Was "Ramzi Yousef" an agent of Iraqi intelligence?

Submitted by Curtis Noel (United States), Apr 4, 2006 at 16:20

I bought Simon Reeve's book today as a discard from our local library and went looking on Google for reviews where I found yours. I haven't read Reeve's book yet but earlier I read Laurie Mylroie's book about Yousef and the first World Trade Center attack (another discard). Flipping through Reeve's book I see it contains much about Yousef's life that I don't remember seeing in Mylroie's book. Mylroie makes much of Yousef's fake Kuwaiti passport which I don't see mentioned by Reeves. Mylroie's arguments that Yousef was an agent of Iraqi intelligence sound more credible to me than Reeve's conclusion that Yousef was some sort of freelance terrorist motivated by Palestinian grievances, a conclusion that Mylroie argues against very strongly.

My reason for writing is to ask for any more current analysis of Yousef's identity that you might recommend. Those seeking to tear down support for the President exploit three what I believe are "myths" about Sadaam: no connection with the World Trade Center attacks, no WMD and no connection with Al Qaeda.
Obviously connecting Yousef with Iraqi intelligence would do some serious damage to the "myths."

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Daniel Pipes replies:

I don't know of recent studies on Ramzi Yousef but Reeve is a credible author whereas Mylroie is not.