[antimedia] antimedia: Saddam apparently intended to export terror as well....

[antimedia at lists.powerblogs.com]

Posted by antimedia:
Saddam apparently intended to export terror as well....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1144208276.shtml


   ....according to the Iraq Perspectives Report.

     Fedayeen Saddam's training focused primarily on small arms,
     small-unit tactics, sabotage techniques, and military surveillance
     and reconnaissance tasks. The Fedayeen Saddam also became a primary
     consumer for many of the "niche" military capabilities that
     proliferated throughout the regime. One such project was the Iraqi
     Intelligence Service's "Division 27" that supplied the Fedayeen
     Saddam with silencers, equipment for bobby-trapping vehicles,
     special training on the use of certain explosive devices, special
     molds for explosives and a variety of explosive timers.^51 The only
     apparent use for all this Division 27 equipment was to conduct
     commando or terrorist operations. The Military Industrial
     Commission also got into the business of supplying--or at least
     promising to supply--the Fedayeen Saddam with a surprising array of
     special capabilities. According to a December 2000 memorandum,
     these capabilities included specially armed helicopters, unmanned
     aerial vehicles, and specially modified fishing boats capable of
     firing rockets with a range of 10 to 20 kilometers and torpedoes in
     international waters.^52
     Beginning in 1994, the Fedayeen Saddam opened it's own paramilitary
     training camps for volunteers, graduating more than 7,200 "good men
     racing full with courage and enthusiasm" in the first year.^53
     Beginning in 1998, these camps began hosting "Arab volunteers from
     Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, 'the Gulf', and Syria." It is not clear
     from the available evidence where all these non-Iraqi volunteers
     who were "sacrificing for the cause" went to ply their newfound
     skills. Before the summer of 2002, most volunteers went home upon
     the completion of training.^54 But these training camps were
     humming with frenzied activity in the months immediately prior to
     the war. As late as January 2003, the volunteers participated in a
     special training event called the "Heroes Attack". This training
     event was designed in part to prepare regional Fedayeen Saddam
     commands to "obstruct the enemy from achieving his goal and to
     support keeping peace and stability in the province."^55
     Less than 30 days prior to the start of the war, the Directorate of
     General Military Intelligence's Special Mission Unit took charge of
     the training of a group of Fedayeen Saddam volunteers. They were to
     form "small kamikaze combat groups, equipped with weapons, and
     munitions suitable for use behind enemy lines and on the flanks, by
     causing additional damage to the enemy's armor and helicopters."^56
     The volunteers attended a condensed 30-day course, which included
     physical training, planning, map reading, recognizing enemy
     weapons, using communications devices, military engineering, combat
     in rough conditions, and swimming, then topped off with a practical
     exercise.^57 Assuming this group started training in the first week
     of March 2003, some of them were undoubtedly available to test
     their new skills against the US 3^rd Infantry Division during its
     "Thunder Runs" into the heart of Baghdad.

   While their training was certainly focused on internal defense, it is
   curious that Arabs from the Mideast attended the camps (Salman Pak?)
   and then dispersed throughout the mideast. What was their purpose and
   to whom would they report?
   It's unquestionable, in my view, that some would participate in
   terrorist activities, certainly in Palestine and Iraq, possibly in
   Afghanistan as well. No doubt some have been assimilated into Al
   Qaeda.
   This is certainly a different picture of Saddam than has been painted
   by the left and the media -- not the uninvolved and uninterested
   bystander to terrorism that many want to insist he was.