Tuesday, June 10, 2003

U.S. officials: Al Qaeda detainees deny Iraq link

From David Ensor
CNN Washington Bureau
Monday, June 9, 2003 Posted: 3:28 PM EDT (1928 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two senior al Qaeda figures in U.S. custody have said they do not know of any connections between their group and the former Iraqi regime, U.S. officials said Monday.

But the officials downplayed the significance of the detainees' statements.

The New York Times reported Monday that Abu Zubaydah and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed have told interrogators al Qaeda didn't work with Saddam Hussein's regime.

U.S. officials confirm that Zubaydah said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden rejected the idea of cooperating with Iraq.

The United States has said that Zubaydah was al Qaeda's head of operations and recruitment and has accused Mohammed of being the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"My question about this story is -- so what?" said a senior U.S. official, adding that the detainees are mixing truth and lies in what they are saying to interrogators.

Given the compartmentalization of information in al Qaeda, the official said, "They might not know even if it were true" that al Qaeda was cooperating with Iraq.

"Bottom line: You can't trust them to know or to tell the truth if they do," the official said.

-continued-
..............................................................................

What a surprise...another Big Fat Lie is exposed...sort of anyway.

BadGimp

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home