[antimedia] antimedia: The secularist Saddam would never collaborate....

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Posted by antimedia:
The secularist Saddam would never collaborate....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1175742070.shtml


   ....with religious extremists. Or so the "experts" said. [1]The
   experts were wrong (as they often are.)

     A former Defense and Finance Minister of post-invasion Iraq, Ali A.
     Allawi has completed and just released a book titled "The
     Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace" that talks
     about the inner workings of many things that took place in
     post-invasion Iraqi government.
     Amir Taheri's review of the book for Asharq al Alawsat reveals that
     Allawi's points to some of the roots of today's violence in Iraq
     going back over a decade to when Saddam Hussein used violent groups
     for his own domestic purposes.

     One of the most interesting revelations in this book is Allawi's
     account of the emergence of Arab Sunni radicalism in Iraq. He
     (Allawi) shows that the first Jihadi groups were patronized by
     Saddam to counter-balance Shi'ite influence from Iran. Saddam may
     not have entered into a formal alliance with Al Qaeda. However, as
     Allawi shows, he was in league with Al Qaeda-style Jihadis, such as
     Jund al-Islam (Army of Islam) and Ansar al-Islam (Victors of
     Islam), for a decade before he was toppled.

     Kurdish officials have also testified that Ansar al Islam was also
     employed by Hussein's regime to counter their leadership.

   So Saddam exploited the centuries old hatred between Sunni and Shiite.
   <mode="sarcasm">What a surprise.</sarcasm>

References

   1. http://regimeofterror.com/archives/2007/04/former_iraqi_minister_says_hus/