Both In One Trench: Saddam's Secret Terror Documents (Paperback)

by Ray Robison (Author), Richard Dunaway (Contributor), Sammi Al Hadir (Contributor)
Key Phrases: depleted uranium, blind sheik, hosting place, Both In One Trench, United States, Saddam Hussein (more...)

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"My life has been full of dangers in which I should have lost a lot of blood...but since I have bled only a little, I asked somebody to write God's words with my blood in gratitude," announced Saddam Hussein in September of 2000 during a ceremony at which he received a Quran written in his own blood. That "somebody" was Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council Vice-Chairman, Izzat Ibrahim al Duri, who would become leader of the Iraqi insurgency after Saddam was captured.

We know this because Izzat Ibrahim had a personal assistant who kept a daily log of his meetings. In the log the assistant recorded high praise from Saddam for him at the ceremony. It may seem like an innocuous detail but it is telling.

Ibrahim would become the head of an insurgency which combined Ba'athist leaders and al Qaeda fighters. Such an alliance is unlikely if one believes the current media talking point that Saddam's regime leaders would not work with Islamic extremists. But did the Ba'athists find common cause with hard core al Qaeda fighters only when faced with a U.S. invasion as the CIA predicted? Or was the insurgency built upon a preexisting relationship? What if Saddam worked with al Qaeda and other Islamic terror groups before the war to keep them out of Iraq?

A captured recording of a regime meeting about Afghanistan reveals that Saddam believed Islamic extremists were unable to rule effectively. But what about using Islamic extremists as a proxy weapon against Saddam's enemies? His use of proxy terror groups that were considered `secular' in nature is beyond refute.

What about Islamic extremists who control a country, Afghanistan, of strategic value because it is located on the other flank of his nemesis, Iran? Another document shows that a major Afghani terror camp operator, a Taliban opponent, came to Baghdad and told him about training men sent by Iran. Surely Iran was trying to work with the Taliban as well as its Afghan opposition. Saddam faced a choice of buying Taliban influence or letting them possibly fall under Iranian influence. Would Iran gain influence over the Taliban if left unchecked by Saddam Hussein?

As a senior regime figure with roots of power in Iraq's Anbar province, Izzat Ibrahim was supremely favored by the Sunni population. His support to Saddam was essential for regime stability. He lead a brutal campaign against the Shi'a, disguised as an effort to suppress Islamic extremism in Iraq.

His political support led to favoritism by Saddam for those Sunnis in places like Fallujah, Ramadi, and Haditha. Saddam handed out land grants there to the military and secret service officers that supported him. These cities, especially Fallujah, were the most religious Sunni cities in Iraq. In those places Ba'athist, Sunni and tribal leadership blended together in daily communion as a survival technique against the constant pressure of sectarian warfare and the economic impact of the UN sanctions.

A document reveals that the Iraqi Intelligence Service was monitoring Wahhabi Muslims in Fallujah. This notation would lead researchers to Arab media reporting that clearly demonstrated that the Wahhabis began to appear in Fallujah in the 90's. Back then regime officials used them as trading partners to smuggle oil from Iraq. Because these Islamic extremists were putting cash into regime officials' pockets and supporting the economies of cities crucial to Saddam's power, these extremists were allowed to carry their ideology into the Anbar province.

The Wahhabis espouse the most extreme, militant Muslim ideologies. This Sunni sect inspires many of al Qaeda's fighters to jihad. It should come as no surprise that the improbable alliance of Ba'athist leadership and Islamic terrorists fighting the insurgency was a necessity long before the US invasion in 2003. These extremists, connected to the Anbar Sunnis through tribal identity and graft would later fight for Izzat Ibrahim. With religious influence from within Iraq as in Anbar and external pressures such as the Iranian influence in Afghanistan it becomes clear that this so-called secular/Islamic divide theory does not reflect the true nature of Saddam's regime.

A new Tom Hanks' movie called Charlie Wilson's War may remind us that Mr. Wilson convinced the President of the United States to support Islamic extremists in Afghanistan. Although those on the political left in this country like to think that this covert operation was Reagan's doing, the movie might inform them that Mr. Wilson convinced Jimmy Carter to support Islamic fighters in Afghanistan. It remains the responsibility of those who foist the secular/Islamic divide theory upon us to explain their position that blood-Quran toting Saddam Hussein would not work with al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists in light of the fact that devout Christian and peace activist Jimmy Carter was quite willing to do so. Something just doesn't add up here.

The Izzat Ibrahim daily log provides a reference to a meeting between him and Algerian Islamic militants before the Gulf War in which they pledged mutual support. Another document shows a Taliban leader and Pakistani statesman negotiating with the Saddam regime which pledged its support to them as well. A different memorandum shows that as al Qaeda was preparing operations for the Millennium attacks the Saddam regime was paralleling its' efforts. Coincidence or evidence of cooperation? Was it also coincidence that Saddam warned his government to be on the look out for of a "poison paper" attack by Iranian agents the day before the American anthrax letter attack began? Or was it an attempt to deflect blame?

This work uses captured documents translated from Arabic to English to bring the reader inside the Saddam regime and its' support of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other Islamic terrorists.

