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Barham Salih said on Sunday intelligence gathered
from dozens of Saddam's former intelligence and army
officers and foreign fighters arrested in the past
week points to a major offensive during the polls.
Members of Saddam's toppled Baath Party and foreign
militants inspired by al Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden and his key ally in Iraq, Jordanian militant
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may have suffered setbacks but
have plenty of cash.
"We do have, I think, some good ideas about what
they are planning to do as a way of attacking
polling stations and creating an insecure
environment to prevent the population from going to
the polling stations," he told Reuters in an
interview.
"They have vicious plans to derail the process. Bin
Laden recently came out with a very clear statement
that he does not want elections to be held in Iraq."
Iraq's U.S.-backed government is pinning its hopes
on the January 30 elections to usher in a new era of
democracy after decades of Saddam's iron-fisted
rule.
But security fears have overshadowed the political
process.
"We are dealing with a tough, mindless, determined,
resourceful enemy that wants to deny us that basic
right of going to the polling station to decide the
future of this country," said Salih, a former
Kurdish exile in Washington and London.
Iraqi security forces will limit the movement of
cars in cities and between provinces and possibly
impose curfews in trouble spots.
"Iraqi forces will assume the lead responsibility in
terms of protection for the polling stations. The
multinational forces will be elsewhere but they
could be called upon should help be needed," he
said.
PLENTY OF CASH
A U.S. offensive on the western city of Falluja
captured the main rebel stronghold but insurgents
have pressed on with suicide bombings and
assassinations in the run-up to the elections to
choose a 275-member national assembly that will
draft a constitution.
Salih said Saddam loyalists escaped a U.S.-led
invasion in 2003 with large amounts of cash now
being used to fund a close alliance with foreign
militants that is focusing on the northern city of
Mosul and Baghdad after the Falluja battle.
He repeated the Iraqi government accusation that
some rebel leaders are operating out of neighbouring
countries such as Syria. Damascus has said it is
doing its best to prevent guerrillas crossing the
border to Iraq.
"In Iraq we have a lethal alliance between former
Saddamists and these global Jihadists. Saddam
Hussein's people have taken a lot of money from the
Iraqi treasury. We know of the existence of many of
these leaders from the former regime in countries
like Syria," he said.
"The former regime elements and these global
Jihadists are working together, coordinating attacks
and helping each other to instigate terrorist
activities across the country."
Zarqawi, the man blamed for many of the worst
bombings, is still on the run. Salih said Zarqawi
was working with Saddam's former henchmen in a
highly structured organisation that includes former
Iraqi special forces.
"We do see a high level of coordination between the
former regime loyalists and Zarqawi and the
surrogate organisations as part of a coordinated
campaign of cooperation, intelligence, providing
logistics back and forth," he said.
"The picture that is emerging is that there is a
high command for these terrorist activities. The
bulk of the terrorist operations that we have to
deal with come from the former regime loyalists."
Despite setbacks, insurgents have regrouped ahead of
the elections. But Salih, a candidate on a Kurdish
list in the polls, said Iraqis had no choice but to
vote.
"We will build a vibrant, democratic system of
government that will transform Iraq from the land of
mass graves and tyranny into the land of peace and
rule of law," said Salih.
"My personal ambition at the moment is to make sure
elections will happen and will be free and fair and
to disprove the contention that the Middle East
cannot be ruled but by tyranny
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