Saudis scramble to contain leak pointing to al-Qaeda contacts in Iraq

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A series of unconfirmed reports from Iraq indicate that the Saudi monarchy has initiated a frantic probe into the leak of a secret document allegedly pointing to close links between Saudi intelligence and al-Qaeda activities in Iraq. The leaked government document was published last Thursday by the independent Iraqi news agency Buratha, whose editors allegedly acquired it “from a source”. The document appears to contain references to considerable support provided by Saudi intelligence services to militant Iraqi groups associated with al-Qaeda. According to Buratha, the alleged support has been mostly in the form of cash, but also through significant amounts of weapons and explosives. The alleged leak is bound to inflame the discussion about Saudi Arabia’s purported material support for Sunni paramilitary groups in Iraq (with tacit US consent), which serve Riyadh’s broader aim of buffering the rise of Sunni militancy in the country. Buratha further alleges that Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz has ordered an extensive probe into the leak, which has so far involved the detaining or interrogation of several dozen Saudi intelligence officers. The Saudi monarch has also severely reprimanded Saudi National Security Council secretary general Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz (a close personal friend of former CIA director George Tenet), and may soon fire him, Buratha reports.