Key to U.S. Case Denies Iraq-Al Qaeda Link
BRUSSELS — The strangest thing about the strange story of Mullah Krekar, the leader of an Islamic terrorist group operating in the wilds of northern Iraq, is the fact that he remains a free man, living in peaceful Norway.
Krekar, who U.S. leaders charge could be proof of Al Qaeda's alleged links to Saddam Hussein, said Friday that he would be upset but not surprised if Secretary of State Colin L. Powell names him next week during a much-anticipated U.N. presentation of the case against Iraq.
"I can say to you that this is not true that I am a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda," Krekar, 47, said during a telephone interview from Oslo, the Norwegian capital. "I will wait until Wednesday, and if Powell says anything against me, I can use documents to prove it is not true. Everything: that we have chemical bombs, [ties to] Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, all of those things."
Although some counter-terrorism officials in the U.S. and Europe doubt that connections between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi president exist, U.S. authorities call Krekar a dangerous man. Moreover, Jordan wants to extradite him on drug trafficking charges. The Dutch locked him up for four months, then deported him to Norway, where he has refugee status. Norwegian police have spent days questioning him about alleged asylum fraud and terror activity related to his leadership of Ansar al-Islam, an armed Kurdish group.
"The U.S. has an interest in making sure people associated with terrorism can't facilitate terrorist acts," said a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo. "We believe he is linked to terrorism generally and Al Qaeda specifically. We hope Norway will take some action regarding him."
Although the FBI has interviewed Krekar twice, U.S. officials acknowledge that they are not able to charge him with a crime or to request his extradition. The Norwegians and the Dutch say they don't have enough evidence to hold him.
That is the best defense, Krekar declares triumphantly, against anyone using him to argue that a war on Iraq would also be a war on terrorism. He challenges the Bush administration to grant him a visa so he can plead his case.
"I said to the FBI, 'I can come to America and prove it's not true in your court,' " said Krekar, who studied Islamic theology with a founder of Al Qaeda and has publicly praised Bin Laden. "I am not an enemy of America. Not Powell, but Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz want to push George Bush to war," he added, referring to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz.
