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Al-Qaeda Tied to Iraqi Baathists in Syria?
(UPI) U.S. intelligence officials worry the Syrian border with Iraq will become a terrorist safe haven like the Pakistani tribal areas, an intelligence review stated. A U.S. intelligence official who spoke with the online Long War Journal said, "a major concern is that eastern Syria will begin to look like northwestern Pakistan." The Journal report says al-Qaeda in Iraq is turning to disenfranchised Sunni elements and members of the deposed Iraqi Baath Party to threaten the government in Baghdad. The report suggests al-Qaeda leaders in Syria played a role in the massive suicide operations that rocked the Iraqi capital in August and October. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for both attacks, while Baghdad pointed to Baathist elements in Damascus as the planners of the operations.