Small Wars Journal

Iraqi Terrorist Turned Politician Told U.S. Interrogators He Worked With Iran to Kill Americans

Fri, 08/31/2018 - 12:28am

Iraqi Terrorist Turned Politician Told U.S. Interrogators He Worked With Iran to Kill Americans by Josh Rogin – Washington Post

A decade ago, a captive Iraqi terrorist leader told his U.S. interrogators all about how Shiite militias worked with Iran, Hezbollah and each other to attack American soldiers in Iraq. Now, as that terrorist is set to wield significant political power in Iraq, the details of his interrogations are being released for the first time.

It has long been known that Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) militia, had close ties to Iran and Hezbollah as he waged his long fight against U.S. troops in Iraq. But the extent to which he worked with the Americans who detained him in 2007 and sold out his Iranian paymasters and turned on his Shiite militia allies is shocking.

U.S. Central Command recently declassified dozens of Khazali’s interrogation reports as part of a project to document the history of the Iraq War, and the American Enterprise Institute has now published all of them on its website.

“You read these reports and you see what a vicious terrorist Qais al-Khazali is, how deeply entwined he is in Iran’s anti-American covert network, how much American blood he has on his own hands, and then you turn around and realize that this guy is probably about to be a minister in the Iraqi government,” said Kenneth Pollack, resident scholar at AEI. “It makes you realize how far Iraq has fallen, and how badly we have handled Iraq in recent years.”

Khazali’s past crimes are newly relevant because he has emerged as a critical player in the ongoing formation of the new Iraqi government…

Read on.