Reading Saddam's Intelligence Files, Part 2: The Taliban Connection

As discussed in my first post in this series, Saddam tasked his minions with hunting Americans throughout the Muslim world and especially in Somalia in 1993. The Iraqi Intelligence Service identified eleven groups with which it had relations and that were capable of carrying out the mission. One of the groups identified was the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party, otherwise known as the JUI, in Pakistan. According to a U.S. Government translation, here is what the IIS had to say about its relationship with the JUI in its January 25, 1993 memo:

Jam’iyyat â€˜Ulama’ Al-Islam (J.U.I.), (translator’s note: “The Society of Islamic Scholars”) 1. It was established in 1948 and is considered one of the political parties that influence the Pakistani arena and in particular the northern region [Baluchistan] and Punjab. It is headed by Mulana (translator’s note: or Mawlana) Fadil Al-Rahman. 2. It depends on its financing on its organizations in Pakistan and foreign aid from Iraq and Libya. 3. Secretary of the Party, Mulana Jawid Ahmad Nu’mati, has a close relationship with our apparatus since 1981 and is willing to perform any mission that he would be assigned.