NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Iraqi government ran a secret camp to train Muslims from around the Middle East to attack targets in the United States and Europe, including training to hijack airliners, two Iraqi defectors said.
In an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday and arranged by a group that opposes Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the defectors also said they knew of a closely guarded compound within the camp, known as Salman Pak, where Iraqi scientists, led by a German, produced biological agents.
The revelations by the defectors come amid a debate in the U.S. government over whether it should turn its attention to Iraq and its weapons program once it concludes the military campaign against the al Qaeda organization and the Taliban in Afghanistan (news - web sites).
The United States believes that al Qaeda, led by Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), is the main suspect behind the hijacked airliner attacks in the United States on Sept. 11 that killed thousands of people.
The defectors -- a lieutenant general who was once one of the Iraqi intelligence service's most senior officials and the other a former sergeant in the intelligence service, the Mukhabarat -- said they did not know if the Muslims trained at the camp had links to bin Laden, the newspaper said.
``There is a lot we do not know,'' the Times quoted the former general as saying. The general spoke on condition that his name not be published.
``We were training these people to attack installations important to the United States. The gulf war never ended for Saddam Hussein. He is at war with the United States. We were repeatedly told this,'' he said.
The defectors said that the trainees spent a great deal of time at the camp south of Baghdad practicing in the fuselage of the Boeing 707 how to take over an airliner. The former general said that teams were trained to hijack a plane without using weapons.
The general said he had spent three days in Ankara, Turkey, being interviewed by the CIA (news - web sites) and the FBI (news - web sites) in the presence of Turkish intelligence officials. He fled Turkey and was interviewed in an unnamed Middle Eastern country.
Sections of the interview will be broadcast on Thursday night by the PBS series ``Frontline.''
