Saddam was probing reports of al-Qaida in Iraq

IRAQI documents collected by US intelligence show that Saddam Hussein’s regime was investigating reports of al-Qaida activity in the country.

The US Government said one showed that Iraqi intelligence officials suspected al-Qaida members were inside Iraq in 2002 and others suggested that Iraqis and Saudis were heading to Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks to fight US troops.

A letter from an Iraqi intelligence official, dated August 17, 2002, asked agents in the country to be on the lookout for terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and another unnamed man, whose picture was attached.

The documents, the first of thousands due to be declassified over the coming months, were released via a Pentagon website at the direction of National Intelligence director John Negroponte. Many were in Arabic, with no English translation.

The Pentagon website described that document this way: “2002 Iraqi Intelligence Correspondence concerning the presence of al-Qaida Members in Iraq. Correspondence between IRS members on a suspicion, later confirmed, of the presence of an al-Qaida terrorist group. Moreover, it includes photos and names.”