Intelligence cooperation with Sudan

By Thomas Lifson

Greg Miller and Josh Meyer of the Los Angeles Times reveal that the United States has been cooperating with the notorious government of Sudan, author of genocide in Darfur, using the steady flow of jihadists from Sudan to Iraq to insert agents among the foreign fighters and gain intelligence on their operations in Iraq.

Sudan has become increasingly valuable to the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks because the Sunni Arab nation is a crossroads for Islamic militants making their way to Iraq and Pakistan.

That steady flow of foreign fighters has provided cover for Sudan's Mukhabarat intelligence service to insert spies into Iraq, officials said.

"If you've got jihadists traveling via Sudan to get into Iraq, there's a pattern there in and of itself that would not raise suspicion," said a former high-ranking CIA official familiar with Sudan's cooperation with the agency. "It creates an opportunity to send Sudanese into that pipeline."

So the Sudanese play a double game with the jihadists and the Americans, no doubt brokering information to both sides. The Americans agree to play along, and take the information for what it is worth. Intelligence is a dirty business because the people with the best information are highly unsavory.

It is such an unlikely partnership that it just might have worked and provided some decent intell, at least until the story was broken wide open. It might well have resulted in information that saved the lives of American troops. Really nice work by the LAT: hampering our spies and creating a political trap for President Bush. Can a Pulitzer for Miller and Meyer be far behind?

This information will now be used to make President Bush and the Iraq war responsible for the genocide in Darfur. It will be stated endlessly that without the US propping up Sudan's regime, the genocide would end. It doesn't matter if it is true. It will be believed.

The Left, of course, does not really want to see the United States going around overthrowing regimes whose behavior is objectionable. When we did that in Iraq, the Left went crazy. The Left is simply interested in Darfur as a device to weaken the war effort and the President.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky