The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Al Qaida joined the former Saddam Hussein regime to develop chemical weapons.
The CIA said a network of Sunni insurgents sought to develop chemical weapons against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. The network, termed Al Abud, was detected and tracked by the Iraq Survey Group.
"ISG created a team of experts -- including operators, analysts, and technical ops officers -- to systematically investigate and disrupt the Al Abud network and diffuse the immediate threat posed by the insurgents," the CIA report, dated Sept. 30, 2004, said. "The team also focused on identifying links between Al Abud players and former regime CBW experts to determine whether WMD intellectual capital was being tapped by insurgent elements throughout Iraq." |