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Following are excerpts from an interview with Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi, a former leader in the "Islamic Army" in Iraq, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on January 18, 2008
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: The organizations [in Iraq] do not need a lot of funding. The armed activity in Iraq is different than in other places. Weapons constitute the backbone of this activity. In 2003-2004, weapons were obtained for free.
Interviewer: The weapons abandoned by the Iraqi army?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Yes, the former Iraqi army abandoned these weapons, and you could get them for free from those warehouses. The resistance began with the weapons of the former army. There were thousands of tons of weapons of all kinds. As for money, you only need it for minor organizational and administrative purposes. There may be donations from abroad, and there may also be financial sources from within Iraq.
[...]
The resistance factions tended to reject any sort of occupation – whether Iranian, American, and so on. This changed once the Iranian activity and intervention in Iraq became very significant in the days of the Ja'fari government. Then, some [faction] leaders decided that we must reach a truce with the American forces, and reexamine our position with regard to the American forces, because of the Iranian intervention, which we consider to be more dangerous to Iraq than the American intervention, because occupation by a neighboring country is always more dangerous than occupation from afar.
Interviewer: Is there significant Iranian intervention?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course.
Interviewer: In what way?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Iran intervenes in every single detail in Iraq.
Interviewer: Whom does it support?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Everybody – it works with the government, with the opponents of the government, with the opponents of the government's opponents, with Al-Qaeda, with the enemies of Al-Qaeda, with the militias, with the enemies of the militias... Iran spreads its investments everywhere – with the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds.
Interviewer: Al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization, which claims to be fighting those they call "the Rafidites"1 – how can it possibly cooperate with the Iranians?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course it can. How else can you explain the fact that a large number of Al-Qaeda's leaders live in Tehran? How else can you explain the fact that the Al-Qaeda organization targets all the countries in the world – from America to Indonesia, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, and many others – and the only country absent from this list is Iran, even though it is located between Al-Qaeda's two jaws – Iraq and Afghanistan? Of course there is a very strong alliance between Al-Qaeda and Iran. There is a lot of evidence of this alliance. Iran invests in everybody in order to defend itself and its interests, and this may be legitimate, because the Iranian political regime is being targeted by...
Interviewer: What does Al-Qaeda stand to gain from its alliance with the Iranians?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: It gets a safe haven for its leaders. No other country can give refuge to Al-Qaeda's leaders or cadres. [Iran] provides Al-Qaeda with bases and financing. Al-Qaeda is broke. It has no money now. The sources of finances in the Gulf have been bled almost completely dry. So who finances them? Iran.
[...]
Personally, I do not deem the American presence in Iraq a negative thing anymore. I believe an American withdrawal from Iraq at this point would spell disaster, because Iraq would then fall completely under Iranian influence – perhaps not only Iraq, but the entire region.
[...]
Our contacts with Al-Qaeda continued even after we had contacts with the Americans. Only a year ago, we met with important Al-Qaeda commanders.
Interviewer: What did you talk about?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: About many things – about the killings and murders... We tried to get them to be rational and to direct them to the right path. We tried to encourage the Iraqi brothers in the Al-Qaeda leadership to take things into their own hands and remove the Arabs. All the problems are caused by the Arabs who come from beyond the borders. We don't even know who they are or who sent them. Why did they come? What are they thinking? Who are they working for? We have no idea. Our basic idea was that the Iraqis should take control of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
[...]
Many of the Iraqis in Al-Qaeda are bad people. I'm not saying that we Iraqis are all angels, and the Arabs who come here are all bad. What we say is that the leadership must be in the hands of the Iraqis, because with them, one can reach an understanding. This country is ours and theirs, and it is important to both sides. As a matter of fact, we reached understandings with Iraqi leaders in Al-Qaeda, but...
Interviewer: Can you name names?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: For example, the late Muharib Al-Jabouri, who was in charge of media in Al-Qaeda, and Khaled Al-Mashhadani, who is currently in American custody. Those were the two leading figures... The third was Abu Osama, who is still at large and is active in Al-Qaeda. At times, we managed to reach understandings with these people, but these understandings were presented to Abu Hamza Al-Masri, they were rejected out of hand. In my opinion, if the Iraqis had taken the leadership of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the evil of Al-Qaeda could have been diminished. I am not saying that it would have become a good organization, but it would have been possible to direct it to the right path, to contain it, or to reach an understanding with it.
[...]
Interviewer: Does Al-Qaeda in Iraq have ties with Al-Qaeda abroad?
Abu 'Azzam Al-Tamimi: Of course, but in appearance only. Al-Qaeda today is not a centralized organization. Al-Qaeda is an ideology. Whoever supports the ideology of Al-Qaeda belongs to Al-Qaeda. There are organizations that are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, but only receive instructions from Al-Qaeda once a year or two. The role of the main Al-Qaeda organization today is to give its blessing only. Osama Bin Laden only legitimizes [organizations] and gives his blessing, but he does not know what those who got his blessing are doing. After all, the man sleeps in a cave somewhere.
1 In Sunni parlance, "Rafidite" is a perjorative term denoting the Twelver Shi'a because of its rejection of the first three caliphs.
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