Habbush letter

TheHabbush letter,orHabbush memo(Arabic:رسالة حبوش,romanized:risāla Ḥabbūši), is a handwritten message dated July 1, 2001, which appears to show a link betweenal-QaedaandIraq's government. It purports to be a direct communication between the head of Iraqi Intelligence, GeneralTahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti,to Iraqi presidentSaddam Hussein,outlining mission training whichMohamed Atta,one of the organizers of theSeptember 11 attacks,supposedly received in Iraq. The letter also claims that Hussein accepted a shipment fromNiger,an apparent reference to an allegeduraniumacquisition attempt that U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bushcited in his January 2003State of the Unionaddress.

The authenticity of the letter has been disputed since it was first made public in December 2003. In 2008, journalistRon Suskindclaimed that it was a forgery created by theCentral Intelligence Agency(CIA), under the direction of theWhite House.Two of Suskind's sources denied having knowledge of anyone in theirchain of commandordering the forging the letter.John Conyers,Chairman of theUnited States House Committee on the Judiciary,released a report into the allegations in 2009, in which he concluded that "the Administration figures who ordered and authored the apparent forgery... remain unidentified".

Background

On December 13, 2003, the day ofSaddam Hussein's captureby US forces,The Daily TelegraphofLondonran a front-page story that not only claimedSaddam Husseinhad trained one of thehijackers in the September 11 attacks,but also that his government, assisted by a "small team from the Al Qaeda organization", was expecting to receive a suspicious consignment from the country of Niger. The article, and a second piece, were both written byCon Coughlin,executive foreign editor to the paper.

Coughlin's information came from a secret intelligence memorandum, purportedly handwritten during Saddam Hussein's final days in power and discovered later by the newly formedIraqi Interim Government,which summarized an operational relationship betweenMohamed Atta,a known associate of al-Qaeda and one of the hijackers in theSeptember 11 attacks,and theIraqi Intelligence Service(IIS). The letter was signed by GeneralTahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti,chief of IIS, and directed to thePresident of Iraq.Coughlin said that he had received this document from a "senior member of the Iraqi interim government", though this person "declined to reveal where and how they obtained it."

Content

Habbush's July 1, 2001, letter is labeled "Intelligence Items" and is addressed: "To the President of theBa'ath Revolution Partyand President of the Republic, may God protect you. "It continues:

Mohammed Atta, anEgyptiannational, came with Abu Ammer [the real name behind thisArabicalias remains a mystery] and we hosted him inAbu Nidal's house atal-Doraunder our direct supervision. We arranged a work program for him for three days with a team dedicated to working with him... He displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy.

Initial reaction to the letter

Ayad Allawi

Ayad Allawi,interimPrime Minister of Iraq,was quoted in the original report, offering personal assurance over the document's authenticity: "We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda.... But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."

The story was quickly picked up and repeated by several conservative columnists in the US, including syndicated columnistDeroy MurdockandWilliam Safire.Safire talked about the document in an op-ed for theNew York Times,claiming Saddam had attempted to cover-up his links to 9/11 by assassinatingAbu Nidal,who the letter claims was with Mohammed Atta in Iraq.

Three weeks later, in an interview with theRocky Mountain News,Vice PresidentDick Cheneyspoke more broadly onSaddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations:

We haven't really had the time yet to pore through all those records inBaghdad.We'll find ample evidence confirming the link, that is the connection if you will between al Qaida and the Iraqi intelligence services. They have worked together on a number of occasions.

Doubts

On December 17, 2003, aNewsweekarticle titled "Terror Watch: Dubious Link Between Atta And Saddam", byMichael IsikoffandMark Hosenball,outlined some of the main reasons to doubt the authenticity of the letter:

... the FBI has compiled a highly detailed time line for Atta's movements throughout the spring and summer of 2001 based on a mountain of documentary evidence, including airline records, ATM withdrawals and hotel receipts. Those records show Atta crisscrossing the United States during this period—making only one overseas trip, an 11-day visit to Spain that didn't begin until six days after the date of the Iraqi memo... ... Ironically, even theIraqi National CongressofAhmed Chalabi,which has been vocal in claiming ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam's regime, was dismissive of the new Telegraph story. "The memo is clearly nonsense", an INC spokesman toldNewsweek.

The article also quoted an Iraq document expert named Hassan Mneimneh, as well as unnamed US officials, who claim that the document was probably part of "a thriving new trade in dubious Iraqi documents".

