Joseph Shahda has continued his excellent work at the Free Republic forum in translating captured documents from the Iraqi government. He has taken a close look at document CMPC-2003-006758, translating it from the Arabic and revealing the intent of Iraq to attack American interests. The memo from the IIS complains about the election of "Bush the Son" and talks about the need to exhort terrorists to attack America:

In the name of God the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

The Presidency of the Republic

The Intelligence Service

Mr: The Respectful Assistant Director of the Apparatus Operations.

Subject: The New American Policy Toward Iraq

Aside is a notice for the 10th Directorate and attached is a note from the respectful Mr. Director of the Apparatus on 24/3/2001 that your Excellency and the two gentlemen directors of the 4th Directorate and 10th Directorate to study in what is issued on the 10th Directorate memo and which includes:

1. The available signs indicate the intentions of America under the presidency of Bush the Son that aim to damage the political leadership in the country, and among it is their seeking to apply what it called the smart sanctions and it summarize as:

A. Allow the importing of humanitarian goods to Iraq without prior approval and this aim to make the leadership in Iraq responsible for the starvation of the Iraqi people and not the responsibility of the United Nations.

B. The return of the Inspectors.

C. The massing of the World opinion around the special procedures to contain Iraq.

D. Travel prohibition for the Iraqi officials and the freezing of their special accounts.

2. The 10th Directorate suggested the following to encounter what was mentioned above.

A. Prepare a public relation plan that aims to clarify the rights of Iraq, and bring up what is related to the Palestinian cause, and the call to strike the presence and interests of America.

B. Work to commit some nations like France, China, Russia and Japan to economical agreements that make the implementation of the smart sanctions to have negative effect to the interests of these nations.

C. Strengthen our embassies with new remarkable staff that is can go toward new windows in the international relations.

D. Make a list of the citizens including those who are in the Apparatus that have in their names foreign accounts and do the procedures to protect these accounts from any enemy action.

E. Insist that that Iraq money will stay local.

Notice the Presidency of what was mentioned above.

Please review and please consider the opinions of the 4th Directorate, the 5th Directorate, and the 40th Directorate in regards to what was mentioned above… with regards.

Signature

Director/ S. A. AA.

28/3/2001.

Interestingly, the Iraqis met success on almost all of these efforts. They managed to get three of the four nations mentioned to undermine the sanctions regime and argue for its end even more vociferously after Bush took office. Only Japan demurred from enabling the Iraqis to break what little containment still existed. The IIS tightened its grip on Iraqis within Iraq; they had a fearsome reputation regarding expatriates already. And as history proved less than six months later, terrorists attacked America while the Palestinians danced in the streets.

The timing of this memo seems significant. Recall that just two weeks prior to this memo, Air Brigardier General Abdel Magid Hammot Ali called on the pilots under his command at Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base to volunteer for suicide missions. That memo used language strikingly similar to this: "... we ask to provide that Division with the names of those who desire to volunteer for Suicide Mission to liberate Palestine and to strike American Interests ..." As I wrote last April:

Obviously, the terror missions could not be conducted under the color of Iraqi military or get traced back to them, otherwise the American forces -- especially under George Bush -- would almost certainly attack Iraq with everything we could muster. Saddam would also not be able to rely on his clandestine partners on the Security Council to wield their vetoes, as even France and Russia would have to acknowledge the right of the US to defend itself once Saddam initiated this kind of attack. So how would he hide the nationality and identity of these volunteers? He would have to "launder" them through another organization, one that would not necessarily immediately point back to Iraq -- like al-Qaeda.

That doesn't prove in a legal sense that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. It does show that they wanted to inspire others to attack American interests, and again that they actively recruited for these missions in their own military. That amounts to a policy to conduct a proxy war against the US, both at home and abroad, certainly a good cause for the US to pre-empt it. (h/t: CQ reader Jeff R)

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