WASHINGTON - The government of Sudan, regularly accused of backing atrocities in Darfur, has secretly allowed its spies to gather information about the insurgency in Iraq for the United States, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday.| Great. Thanks for blowing another secret. |
| Of course they wouldn't cite a named official, now would they. |
As a result, Sudan’s spies have often been in better position than the US spy agency CIA to gather information on Al Qaeda’s presence in Iraq, as well as the activities of other insurgent groups, the paper said. ‘Sudanese can go places we don’t go. They’re Arabs. They can wander around,’ the paper quoted another former CIA official as saying.
The officials declined to say whether the Mukhabarat had sent its intelligence officers into the country, citing concerns over protecting sources, according to the report.
| Which didn't stop them from running their yaps at the LAT. |
Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia, working to cultivate contacts with the Islamic Courts Union and other militias in an effort to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there, the paper added. Its relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency has given Sudan an important back channel for communications with the US government, the report said.
And although President George W. Bush has recently slapped new sanctions on Sudan over Darfur, some critics accuse the administration of not going far enough for fear of jeopardizing the counter-terrorism cooperation.
In an interview, Sudan’s ambassador to the United States, John Ukec Lueth Ukec, suggested that the sanctions could affect his country’s willingness to cooperate on intelligence matters, the paper reported. The decision to deny 31 businesses owned by the Sudanese government access to the US financial system ‘was not a good idea,’ Ukec said. ‘It diminishes our cooperation,’ the paper quoted the ambassador as saying. ‘And it makes those who are on the extreme side, who do not want cooperation with the United States, stronger.’