The Hindu : International : Sudan joins U.S. "war on terror"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 01, 2005

International

International

Sudan joins U.S. "war on terror"

Suzanne Goldenberg

WASHINGTON: Sudan's Islamist regime, once shunned by Washington for providing a haven for Osama bin Laden as well as for human rights abuses during decades of civil war, has become an ally in the Bush administration's ``war on terror''.

Only months after the then U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, accused Khartoum of genocide in Darfur, Sudan has become a crucial intelligence asset to the CIA.

In West Asia and Africa, Sudan's agents have penetrated networks that would not normally be accessible to America, one former U.S. intelligence official told the Guardian. Some of that cooperation has spilled over into the war on Iraq; Sudan is credited with detaining foreign militants on their way to join anti-American fighters there.

Sudanese agents have also helped the CIA to monitor Islamist organisations in Somalia.

``The intelligence relationship is the strongest thread between Washington and Khartoum,'' the official said.

News of the growing cooperation was first reported in Friday's Los Angeles Times. The paper traced the thaw in relations since 2001 to a milestone last week: the visit to Washington by Sudan's intelligence chief, Salah Abdallah Gosh.

It reported that Sudan's secret police had begun a crackdown on Islamists, shared evidence with the FBI and allowed U.S. to interrogate Al-Qaeda suspects.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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