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AN INTERVIEW 
WITH A LEADER
OF THE IRAQI BA'ATH PARTY
AND OF THE IRAQI RESISTANCE

October 11, 2004

In an exceptional scoop for the Arab media, the Newspaper AL MAJD got the honor to undertake a field interview from the heart of Baghdad, with one of the principal leaders of the Ba’ath Party and the heroes of Iraqi Resistance.
The Ba’ath Party is in a very good health and leads the most honorable and most dignified battle of the Arab Nation under the supervision of Comrade Izzat al Duri, elected president of the Party after its late secret Congress in Lebanon.
The Ba’athist position is clear : No negotiations with the US under the Occupation, the only dialogue between them and us are the dialogue of arms and resistance.
There is a large national, patriotic, and Progressive Front, which is participating with the Ba’ath in the Resistance Battle, which provide them with the necessary means.
The so-called Sunni Triangle is a term invented by the enemy to sow division in amongst Iraqi people; Resistance is in every province of Iraq.

Today it is no secret – but it’s cancelled in Western media – that the role of leadership is played by the fighters of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party (Iraqi branch) in organizing the heroic Iraqi Resistance. For this very reason, the following interview with the member of the Rashid party branch in Baghdad bears an exceptional importance. This comrade preferred not to reveal his identity for understandable security reason, and agreed to speak to AL MAJD for the outstanding role and clear support the Newspaper played in supporting the Ba’ath and Iraqi Resistance in its historic battle with the aggressive Occupation and its puppets tools.

And here is the full text of this most important interview :

Could you give us an idea about the actual situation of the Party in Iraq?

First of all we have to confess that the Battle was cruel due to its impact and its results, not only on Ba’athists but also on Iraqis and all Arabs, given the enemy materialistic and military possibilities. I don’t say that this was a surprise to us; in fact we had many plans for our action during and after the aggression. One most important plan was the popular Resistance, which has proved to be successful and able to invest the battlefield and has produced the fastest Resistance in History.

Here I am not going to divulge a secret when saying that we proceeded to reformulate the organizational corp of our party from anew in every Iraqi town, and here, allow me to stress, in all Iraqi town, thus allowing the Party to play its vanguard and leadership role in the heroic Iraqi Resistance and do whatever possible to defeat the enemy and his stooges and projects.

The enemies know very well that many areas in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq are now under the total control of the Ba’ath and Iraqi Resistance Combatants. What happened in the Mujahida City of Sammara is a striking proof to what I am telling you.

Yes we lost lots of members who joined the Party, when it was in the Government, and this occurred in two ways: First we asked some of our known comrades to disappear from the front lines to safeguard their lives, and second, some new comers with little experience in the Party, joined other political movements in the hope of some kind of benefits and protection or both.

But here let me assure our brothers in the Arab Nation that our Party is in good health and today with its members, it leads one of the most dignified and most honorable battles of the Nation in its contemporary history.

How did you cope with the "De-Ba’athification bill'
imposed by the Occupation and its stooges?

I say and History will be a witness on my words, that the Iraqi Society is, now uprooting those who adopted the “DeBa’athification bill” immediately after the occupation, and the Ba’ath stayed strong, immune and hard to crack to all enemy's attempts.

Every body should know that the Ba’ath is not a contingency in Iraq, it is not a weed, its a party which has deep roots in Iraq; we are very proud to assert that the Ba’ath is the clearest and most evident political organization which unified Iraqis in all their differences.  The party was able through its thought, principles, positions and politics to put the interest of the Nation and the Country as the top priority. That is why the enemy and his stooges are trying the uppermost to ignite division in Iraq.

Those who conceived and adopted the "De-Ba’athification Bill" are the ones who today ask to withdraw it and call to contain Ba’athists into the new political era under the hospices of the occupier and its tools. We would like here to confirm that the Ba’athists and with them the heroic Resistance themselves will uproot the Occupation and its stooges, and this is the resolution, and only resolution with the clear help of our people and our Nation.  

Some media have talked about negotiations between the Ba’ath
and the US Administration concerning the future of Iraq.
What do you say about that?

What ever the media say about this doesn't concern us at all. I do think these are US wishful thinking used for election purposes.

The only dialogue, which exists today between the Occupation and us, is the dialogue of arms and resistance. Any negotiations with the US administration will not be possible under the Occupation.

This is clear for us. These are evident and precise directives we got from the Comrade Party Secretary General Saddam Hussein and members of the Party leadership before their imprisonment. So far there is nothing on the ground, which pushes us to change this strategy.

Here I would like to warn our Arab brethren and their political parties and the media to ignore these CIA invented and wishful rumors concerning the so-called negotiations   which being used by the US Administration to deform the Ba’ath position and to confuse its image in front of the Arabs.

Today many of the Iraq Ba’ath leadership members
including the Party secretary General Saddam Hussein,
are in the custody of the Occupation.
How much this affected the structure of the Party and its course?

What happened to the Comrade leader and other Comrades in the leadership was not of a surprise for us. That is why we planned for every possibility: imprisonment or martyrdom. Based on these premises, the different field leadership in all the provinces of Iraq has played their role in the Battle, and today they act, every one, according to the directives taken from the very start.

