Reprinted from The Washington Times, March 3, 1998
Spy told Baghdad
specifics of attack
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The FBI has learned that an Iraqi spy passed information from the Pentagon to a senior intelligence official in Baghdad about plans for a U.S. military attack.
The FBI began looking into the matter shortly after learning that the Iraqis were informed in late January that the much-anticipated strike could take place within two weeks and would involve large-scale attacks by precision-guided "smart" bombs and missiles.
The search for the spy began early last month when U.S. intelligence agencies learned that the agent, whose last name is known to the FBI, tipped off a senior member of the Iraqi intelligence service about U.S. military planning, said intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
According to the officials, the Iraqi agent said the U.S. attack would last five days and that information about it was obtained from a source in Washington who receives information regularly from the Pentagon.
The agent was identified only as "a U.S. person" -- intelligence jargon used to describe Americans and resident aliens.
The Baghdad official who was the spy's contact was identified as Salah al-Hadithi, head of the Americas desk of the Iraqi intelligence service and the official in charge of operations directed against the United States.
One official said the FBI probe is limited to a counterintelligence matter involving Iraqi activities in the United States and so far has not been turned into a criminal spy case.
FBI Assistant Director John F. Lewis, head of the national security division, was notified on Feb. 2 about the Iraqi intelligence activity, along with the FBI's Washington field office. The CIA's Counterintelligence Center also was told.
No other details of the investigation could be learned. Several officials balked yesterday at discussing the matter because of its sensitivity.
Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon referred a reporter to the FBI when asked if the Pentagon is looking into the matter. FBI and CIA spokesmen declined to comment.
As part of the FBI probe, officials also are investigating indications that a group of people in Chicago planned to meet with Mr. al-Hadithi in Iraq or Jordan to pass on certain information.
Officials said they had no details on the group and declined to say whether it is linked to the man suspected of passing on information about the impending U.S. attack.
So far it is not known whether sensitive U.S. national security information was passed to the Iraqis. The officials said a good deal of information about U.S. military plans appeared in the press beginning in January, when the Clinton administration stepped up military preparations for a punitive strike on Iraq for blocking United Nations weapons inspections.
Few details are known about Iraq's foreign intelligence activities.
Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA officer, said Iraq has a limited presence in the United States and relies for what little espionage activities it conducts on Iraqi officials posted at the United Nations in New York.
"They are using a lot of non-Iraqi Arabs as intelligence access agents because they feel, and rightly so, that any Iraqi nationals' activities would raise a red flag," said Mr. Cannistraro, who is familiar with Iraqi intelligence activities related to international terrorism.
"They are basically spying through third parties," he said.
Iraqi officials at the United Nations are "blanketed" by FBI counterspies and thus have a hard time collecting intelligence, Mr. Cannistraro said.
Iraq does have some graduate university students studying in the United States who could provide cover for intelligence activities, he said.
Much of Iraq's intelligence activities are devoted to thwarting the U.N. embargo. Iraqis in Britain were caught trying to smuggle missile-guidance components several years ago.
Most of this type of activity takes place in Europe and the Persian Gulf.
The headquarters of Iraq's intelligence service, known as the Mukhabarat, was the target of a U.S. cruise missile attack in June 1993 after U.S. intelligence agencies determined that the spy agency was behind an attempt to assassinate former President George Bush.
The attack was carried out at night in an effort to limit casualties. It is not known what impact the missile strike had on Iraqi intelligence operations.
U.S. intelligence has linked Iraqi intelligence agents to Saudi terrorist financier Osama Bin Ladin. Mr. Bin Ladin met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Sudan two years ago.
According to Iranian press reports, Iraqi intelligence agents have used deadly thallium to poison anti-Iraqi dissidents, including members of the Iraqi National Congress in northern Iraq.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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