Iraq's Baath Party Denies Links to Al Qaeda

By: CBS News Investigates
Topics: Iraq

The Iraqi Baath party denied in an Internet statement having any links to al Qaeda following rumors that some of the brutal operations undertaken by the group were carried out in cooperation with the Baath party.

"Our party has never had any relation with what's known as al Qaeda, not before the occupation nor after," the statement said. "As a matter of fact, many of our men and cadres have been victims of assassinations and kidnappings carried out by this group because of their rejection of the sectarian ideology that was introduced to Iraq upon the advent of the occupation," it added.

The Party also criticized the way al-Qaeda has been doing business in Iraq, saying that they were criminal gangs, working in collaboration with the American, Zionist and Iranian intelligence present in Iraq.

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by ikeziskash June 11, 2009 7:20 PM EDT: This really is a great find. The Baath party split and splintered on this subject repeatedly. As the manager of www.regimeofterror.com I have looked into this topic for years and have scoured hundreds of forums, documents, blogs and conducted countless interviews. I would say that MOST of the Baath party was against cooperation with al Qaeda before and after the war but SOME were for it. I also think al Qaeda's loosely organized structure of independent cells led to some cooperation between those cells willing and able to work with the minority of Baathists willing to assist them. I think the top of al Qaeda (UBL) was against his cooperating with Hussein but may have been ok with his underlings doing so as long as they didn't have to swear allegiance to him.; Reply to this comment