3 cousins of Saddam said to aid insurgents

The New York Times
3 cousins of Saddam said to aid insurgents
Douglas Jehl
Monday, July 5, 2004

WASHINGTON A network of Saddam Hussein's cousins is actively involved in the smuggling of guns, people and money into Iraq to support the anti-American insurgency, say U.S. officials and a prominent Iraqi.

The operations, from staging areas in Syria and Jordan, involve at least three cousins from the Majid family who now live in Syria and in Europe, the U.S. officials said.

A leading figure among them is Fatiq Suleiman al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam's and a former officer in Iraq's Special Security Organization who fled from Iraq to Syria last spring and may still be living there. The view that the cousins are helping to finance the insurgency developed fairly recently and is described in intelligence reports, the U.S. officials say. They said the conclusion was based in part on suspicious, recent movements of money and goods, including the transfer of cash into Syria, that were detected by U.S. intelligence.

Saddam's family has a history of intermarriage with the Majid clan; his own full name is Saddam Hussein al-Majid.

Under his regime, the Majid family was a particularly feared branch of the ruling al-Tikriti tribe. Its members played prominent roles in the day-to-day operations of the country's state security apparatus, as bodyguards, enforcers and secret police chiefs, and the cousins who now live outside Iraq have access to tens of millions of dollars, much of it derived from smuggling oil, military equipment and other goods in and out of Iraq under Saddam, the American officials said. Fatiq al-Majid, said to be in his thirties and described as "a main money man" in the operation, has been living in Syria with the knowledge of Syrian authorities, U.S. officials said. In addition to being Saddam's cousin, he was a brother-in-law of Saddam's son Qusay and is a nephew of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the general who became known as Chemical Ali for gassing thousands of Kurds in the 1980's. The prominent Iraqi, Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi, was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. He served briefly this spring as interior minister and was responsible for security. He recently described another Majid, Izzadin, as "now financing a lot of the activities of the insurgents."

The statement by Sumeidi, at an appearance in Washington last month, was the first public reference to the concerns about the role played by the Majid family. In response to inquiries about Sumeidi's statement and about other information provided by former intelligence officials, U.S. officials confirmed that intelligence reports had provided information linking Izzadin al-Majid, Fatiq al-Majid and at least one other member of the family, along with some associates, to operations in support of the Iraqi insurgency. The American officials declined to speak publicly about the information because the intelligence reports in which it is spelled out are classified. In 1995, Izzadin al-Majid, then a major in the Republican Guard, fled Iraq with a group that included his cousin Hussein Kamel al-Majid, a son-in-law of Saddam. Hussein Kamel and a brother who had also fled returned to Iraq in 1996, and were killed there, leaving Izzadin al-Majid in control of a large portion of the family's assets, the U.S. officials said. He was granted asylum in Britain in 2000, and has maintained a home since in Leeds.

His involvement after leaving Iraq in smuggling operations that involved members of Saddam's government suggest that he maintained close ties there, a former intelligence official said.

American officials say Izzadin al-Majid now travels frequently between Europe, Jordan and Iraq. In a brief telephone conversation from Europe, he dismissed the accusations of involvement in the insurgency as groundless and said that he had last seen his cousin Fatiq in 1994, though he had spoken to him last year by phone. The U.S. officials identified the third family member as Ezz al-Dain al-Majidi al-Tikriti, another cousin of Hussein Kamel, who they said owns a printing plant and has access to black market wealth. The indication that exiles linked to the former Iraqi regime are helping to fund, recruit and organize the insurgency adds a new dimension to a picture that has been sketched in recent months by a U.S. officers.

In recent days, several senior military and diplomatic officials have said there is limited intelligence on the command and control - the "central nervous system," as some called it - of the Iraqi resistance. According to the general understanding, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant, and his followers are now regarded as the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq, and have been blamed for most major bombings. But the larger core of the insurgency, involving as many as 5,000 fighters and responsible for many more attacks on U.S. forces, is seen as being organized and directed by former Iraqi officials and those they can enlist to carry out attacks, who may include foreign fighters. In congressional testimony last month, the deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, described former associates of Saddam as "as a significant part of the enemy that we're facing, and they're still out there." Among those still at large, Wolfowitz identified Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top deputy to Saddam, as someone who is "probably funding terrorism."

Still, the military and intelligence officials have acknowledged that a significant component of the resistance, including some of its foot soldiers, comes from ordinary Iraqis without ties to Saddam's regime. Untangling the question of who has been funding the insurgency has been an "extremely important" priority for military and intelligence officials, and the indication of the exiles' role is among several pieces of information pointing to flows of funding, manpower and weapons that begin outside Iraq, according to a senior military officer serving in Iraq. The officer said the effort to uncover that trail had already "led us to and through several countries, and several individuals, who are funding parts of the current insurgency in several organizations." The importance of the financing, the officer said, is that it provides the funding that makes possible the movement of extremists; their support mechanisms, including housing, food and pay; their infrastructure, including communications and transportation; and their ordnance, including car bombs, explosives, and other weapons. In addition to the Majid cousins, some business associates and trusted friends also appeared to be involved in the financing operation, the American officials said. Ties to Hussein Kamel appeared to be a common link. He married Saddam's daughter Raghad in 1985, and by the mid-1990's, was seen as the second-most-powerful figure in Iraq, having been put in charge of Iraq's reconstruction after the Gulf war and of its illicit weapons programs. After fleeing with his brother, Saddam, to Jordan in August 1995, Hussein Kamel provided Jordanian authorities and Western intelligence services with new information about Saddam's efforts to hide illicit weapons from UN inspectors. But within six months, he and Saddam were persuaded to return to Iraq; but they, their children and other members of their families were killed. Neither Sumeidi or the American officials have attempted to offer an explanation for why people linked to Hussein Kamel would now be working to support insurgents affiliated with other former members of the regime.

As is the case with Iran, the question of the degree to which Syria is being used as a base for the insurgency in Iraq has never been clear. But American officials described evidence last spring that it was being used as a transit point for militants, money and weapons being brought into Iraq for use in attacks against U.S. forces. In addition to Fatiq al-Majid, who has never been on any public American wanted list, more prominent members of the former Iraqi government have been described by American intelligence officials as having spent time in Syria after the major combat phase of the war in Iraq ended last April. Defense Department officials have said they believed the two Saddam sons, Uday and Qusay, spent time in Syria before they returned to Iraq and were killed by U.S. forces last July, according to Defense Department officials.

The American officials said new information about the activities of the al-Majid cousins have added to their concerns. They said that Fatiq al-Majid appeared to have transferred large amounts of money into Syria for use in support of the insurgency, and may have been involved in purchasing weapons and assisting fighters who sought to enter Iraq.

Sumeidi is a highly regarded Sunni who is seen in Iraq as a rival of Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress. Sumeidi, who was replaced by the new prime minister, Iyad Allawi, made his public remarks in a June 24 appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization in Washington.