The CIA in contact with Top Iraqi Baathists

The CIA apparently conducted secrets contacts in Yemen with Iraqi Baathist leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri(right), Saddam Hussien`s former Vice President, in a bid to reconcile a political accord between the Sunni-insurgents and the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
The Paris-based Intelligence Online Web site said other meetings were held with Baathist leaders in Damascus, where Douri and his associates reportedly live.

The objective is to reconcile the minority Sunnis, who were the backbone of Saddam's regime, and the majority Shiites, who were brutally suppressed by that regime, before crucial parliamentary elections scheduled for March 7.

There was no official confirmation of the Intelligence Online report by Washington or Baghdad. However, it coincided with reports that U.S. counter-terrorism agents were working with former Saddam-era Iraqi intelligence officers in Yemen to counter the growing al-Qaida threat there.

The regime of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was close to Saddam and has long employed Iraqi army officers to lead its 67,000-strong armed forces.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, hundreds of former military and intelligence officers who served Saddam have flooded into Sanaa.

The CIA effort got under way early in the summer through the good offices of the head of Jordan's General Intelligence Department, Mohammed al-Raqqad, Intelligence Online said.

According to Intelligence Online, the CIA wants to reconcile Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites before the U.S. military withdrawal is completed by the end of next year so that the Americans can leave a stable, united state behind them.

The prospects of a deal appear to be slender though.

"Aware of their capacity to create mayhem in the run-up to the legislative elections, the Baath Party stalwarts are laying down draconian conditions for any halt to violence," the French Web site reported.

If the CIA's strategy fails, Intelligence Online warned, "The American military could well leave behind a country in the midst of a civil war."

Douri, the last high-ranking fugitive from Saddam's rule still at large with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, regularly exhorts Iraqis to topple the Baghdad government and restore the Baath to power. There were several speculations over the years as to whether he was dead or alive. In other reports, it was believed he fled and sought protection in Syria and Yemen and led the Baath party from there.

Douri, 65, last surfaced on an audiotape broadcast by al-Jazeera on April 9, the anniversary of the founding of the Baath, which ruled from 1968 until Saddam was toppled by the Americans in 2003.

Related Link:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/al-douri.htm

Another Iranian Nuclear Scientist making news

Here we go again, there are news reports about Iran and a nuclear physicist who apparently was murdered by a bomb outside his residence. Iran is saying the US and Israeli spy agencies in cohoots with dissident Iranians conspired the bomb attack that killed the nuclear physicist in Tehran.

On Jan. 12, 2010, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, professor of nuclear physics in Tehran University was killed with a remote controlled device which was planted on a motorcycle in front of his house in Qeytariah. The bomb attack left puzzling mix of clues as to why a 50-year old researcher would be targeted with no prominant political voice, no published work with military relevance and declared links to Iran`s nuclear program.

"Since Ali Mohammadi was one of the scientists of physics and nuclear energy, most probably intelligence services and elements of the Mossad and CIA had a hand in his assassination," the Web site of state television quoted Teheran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabad as saying. The accusation was echoed by the Foreign Ministry. State TV identified the CIA and Mossad has having possible involvement, along with dissident Iranians.

Iran`s Foreign Ministry said it had evidence that a bomb was planted by "Zionist & American" agents. The US State Department has rejected the Iranian`s claim and Israel had no comment.

A spokesman for Iran`s Atomic Energy - Ali Shirzadine, told AP that Ali Mohammadi had no link with the agency. "He was not involved in the country`s nuclear program" he said of the victim. And US experts in the same field said his work had no apparent connection to military uses of nuclear technology.

As I commented in an earlier blog post titled: Iranian Nuke Scientist - Abducted by the US?_12/08/09, this news comes on the heels of another Iranian nuclear scientist, Shahram Amiri, who disappeared in June while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, raising questions about whether he defected and gave the West information on the country's nuclear program. Amiri worked at a university linked to the Revolutionary Guard and his wife said he was researching medical uses of nuclear technology at a university.

Iran's foreign minister accused the US of helping to kidnap him and demanded his return.

In 2007, state TV reported that another nuclear scientist, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, died from gas poisoning. A one-week delay in the reporting of his death prompted speculation about the causes, including that Israel's Mossad spy agency was to blame.

Ali Mohammadi wrote several articles on quantum and theoretical physics in scientific journals. He was a member of some academic associations focusing on experimental science. In 1992, he received the first doctorate in nuclear physics to be awarded in Iran, from Tehran's Sharif University of Technology.

Michio Kaku, a prominent high energy physics professor at City College of New York, said he had never heard of Ali Mohammadi or his work and a list of papers he published showed his study was clearly not related to making nuclear weapons.

"Nuclear physicists interested in bomb-making would have no interest in these papers," Kaku said. "These papers are highly abstract" with no buzzwords that indicate anything threatening, he added.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the killing of nuclear scientists cannot thwart the country's scientific and technological progress.

Iran also directed suspicion at the exiled opposition group the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. Tabnak, a conservative Iranian Web site close to the ruling establishment, said the group carried out the attack under direction of Israeli agents.

Sources: http://aljazeera.com/news/articles/34/Iran-accuses-US-Israel-in-nuclear-scientist-murde.html

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142079.html