**Iraq and Al Qaeda Connections**

*Mr. Burton's House Floor Comments 06-01-04*

**Mr. Burton:** Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there\'s been a lot
of concern over the past year or so about whether or not Saddam Hussein
was tied in with Osama bin Laden and the terrorist network and al Qaeda.
There\'s an article in \"The Weekly Standard\" this week called \"More
Connections,\" and I would urge all of my colleagues to read this
article. It shows a picture of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and
some other terrorists on the front page of the magazine. The article is
written by a gentleman named Stephen Hayes and it follows an article
written in the \"Wall Street Journal\" last week. And I\'d like to read
some information from the two articles that I think verifies without
much doubt that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and other
terrorist organizations were working together to try to destroy the
United States and western civilization.

Let me read from the \"The Wall Street Journal\" of May 27, 2004, "one
striking bit of evidence is the name of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir appears on
three captured rosters of Saddam Hussein\'s Fedayeen the elite
paramilitary group run by Saddam\'s son Uday and entrusted with doing
the regime\'s dirty work. Our government sources who have seen
translations of the documents say Shakir is listed with the rank of
lieutenant colonel. This matters because Shakir was an officer in the
Fedayeen, it would establish a direct link between Iraq and the al Qaeda
operatives who planned the 9/11 attack on the world trade center and the
pentagon. Shakir was present at the January, 2000, al Qaeda summit in
Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia at which the 9/11 attacks were planned. The U.S.
has never been quite sure whether he was there on his behalf or on
behalf of the Iraqi regime or whether he was an Iraqi Islamist who
hooked up with al Qaeda on his own. The fact is he was an officer in the
elite military of Saddam, he worked with his son, Uday, and he was there
when they planned the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Further, the articles go on to say the CIA has confirmed that al
Qaeda\'s number two, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi met with an Iraqi intelligence
in Baghdad in 1992 and 1998 and there\'s irrefutable evidence that the
Iraqi regime paid Zarqawi \$300,000 in 1998 around the time his Islamic
jihad was merging with al Qaeda. Four sources have confirmed the
payment. So here again is another connection. Since operating Enduring
Freedom, we have solid evidence Iraq and al Qaeda discussed safe haven
and reciprocal nonaggression. We have solid evidence of the presence in
Iraq of al Qaeda members through interrogations of high level Iraqi
detainees, we have evidence that al Qaeda members visited Baghdad,
sought weapons and training in areas such as poisons, gases, and
conventional bomb-making. Another item, Farque Hijazi, former Iraqi
ambassador to Turkey, admitted to meeting senior al Qaeda leaders at
Saddam\'s behest in 1994. It is believed Hijazi met with Osama bin Laden
and offered him safe haven in Iraq in 1998. That\'s another example.

Al Qaeda operatives held in Guantanamo have corroborated reports of a
series of meetings in Khartoum, Sudan, home to al Qaeda during the mid
1990\'s. Abu Abdullah al Iraqi, an al Qaeda weapons of mass destruction
specialist, was sent by Osama bin Laden to seek weapons of mass
destruction training and possibly weapons from the Iraqi regime. His
associates held meetings in Baghdad with Uday, Saddam\'s son, in April
of 1998. Another example, Secretary of State Colin Powell\'s
presentation to the UN in December of 2002 detailed intelligence showing
that Abu al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian jihaddist and known al Qaeda associate
traveled to Baghdad for medical treatment. Among al-Zarqawi\'s many
crimes, he\'s the key suspect in the abduction and beheading of the
American, Nicholas Berg. It is believed Saddam Hussein\'s nephew and
their Fedayeen military \-- paramilitary cronies worked with al-Zarqawi
in the abduction, transfer and execution of Mr. Berg. That investigation
is still in progress but the linkage between Saddam and al Qaeda is
reinforced by video and other evidence collected thus far. There is a
high probability that Zarqawi was the man who beheaded Berg. Saddam\'s
nephew is described as a suspect in the case.

Here's another example. Statements by Iraqi defectors have been
corroborated by new evidence seized by coalition troops that Saddam\'s
regime trained non-Iraqi terrorists at a camp south of Baghdad. This
existence \-- the existence of this training camp is verified by UN
inspectors. A Boeing 707 was used at the camp to simulate terrorist
hijackings and other items. Another item, in February of 2003, the
government of the Philippines asked a senior Iraqi diplomat to leave the
country after establishing frequent contact with leaders of Abu Sayyaf.
This Iraqi official had contact with Abu Sayyaf immediately after they
detonated a bomb in Samboga City that killed two Filipinos and an
American special forces officer. Mr. Speaker, I would like to put into
the record other examples of connections between al Qaeda and Saddam
Hussein and his terrorist group in Baghdad.

**The Speaker Pro Tempore:** Without objection.

**Mr. Burton:** I hope these will be read by my colleagues.

**The Speaker Pro Tempore:** Without objection.