Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti

Tahir Jalil Habbush al Takriti ( _ar. طاهر جليل حبوش التكريتي) is a former Iraqi intelligence official who served under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Acting as an informer to the Central Intelligence Agency, he also attempted to head off the 2003 Invasion of Iraq by negotiating favorable terms with the United States. Following the invasion, US officials seeking to bolster justification for the war are alleged to have forged a letter backdated to 2001 wherein Habbush reported to Hussein that Mohammad Atta has trained in Iraq. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/08/05/BL2008080501703_pf.html A White House Forgery Scandal?] Habbush then supposedly signed the letter, having already been resettled in Jordan with $5 million from the US. [The Way of the World, Ron Suskind, 2008 Harper]

Pre-Invasion Negotiations

In 2002, Gen. Tahir Jalil Habbush al Takriti contacted former CIA counterterrorism head Vincent Cannistraro, stating that Saddam "knew there was a campaign to link him to September 11 and prove he had weapons of mass destruction." According to Cannistrano, "the Iraqis were prepared to satisfy these concerns. I reported the conversation to senior levels of the state department and I was told to stand aside and they would handle it." Cannistrano stated that the offers made were all "killed" by the Bush administration because they allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in power - an outcome viewed as unacceptable. Fact|date=October 2008

Shortly after, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's national security advisor, Osama al Baz, sent a message to the U.S. State Department that the Iraqis wanted to discuss the accusations that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and ties with al-Qaeda. Fact|date=October 2008Iraq also attempted to reach the US through the Syrian, French, German, and Russian intelligence services. Nothing came of the attempts.Fact|date=October 2008

In January 2003, Lebanese-American Imad Hage met with Michael Maloof of the DoD's Office of Special Plans. Fact|date=October 2008Hage, a resident of Beirut, had been recruited by the department to assist in the War on Terrorism.Fact|date=October 2008 He reported that Mohammed Nassif, a close aide to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, had expressed frustrations about the difficulties of Syria contacting the United States, and had attempted to use him as an intermediary. Fact|date=October 2008Maloof arranged for Hage to meet with Richard Perle, head of the Defense Policy Board.Fact|date=October 2008

In February 2003, Hage met with Gen. Habbush in addition to Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Fact|date=October 2008He was offered top priority to US firms in oil and mining rights, UN-supervised elections, US inspections (with up to 5,000 inspectors), to have al-Qaeda agent Abdul Rahman Yasin (in Iraqi custody since 1994) handed over as a sign of good faith, and to give "full support for any US plan" in the Arab-Israeli peace process. They also wished to meet with high-ranking US officials. Fact|date=October 2008On February 19th, Hage faxed Maloof his report of the trip. Maloof reports having brought the proposal to Jamie Duran. Fact|date=October 2008The Pentagon denies that either Wolfowitz or Rumsfeld, Duran's bosses, were aware of the plan.Fact|date=October 2008

Forged 2003 Habbush letter

According to the London Sunday "Telegraph", Mohamed Atta is mentioned in a letter allegedly discovered in Iraq handwritten by Tahir Jalil Habbush al Takriti, former chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Habbush's July 1, 2001, memo is labeled "Intelligence Items" and is addressed: "To the President of the Ba'ath Revolution Party and President of the Republic, may God protect you."It continues::’’Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian national, came with Abu Ammer [the real name behind this Arabic alias remains a mystery] and we hosted him in Abu Nidal's house at al-Dora under our direct supervision.’’ :’’We arranged a work program for him for three days with a team dedicated to working with him...He displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy.’’ [http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200312150842.asp]

The memo is widely recognized as a forgery. Newsweek noted: "U.S. officials and a leading Iraqi document expert tell NEWSWEEK that the document is most likely a forgery—part of a thriving new trade in dubious Iraqi documents that has cropped up in the wake of the collapse of Saddam's regime." [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3741646/] According to the newsmagazine, "The Telegraph story was apparently written with a political purpose: to bolster Bush administration claims of a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam's regime."

In "The Way of the World", author Ron Suskind alleges that the Bush administration itself ordered the forgery. [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12308.html]

ee also

*Mohamed Atta's alleged Prague connection

References

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1079769,00.html Saddam's desperate offers to stave off war]
* [http://www.iht.com/articles/116629.htm As war loomed, Iraq offered deal ]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3247461.stm US 'rejected Iraqi concessions']
* [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/11/06/last_minute_iraq_offer_cited/ Last-minute Iraq offer cited]
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9864433/ Did Saddam accept exile offer before invasion?]