The Party organized in many towns of Iraq extraordinary sessions where elected leaderships are responsible for daily actions. Defining the Party politics and strategy, falls within the competence of the Party leadership, which is headed and supervised by Comrade Izzat al Duri.

What I would like to stress here that not a single one of us was duped concerning the nature of the Battle, its results or its agenda. Today and after a year and a half of the occupation, the world all over knows that the Evil US Administration and its allies are the ones who were taken for a ride concerning their appreciation of the long-term battle results. 

Some reproach the Iraqi Resistance her lacking of a political agenda,
which determines its tactical and strategic objectives.
What are your feelings about that?

All the honest people in the whole wide world know that the Iraqi Resistance has been misunderstood, even by those who are very close. Unfortunately the good intentioned people started to parrot the enemy camp propaganda, which tries to represent the Resistance as a bunch of incoherent gangs or a group of angry Iraqi people.

To answer this question, we would like to refer those who repeat this kind of allegations, to the frequently published statements of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, which assess the political changes in and outside Iraq. The Ba’ath and the Resistance Policies and Strategies Programme published in September 2003 could be a good tool to answer these questions which are not innocent at all, and which aim to hurt the Ba’ath and the Resistance, thus giving the Occupation and its stooges false justifications.

The Ba’ath and the Resistance have a clear tactical and strategic vision on how to combat, or how to expel the Occupation from the land of Iraq, God willing! This vision gushes forth from the Ba’ath vision and its view for the political life and the national pluralism in liberated Iraq.

A year and half after the birth of the Iraqi Resistance,
some componentsof its identity remain still ambiguous for observers outside Iraq.
Could you give us an idea about the components of the Iraqi Resistance?

It not out of bravado or out of pretension to say that the Iraqi Resistance is the legitimate daughter of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, and the principal element of this heroic Resistance is composed of Ba’ath militants and Iraqi Army elements, Republican Guards, Security services, Saddam's Fidayyins and Alquds army. All these components as everyone knows refer to one political leadership, i.e. that of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party. This is what our people knows, and this what the enemy of our people knows too. And because we don't want to occupy the whole scene, let's say there are other currents and organizations, which entered the Resistance battlefield through the gateway of the Ba’ath. Yes there are national, Islamic and progressive forces, which fight with us in the great Liberation Battle. For these groups, we provide arms and training, funding, protection and data. We acted and we still do and from the very first day of the aggression to widen the circle of the popular and frontal participation in the Resistance field. A large national and unified Front exists fighting a sacred Battle for the freedom and the independence of Iraq.

Why don't you declare responsibilities
for the military operations against occupying forces?

We realized from the very beginning that this kind of political information could perturb the Resistance and facilitate the enemy effort to penetrate it. Thus our clear decision was not to waste time in this media game. Our objective is to get the enemy to endure the most losses possible and to hurt him in the objective to free the Land from the filth of Occupation. A year and a half later, it shows for the others and us that our position was correct. This has added more confusion into the ranks of the enemy, and deprived him from getting the data in spite all the powerful intelligence in his possession.

And here we would like to warn our extended family in the Arab world, no to give any credits to the lies and propaganda the enemy uses specially these terms and appellations which are mere creations of his sick imagination and ill mentality he is dwelling in.

This is an opportunity for us to say in a loud voice that the heroic Resistance, which covers all the land of Iraq, is an Iraqi resistance in the patriotic, national and human sense. It has no other outside identities. Trying to refer the Resistance to one side or the other is a plan to hurt Iraq, its people, and its crystal clear militant history.

How do you consider your relationship with the Mahdi army?
Do you have any kind of cooperation with them?

We do make a difference between those who combat the Occupier and those who cooperate with him. Every one knows that a large number of the Mahdi Army fight the Occupation for patriotic reasons.

We safeguard the kind of relationship we have with all the elements of the National and Islamic movement in Iraq to prevent the enemy from getting any intelligence about our wide Front.

Why the Resistance was linked to the "Sunni triangle"?

The "Sunni triangle" is a term invented by the enemy and its stooges to plant a wedge between the children of a unified people. The towns such as Fallujah, Ramadi, Sammara and others came to the limelight because the Media had access to what was happening inside them. In fact the Resistance is everywhere in Iraq from Zakho in the extreme north to Fao in the extreme south, from west to east.

The Resistance is in Basrah, Nasiriyah, Amara, Diwanya, Hilla, Najaf, Baaquba, Mosul, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Karbala, Samawah, Arbil, Sulaymaniah, exactly as it is in Baghdad and al Anbar.

The Party has taken a negative attitude towards Shia organizations in Najaf,
how can you justify such positions?

The attitude of the Party concerning these organizations is not linked because they are Shia, but because they put sectarianism before the Land. Many times they have facilitated a way out for the enemy each time he was trapped by the Resistance.

Few of these organizations and not all of them have given cover for the enemy criminal actions against our people. The Ba’ath will never hesitate to reveal those who cooperated with the enemy; whatever is their position or their status.

We have confirmed information that from a patriotic point of view, these obscure organizations, are trying to execute agendas imposed by external parties aiming at dividing Iraq and ignite a civil strife amongst its children.

Our position was clear and radical towards those, who we think that they still have time to come back to the fold of the Country and the Land.

(* Special interview in Arabic published in Al Majd Jordanian Newspaper no 456 -11/10/2004, translated by Al- Moharer staff)

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