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CNN Live At Daybreak
Inside Northern Iraq: Proof of Al Qaeda Connection?
Aired November 29, 2002 - 05:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And now we're going to take you inside Northern Iraq this morning. A confessed assassin claims that he is proof of a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
Our Brent Sadler has this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Entry to a top security jail in Northern Iraq, a lockup for dangerous men with shocking pasts. This is a confessed assassin, an Iranian-born Arab who claims he was working for Baghdad and claims at the same time he was also involved with al Qaeda's terror network in Afghanistan.
I was engaged with al Qaeda, says Muhammad Shahab (ph), trading weapons and selling drugs between Iran and Kandahar.
He also claims to have separately funneled weapons from Iraq to Osama bin Laden.
Caught on his way to Baghdad, say investigators here, more than two years ago, carrying damning evidence of murder, a role of film proving he had a bloody hand in this killing of an unidentified victim, probably Iranian, one of many he boasts.
Killings were done on the orders of the Iraqi intelligence, he says, and mostly in Iran.
While there's no corroborating evidence in these files linking Baghdad to al Qaeda, investigators say they're certain Muhammad Shahab was an Iraqi hit man and that his other claims are feasible. But the Kurds have openly set their sights on regime change in Baghdad and are keen to use those unsubstantiated intelligence reports to support the case.
(on camera): They are training for battle as potential U.S. allies in a possible war on two fronts, against Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad and what's described here as an al Qaeda-style terror network on their side of the border with Iran.
(voice-over): A network which recently ordered 19-year-old Vida Muhammad (ph) to blow himself up using this explosives packed vest and belt to kill secular Kurdish opponents.
The orders came, says Muhammad, from an extreme Kurdish Islamic group with suspected links to al Qaeda. He tells me an Afghan-trained suicide bomb maker fitted him out. He opened a suitcase, four or five of these bomb sets were inside, he says. It was like setting a mine. I just had to press the button.
But Muhammad backed out at the very last second, sparing the lives of many. A warning that other Iraqi-Kurdish suicide bombers may be on their way.
Brent Sadler, CNN, Sulaimaniya, Northern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 29, 2002 - 05:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And now we're going to take you inside Northern Iraq this morning. A confessed assassin claims that he is proof of a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
Our Brent Sadler has this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Entry to a top security jail in Northern Iraq, a lockup for dangerous men with shocking pasts. This is a confessed assassin, an Iranian-born Arab who claims he was working for Baghdad and claims at the same time he was also involved with al Qaeda's terror network in Afghanistan.
I was engaged with al Qaeda, says Muhammad Shahab (ph), trading weapons and selling drugs between Iran and Kandahar.
He also claims to have separately funneled weapons from Iraq to Osama bin Laden.
Caught on his way to Baghdad, say investigators here, more than two years ago, carrying damning evidence of murder, a role of film proving he had a bloody hand in this killing of an unidentified victim, probably Iranian, one of many he boasts.
Killings were done on the orders of the Iraqi intelligence, he says, and mostly in Iran.
While there's no corroborating evidence in these files linking Baghdad to al Qaeda, investigators say they're certain Muhammad Shahab was an Iraqi hit man and that his other claims are feasible. But the Kurds have openly set their sights on regime change in Baghdad and are keen to use those unsubstantiated intelligence reports to support the case.
(on camera): They are training for battle as potential U.S. allies in a possible war on two fronts, against Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad and what's described here as an al Qaeda-style terror network on their side of the border with Iran.
(voice-over): A network which recently ordered 19-year-old Vida Muhammad (ph) to blow himself up using this explosives packed vest and belt to kill secular Kurdish opponents.
The orders came, says Muhammad, from an extreme Kurdish Islamic group with suspected links to al Qaeda. He tells me an Afghan-trained suicide bomb maker fitted him out. He opened a suitcase, four or five of these bomb sets were inside, he says. It was like setting a mine. I just had to press the button.
But Muhammad backed out at the very last second, sparing the lives of many. A warning that other Iraqi-Kurdish suicide bombers may be on their way.
Brent Sadler, CNN, Sulaimaniya, Northern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
