Christopher Allbritton says journalists were not targeted in Monday's attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. Instead, terrorists were targeting a security company thought by insurgents to be a front for a western or Israeli government intelligence agency.
The plan, to drive the cement truck under the Palestine Hotel and bring it down with the blast, was thwarted by some concertina wire and a US soldier with a machine gun.
According to his sources in the insurgency, Allbritton says the attack was a joint operation between Zarqawi's Al Qaida in Iraq (Tanzeem Qaedat Al-Jihad Fi Bilad Al-Rafidayn) and Jaysh Muhammad, "one of the largest Baathist groups."
However, Jaysh Muhammad isn't just any old Baathist insurgent group. It was Saddam's creation.
Jaish Mohammed: Mohammed’s Army
Mohammed’s Army is the military wing of Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party (ABSP), formerly led by Saddam Hussein. It was founded by Saddam Hussein himself before the collapse of the regime in April 2003. The movement has never claimed responsibility of any attacks as part of its tactics to hide its activities. It is financed by ABSP and its members’ donations. It is comprised of...former members of the Ba’ath Party leadership.
As Allbritton notes, Jaysh Muhammad is not mentioned in the al Qaida in Iraq statement (here and here) claiming responsibility for the attack.
Update: Quick note before I'm off to work. Christopher expands on the Saddam/Jaysh Muhammad link: A Note on Jaysh al-Muhammad.
And Stephen Ulph (The Salfization of the Iraq Conflict) says the various Islamist groups in Iraq "are fronts for the fallen regime's intelligence departments."
[A] declaration posted on the forum Baghdad al-Rashid (www.baghdadalrashid.com) at the time of the Fallujah campaign, [...] listed names of the former regime's military security formations--all under the direction of Izzat al-Duri--along with their new religious sectarian names:
--Jaysh Muhammad (=al-Faruq Brigades, Jaysh al-Quds, Fidayee Saddam, the Black Brigades, and the 1920 Revolution Brigades) --Jaysh al-Mujahideen, Jaysh Mujahidee Allah Akbar, Ansar al-Sunna, al-Jihad wal-Tawhid, and al-Ta'ifa al-Mansura (=formations of the General Republican Guard and the Special Guard) --Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna (=Saddam's Special Guard) --Jaysh al-Mu'tasim Billah, Jaysh al-Mansur Billah (=al-Fath Commandos, the Saddam Commandos, and Saddam's Scorpions and Panthers) --Believers in the Awakening (=the special security organization "Saddam's Tigers")
The Salafization began in 1991 during Saddam's "Return to Faith Campaign" (al-Hamlah al-Imaniyyah) and was led by al Douri. It was designed to fan sectarian flames in order to put down the Shia uprising in the south. Posted
4:25 AM
by Robert