Ron Suskind's allegation

Ron Suskind,in his 2008 bookThe Way of the World,claimed that the Habbush letter had been forged by theWhite House,with the co-operation of senior CIA officials, includingRobert Richer,the Associate Deputy Director of Operations. The letter was intended to be used as evidence of a link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, thereby further justifying theinvasion of Iraq.

The idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraq government stationery, to make it look legitimate. CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media.

Suskind goes on to describe what he believes happened next: Richer spoke to John Maguire, a CIA Iraq expert, who said that this plan would not work, as Habbush would not sign anything himself because theinsurgencywould harm his family. This, by Suskind's account, led to theWhite Housetelling the CIA to hand-write the letter itself. Suskind's book says that this new order was eventually passed down to theIraq Operations Group,who carried it out. Maguire left for Baghdad to help run the CIA station there and was not involved directly in the mission, other than discussing the mission with Richer.

Suskind also contends that Habbush, who still carries a $1 million reward for his capture, was secretly resettled inJordanby the CIA with $5 million in US taxpayers' money.

Suskind claimed to have held tape-recorded interviews with Richer, Maguire, andNigel Inksterof the BritishSecret Intelligence Service,in which they apparently testified that the White House was behind the forging of the letter.According to a partial transcript of one of Suskind's interviews with Richer, published on Suskind's website, Richer saw a letter on White House stationery that had been passed down the ranks of the CIA – throughGeorge Tenet,then-CIA director, then toJames Pavitt,the deputy director of Operations, then to Pavitt's chief of staff, who passed it on to Richer. The letter, which Richer said might or might not have come from the vice president's office, described a plan to create a forged document and release it "as essentially a representation of something Habbush says".

On August 5, 2008, the White House issued a statement on behalf of George Tenet, Robert Richer and John Maguire, addressing Suskind's allegation. Tenet said:

It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the Administration to paint a picture of Iraqi – Al-Qaida connections that went beyond the evidence. The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous.

The CIA issued its own statement on August 22, 2008, saying that Suskind's allegations regarding Habbush "did not happen",and Tenet followed the same day with a second statement saying that Suskind's charges were "demonstrably false in every regard."Nigel Inkster told theGuardianthat "Mr Suskind's characterisation of our meeting is more the stuff of creative fiction than serious reportage".

Subsequent reactions

InThe American Conservativeon August 7, 2008,Philip Giraldistated that "extremely reliable and well placed source in the intelligence community" told him that Suskind's basic story about the White House ordering the forgery was correct but that some of his details were not.According to Giraldi, his source cleared CIA officialsGeorge Tenet,Robert Richer,and John Maguire of involvement, but stated that Dick Cheney ordered the forgery using theOffice of Special Plansrun byDouglas Feith.

AuthorJoe Conasonnoted that Ayad Allawi had visited CIA headquarters in Langley just days before speaking with Con Coughlin of theTelegraph.Coughlin, in a blog post highly critical of Suskind, confirmed that he had indeed received the letter from Ayad Allawi. He also called the letter a "leak" and said he got it in November 2003, in Baghdad.

John Conyers,Chairman of theUnited States House Committee on the Judiciary,released a statement on August 11, 2008, indicating that he had instructed his staff to review a number of Suskind's allegations.On August 20, he wrote to six current and former officials with theBush administration—Tenet, Richer, Maguire,Lewis Libby,A. B. Krongard,andJohn Hannah—requesting that they contact his committee staff regarding the allegations.A month later, his inquiry was reported to have made little progress.In January 2009, Conyers released his report entitledReining in the Imperial Presidencythat he described as "detailing the abuses and excesses of the Bush administration and recommending steps to address them."He reiterated Suskind's allegation and stated that he received no information from the officials that confirmed any knowledge of the fabrication.Conyers concluded that "the Administration figures who ordered and authored the apparent forgery... remain unidentified".

See also

• Iraq War
• Iraq War misappropriations
• Mohamed Atta's alleged Prague connection
• Niger uranium forgeries

Further reading

• Froomkin, Dan(August 5, 2008)."A White House Forgery Scandal?".The Washington Post.
• Froomkin, Dan(August 6, 2008)."The White House's Weak Denials".The Washington Post.

External links

• Interview with Ron Suskind – Part I,Democracy Now.
• Interview with Ron Suskind – Part II,Democracy Now.