About the Author
Ray Robison is a former army officer, military analyst who worked with the Iraq Survey Group to catalog captured regime documents. As a private citizen, he has explored the meaning of these documents for outlets such as Fox News Channel, American Thinker, and Pajamas Media.

His work has been referenced in the New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Investor's Business Daily, US News and World Report, Slate Magazine, Jerusalem Post, National Review, and many national radio programs. Although he specializes in Iraqi document exploitation, he also writes about general military matters and exposes media abuses against the military and military members.

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (November 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419678663
• ISBN-13: 978-1419678660
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #948,490 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historic perspective that dots the "i's" and crosses the "t's", December 12, 2007

By	Terri Fiyalko "Terri Fiyalko" (St. Helens, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When it was reported that the Iraq Survey Group had confiscated documents from the Saddam regime in 2003, I was anxious for news of their content. Most citizens, via the media, have been content to simply dismiss these documents as forgeries. For the layman, to examine any single document without an historic overview, proves uninformative. Because of the lack of sensationalism - meaning something akin to a signed confession of guilt - the media reports of the translations were sparse, and their place in the context of time and events vague.

But wait... it is not that simple.

What was ignored by the media was an actual diary by an IIS agent, filled with memos and notes of various meetings over years of time. Analyzed by ME experts, the identification and plans of the convened parties in the diary notes, plus actual subsequent events, reveals a gun... if not smoking... that is still downright hot from discharging.

More than just a translation, the author takes you thru history - connecting the dots between the various documents, and their participants, with actual historic events.

By connecting the dots, data and events, a real perspective on how the Global Islamic Jihadist Movement interplays with the various Middle East countries and their leadership - and just how those countries must play along to insure their own survival - becomes abundantly clear to western minds.

Without an author familiar with the players in the Global Islamic Jihadist Movement, these documents could be... and have been... passed over as inconsequential. All efforts verifying authenticity is disclosed. But perhaps the best proof of all is their prescient and ominous plans - finally realized in all too many actual events.

This book is not for those content with a media sound byte education. It is, in fact, a fabulous textbook for anyone who genuinely wants to understand how our enemy survives and functions. You will learn not only of Saddam and his regime's covert actions in his efforts to retain power, but a new perspective on the entire, and widespread, jihad movement itself.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VERY IMPORTANT WORK., February 4, 2008

By	Gary Jacobs - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Some say Saddam Hussein & his regime were "strictly secular", and would never have worked with religious terrorists.

Christopher Dickey, Paris Bureau Chief & Middle East Regional Editor of Newsweek Magazine, himself attended a 'Popular Islamic Conference' in Iraq in 1993 - Just as the 41st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush was about to order the launch of crusie missles on Iraq as one of his final acts as President. While the entire eye witness testimony should be read, this excerpt from Dickey's first hand account is especially telling:

"So Islamic radicals from all over the Middle East, Africa and Asia converged on Baghdad to show their solidarity with Iraq in the face of American aggression. Chechens in Persian-lamb hats, Moroccans in caftans, delegates who hailed "from Jakarta to Dakar," as one Senegalese put it, poured into Baghdad's Rashid Hotel, where Saddam's minions urged them to embrace jihad as "the one gate to Paradise." And the greatest holy warrior of all? "The mujahed Saddam Hussein, who is leading this nation against the nonbelievers," they were told. "Everyone has a task to do, which is to go against the American state," declared Saddam's deputy Ezzat Ibrahim [al-Douri]"... "That was in January 1993. I was there, and every time I hear diplomats and politicians, whether in Washington or the capitals of Europe, declare that Saddam Hussein is a "secular Baathist ideologue" who has nothing to do with Islamists or with terrorist calls to jihad, I think of that afternoon and I wonder what they're talking about? If that was not a fledgling Qaeda itself at the Rashid convention, it sure was Saddam's version of it." http://www.Newsweek.com/id/65578/page/1

According to detainees, as well as captured documents translated and analyzed by the US Military's "Iraqi Perspectives Project" designed to look into the eyes of Saddam's regime, "Since 1994 The Fedayeen Saddam camps 'graduated' 7200 people" . "Beginning in 1998 these camps began hosting Arab Volunteers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, The [Persian] Gulf [States], and Syria. "These training camps were humming with frenzied activity in the months immediately prior to the war ... As late as January 2003 the volunteers participated in a special training event called 'heroes attack'". Chapter III starting page 51
http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2006/ipp.pdf


About Ray Robison - A career that spans the C.I.A.'s Iraq Survey Group, The Defense Intelligence Agency, & The 101st Airborne brings journalists from Christopher Hitchens on the left to Rush Limbaugh on the right to ALL AGREE: Ray Robison is uniquely qualified to analyze the millions of items in Saddam's Archives.

A comprehensive report on this book and other back ground info can be found at www.sonicbids.com/BothInOneTrench

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Readable, February 8, 2008

By	Boyd H. Blackwell (Canton, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Excellent review of the intelligence gathered from Iraq. Some assumptions made that may be somewhat questionable, but makes good arguments to support them. Very readable. Lays out the intelligence, offers opinions, and allows for different views.