Another Connection

The Fox News site has a translation of a Project Harmony document that I don’t believe has previously been disclosed. The document is a set of written notes taken by an Iraqi intelligence agent on a 1999 meeting between Saddam Hussein’s Vice-President, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a Pakistani cleric who was a key mentor to the Taliban, who at that time ruled Afghanistan and harbored Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Rahman was a good friend of Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban, and apparently was sent as an emissary to enlist Saddam’s help with regard to Russia.

The memo is interesting in its entirety, but this passage stands out:

Fazlur Rahman: Gwadar is the shortest road for them and we spoke with the Afghani government. I met Mullah Omar the leader of Afghanistan and he welcomed the establishment of Islamic relations with Iraq and we foresee to tell them about our needs and they would like to have contacts with Russia but they feel that the Russians (unclear) with Afghanistan, they go to America (RR: probably means that the Russians side with the US against the Taliban). … They (RR: probably the Taliban) want Iraq to intervene with Russia.

Fazlur Rahman says that he wants to meet Saddam Hussein, but the memo does not disclose whether anything came of this. What it appears to show clearly is that the Taliban (and, by extension, al Qaeda) was looking to Iraq for help, and was happy to establish “Islamic relations” with Iraq. Which further refutes the dogma that Saddam’s ostensibly secular regime couldn’t have cooperated with Islamic extremists like the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Via Power Line News.

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