Whence cometh the bag man?

Buried inside a CNN article about the Haditha Marines and the latest suicide attack we find this:

The suspect, captured during a coalition raid in Kindi, operates a network of financing cells across Iraq, the military said. "He is believed to have received $100 million this summer from terrorist supporters who cross the Iraq border illegally or fly into Iraq from Italy, Syria and Egypt," the military said.

The $100 million figure is based on intelligence report estimates over several months, said Lt. Cmdr. Rudy Burwell, a spokesman for Multi-National Corps-Iraq. The man is also accused of purchasing some of the explosives and weapons used in the 2006 attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque, also known as the Golden Mosque, and a second attack on it in 2007.

The Golden Mosque attack, widely recognized as a turning point in the war, was blamed on Zarqawi but some of the individual perps were ex-Saddam regime members. There is still an INTERPOL Red Letter in effect for the capture of Raghad Hussein and Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, long suspected of funding the insurgents. If they are willing to use and support Islamists now, why not before?

Add this to the recent story about the Syrian intelligence agent posing as an Imam for the purposes of recruiting jihadists into Iraq and Lebanon and the picture of how al Qaeda really operates might be starting to clear up a bit.

MORE 10/07/07

Speaking of Izzat Ibrahim (or 'Mr. Douri' as the Times calls him) he's still somewhere hiding out and trying to organize a Ba'athist return to power in Iraq. Syria is no doubt part of that plan, however he's just one of many hot potatoes (Quayle V.) they're juggling at the moment:

So Syria is walking a fine line, forging an “enemy of my enemy” relationship with the Iraqi Baathists and insurgents while still maintaining an alliance with Tehran. It is a risky strategy that carries the added danger of possibly incurring the wrath of Al Qaeda.

One wonders how long Assad can hold together his house of 41 cards.