Iraqi official: Large-scale plot thwarted

[ECH1969]

Iraq's interior minister on Tuesday said authorities had foiled an al Qaeda plot that would have put hundreds of its men at critical guard posts around Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and other foreign embassies as well as the Iraqi government.

A senior Defense Ministry official said the 421 al Qaeda fighters were recruited to storm the U.S. and British embassies and take hostages. Several ranking Defense Ministry officials have been jailed in the plot, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, in an interview with The Associated Press, said the 421 al Qaeda recruits were one bureaucrat's signature away from acceptance into an Iraqi army battalion whose job is to control the gates and main squares in the Green Zone. The plot was discovered three weeks ago.

"You can imagine what could happen to a minister or an ambassador while passing through these gates when those terrorists are there," Jabr said in the interview conducted at his office inside the Green Zone -- a 2-square-mile (3-kilometer) hunk of prime Baghdad real estate on the west bank of the Tigris River.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/14/iraq.plotthwarted.ap/index.html
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A number of high ranking Defense Ministry officals including two generals from what I hear were on the take and bribed hundreds of thousands to help the plot along.

[leftchick]

1. it won't be the last attempt

:eyes:

[central scrutinizer]

2. let me guess - these were 421 of the #3 guys in Al Qaeda

they should trade some of their #3's before the end of free agency

[mom cat]

15. How did you know?

:rofl:

[aquart]

3. Where did they get the money for the bribes?

[ECH1969]

6. Watch Frontline's program on the Iraqi Insurgency

The transcript is up on their site. Michael Ware Time's Baghdad Chief who actually has inbeded himself in the Baathist resistance talks in depth about the insurgency. He makes it clear that Tawid al-Jihad (or what you think of as al-Qaeda in Iraq) is by far the best funded insurgent group in Iraq. Zarqawi has a near limitless supply of money coming in from Gulf oil barrons.

[aquart]

21. Like the emirates?

[central scrutinizer]

4. math error

"a 2-square-mile (3-kilometer) hunk"

2 square miles is about 5.12 square kilometers unless they meant to write a 2-mile-square, meaning two miles on a side in which case the area would be 4 square miles or 10.25 square kilometers

[Itchinjim]

5. "The Night of the Long Knives"

Iraq style? Or maybe like Stalin's purge of the Red Army? Lots of "plotting" Generals in that one.

[Kagemusha]

9. It's entirely possible.

No way to tell from our position.

[plcdude]

7. al Qaeda

does not really exist and it is time to put that myth to rest. People who object vehemently with the occupation and collaboration with the occupiers are what we are talking about here. There is no one organization. The sooner we understand that the sooner we will begin to manage world-wide terrorism for what it is.

[ECH1969]

11. Then call them what they call themselves in Iraq if you want

They don't call themselves al-Qaeda in Iraq. They call themselves Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, or Monotheism and Holy War Group.

Zarqawi simply changed the name of his group for the outside world in order to draw in more young wahhibis. In Iraq they still call themselves Monotheism and Holy War Group.

[grytpype]

8. Well, this is good news, isn't it?

But it just goes to show how badly our "ally" the "Iraqi government" has been infiltrated.

[saigon68]

19. our "ally" the "Iraqi government"

Is a bunch of Quislings busy squirreling away looted funds in Switzerland

Who will beat a retreat to the French Rivera at the first sign the ship is sinking.

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. And Saddam had WMD's deliverable in 45 minutes . .

.
.
.

yeah right . . .

[rodeodance]

12. should I believe this? so much propaganda on all sides.

[daleo]

13. Did they have "drones of death"?

Or yellow-cake from Nigeria? Maybe they were massing at the border, while simultaneously throwing babies out of incubators.

It is hard to believe much anymore, especially "good news" from the current Iraqi government.

[ECH1969]

14. Its good news that the MoD is deeply infiltrated?

There is far more bad news in this then good news.

[daleo]

20. Granted, it is actually not a good sign

But, it will be spun as good news, I think, in some upcoming news conference.

"We stopped terra."

[megatherium]

16. averted "Tet Offensive"? nt

[ekelly]

17. Just how sensitive IS this info?

Iraq's interior minister on Tuesday said authorities had foiled an al Qaeda plot that would have put hundreds of its men at critical guard posts around Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and other foreign embassies as well as the Iraqi government.

and

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, in an interview with The Associated Press, said the 421 al Qaeda recruits were one bureaucrat's signature away from acceptance into an Iraqi army battalion whose job is to control the gates and main squares in the Green Zone. The plot was discovered three weeks ago.

but

A senior Defense Ministry official said the 421 al Qaeda fighters were recruited to storm the U.S. and British embassies and take hostages. Several ranking Defense Ministry officials have been jailed in the plot, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

One guy is publicly blabbing this "sensitive" info all over the place while the other is annonymously leaking it?

I don't believe this at all.

[bemildred]

18. Emmanuel Goldstein foiled again.

I wonder how they came up with "421 al Qaeda recruits"?

Although, to be fair, one can certainly expect attempts to be made on the Green Zone, whenever they might be thought feasible.