

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 17 - An individual arrested in connection with Saturday's twin bombings in the south-western city of Ahwaz has confessed to have received British training in Iraq to carry out the attacks, the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) deputy for the oil-rich city announced on Monday.

"The arrested individual is a deceived person who received the necessary training in Iraq", Nasser Soudani told the Fars news agency, close to the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Foreign agents, led by treacherous and criminal Britain, have trained teams in Iraq to create insecurity and an air of fright and terror in the province of Khuzestan", Soudani said, referring to the ethnic Arab-dominated province whose capital is Ahwaz.

Saturday's twin bombings in a central Ahwaz shopping centre left at least six people dead and over 100 injured.

Soudani said that two British intelligence agents arrested last month in the southern Iraqi city of Basra had ties to both the bombings on Saturday and a similar spate of bombings in the volatile city earlier in June.

British officials have said that the pair were MI5 agents working to uncover Iranian support for the insurgent attacks against British troops in southern Iraq.

Iranian officials and state-run press have been advertising the idea that Britain was behind Saturday's bombings, a charge denied by the British embassy in Tehran. On Sunday, hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the state-run ISNA news agency that he suspected British involvement in the attacks. "We are very suspicious about the role of British forces in perpetrating such terrorist acts", Ahmadinejad said.

"Our people are used to these kind of incidents, and our intelligence agents found the footprints of Britain in the same incidents before", Ahmadinejad said, adding "We think the presence of British forces in southern Iraq and near the Iranian border is a factor behind insecurity for the Iraqi and Iranian people".

A demonstration has been planned to take place this morning outside the British embassy in Tehran against London's position regarding the Islamic Republic's suspected nuclear weapons programme at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Some analysts see a link between the spate of recent attacks on British forces in southern Iraq and the hardening anti-British voices in Tehran.

"Iranian rulers are clearly fuming over what they perceive as Tony Blair's government coaxing the European Union towards a tougher position on Iran's nuclear program", said Simon Bailey of the London-based Gulf Intelligence Monitor. "They hope to isolate the British position within the EU by linking it to bombings in Ahwaz, but no one is buying this". - Iran Focus

Revealed: IRA bombs killed eight British soldiers in Iraq

Terror devices used by the IRA in a vicious murder campaign in Ulster blew up British servicemen as the world blamed Iran

By Greg Harkin, Francis Elliott and Raymond Whitaker Published: 16 October 2005

Eight British soldiers killed during ambushes in Iraq were the victims of a highly sophisticated bomb first used by the IRA, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. The soldiers, who were targeted by insurgents as they travelled through the country, died after being attacked with bombs triggered by infra-red beams. The bombs were developed by the IRA using technology passed on by the security services in a botched "sting" operation more than a decade ago.

This contradicts the British government's claims that Iran's Revolutionary Guard is helping Shia insurgents to make the devices.

The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that the bombs and the firing devices used to kill the soldiers, as well as two private security guards, were initially created by the UK security services as part of a counter-terrorism strategy at the height of the troubles in the early 1990s.

According to security sources, the technology for the bombs used in the attacks, which were developed using technology from photographic flash units, was employed by the IRA some 15 years ago after Irish terrorists were given advice by British agents.

"We are seeing technology in Iraq today that it took the IRA 20 years to develop," said a military intelligence officer with experience in Northern Ireland.

He revealed that one trigger used in a recent Iraqi bombing was a three-way device, combining a command wire, a radio signal and an infra-red beam - a technique perfected by the IRA.

Britain claims that the bomb-making expertise now being used in southern Iraq was passed on by Iran's Revolutionary Guard through Hizbollah, the revolutionary Islamist group it sponsors in Lebanon.

But a former agent who infiltrated the IRA told The Independent on Sunday that the technology reached the Middle East through the IRA's co-operation with Palestinian groups. In turn, some of these groups used to be sponsored by Saddam Hussein and his Baath party.

The former agent added: "The photographic flashgun unit was replaced with infra-red and then coded infra-red, but basically they were variations of the same device. The technology came from the security forces, but the IRA always shared its equipment and expertise with Farc guerrillas in Colombia, the Basque separatists, ETA and Palestinian groups. There is no doubt in my mind that the technology used to kill our troops in Basra is the same British technology from a decade ago."

Even more alarming is the claim that the devices were supplied by the security services to an agent inside the Provisionals as part of a dangerous game of double bluff.

According to investigators examining past collusion between the security forces and paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, members of the shadowy army undercover outfit, the Force Research Unit, and officers from MI5 learned in the early 1990s that a senior IRA member in south Armagh was working to develop bombs triggered by light beams. They decided the risks would be diminished if they knew what technology was being used.

"The thinking of the security forces was that if they were intimate with the technology, then they could develop counter-measures, thereby staying one step ahead of the IRA," a senior source close to the inquiry explained. "It may seem absurd that the security services were supplying technology to the IRA, but the strategy was sound.

"Unfortunately, no one could see back then that this technology would be used to kill British soldiers thousands of miles away in a different war."

The Provisionals' agent was allowed to travel to New York andpurchase the equipment. But the strategy backfired in March 1992 when the technology triggered a bomb that killed a policewoman and mutilated her male colleague near Newry before counter-measures were in place.

* A dossier naming the alleged killers of the six Red Caps murdered by an Iraqi mob more than two years ago is being handed over to Iraqi judges this week. The six members of the Royal Military Police were butchered to death in June 2003 in an Iraqi police station after being attacked by about 300 tribesmen.

* Two mothers of British soldiers killed in Iraq are to stage a 24-hour "peace camp" opposite Downing Street on Tuesday. - independent