Source:
UK telegraphAmerican counter-terrorism specialists and Saddam Hussein's former intelligence officers have forged an unlikely alliance in Yemen to tackle al-Qaeda. The two sides were enemies on the battlefield just seven years ago but have been brought together by the failings of Yemen's security and intelligence apparatus, according to diplomatic and military sources in the country.
Although mutual suspicions linger, the collaboration is said to have achieved some intelligence breakthroughs and helped instil greater efficiency and professionalism within the most elite Yemeni counterterrorism outfit.
Co-operation with the former Baathist officers, who fled Iraq in the wake of the US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam, is expected to grow further in the wake of the failed terror attack in the skies above Detroit.
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The US-Iraqi alliance was born out of frustration over the incompetence and suspected al-Qaeda sympathies of many within Yemen's domestic intelligence body, the Political Security Organisation, or PSO.
"We do not know where the allegiance of many in the intelligence apparatus lies," said a western diplomat.
Read more:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/6943108/US-forges-alliance-with-Saddam-Hussein-officers-to-fight-al-Qaeda.html
looks like the same may be happening in Iraq:
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2010-01-05/kurd.htmU.S. talking to former Baathists in IraqAzzaman, January 5, 2009
Members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party are holding talks with the United States inside Iraq, a senior Baath party official said.
The official, refusing to be named, said the talks were confined to the “Bath leadership inside Iraq” and that Baath officials in exile were not involved.
“The talks between the Baath party and its allies of other armed groups are continuing,” the official, who lives in exile, said.
He said the Baath party, led by Saddam Hussein’s most senior lieutenant, Izzat Ibrahim, “are direct without third party officials.”
“We are pleased with the direct talks,” he added.