On March 1, 2004, the Iraqi daily Al-Taakhi, the official newspaper of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), published a document of the Iraqi intelligence apparatus during Saddam Hussein's rule that was sent March 20, 2002 to an intelligence station. The document ordered the funding of the March 2002 visit of Egyptian journalist Sayyed Nassar to Iraq, including his stay at the Meridian Hotel in Baghdad.
According to the paper, "the document attests to good relations between Sayyed Nassar and the Iraqi intelligence apparatuses during this time, and [attests that] his stay in Baghdad and his hosting by Saddam's intelligence [apparatus] is explained by his good connections with the Iraqi intelligence station [1] that existed in the past in Egypt."
This report provides an opportunity to take a look at what Sayyed Nassar has written in the past regarding Iraq.
MEMRI has published two of his earlier articles: One was a rare interview with Saddam Hussein before the war, [2] and the other was written after Saddam's arrest. [3] In his regular column on February 23, 2004 in the Egyptian opposition weekly Al-Usbu', that was also quoted in the pro-Saddam London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on February 25, 2004, Nassarwrote in response to the oil vouchers affair:"This is a made-by-U.S.-intelligence battle. You must know who has sparked it, prettified it, and distorted it. It is a former Russian agent, [who is] an American and Israeli agent today. He was the first to enter [Iraq] on an American tank. He came from Cyprus after Syrian intelligence – which discovered that he was a double agent – expelled him after he had been in Syria for more than 20 years, claiming that the Iraqi regime was hunting him. He is the editor-in-chief of the Al-Madanewspaper, which published the list of 270 names, among them Arab writers and journalists, and a few foreigners, and many businessmen and politicians, who received oil vouchers from Saddam…"
In the article, Nassar also claimed that he still has secrets from Saddam, from the prewar interview he conducted, that he will share with no one.
[1] According to a report on February 17, 2004 in the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat , the Iraqi National Congress' daily Al-Mutamar reported thatanother journalist who was in contact with Saddam's intelligence services is Faisal Al-Qassim, from the Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel. On a recent episode of his program, Opposite Direction, Al-Qassim talked about the Saddam oil vouchers affair, defending those accused of wrongdoing and criticizing Iraqis who cooperate with the U.S.
Please see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 164, February 20, 2003, 'The Saddam Oil Vouchers Affair,'
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1067.htm.
[2] Please see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 437, November 5, 2002, 'First Interview with Saddam Hussein in 12 years,'
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/756.htm .
[3] Please see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 629, December 17, 2003, 'The Arab Media Reaction to Saddam's Arrest: Part II,'
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1020.htm.
