Report: Biden Officials Attended Iraqi Forum Featuring Iran-Backed Terrorist

In this Jan. 6, 2016 file photo, Qais Khazali, the head of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Ha
AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani
John Hayward

The Long War Journal reported last week that two senior officials from the Biden State Department, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, attended a conference in Iraq headlined by a known terrorist whose militias have killed hundreds of American soldiers.

The terrorist in question was Qais al-Khazali, leader of a Shiite militant group allied Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (“The League of the Righteous.”) Like most Shite militias in Iraq, Asiab Ahl al-Haq (AAH) is sponsored and directed by the government of Iran.

Qais al-Khazali was one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq during the 2000s. He was captured and detained by coalition forces in March 2007 after masterminding the infamous January 2007 attack on an Iraqi government compound in Karbala that killed five American soldiers and wounded three others.

The Long War Journal is among those who believe the fiendishly cunning and sophisticated Karbala attack, carried out by a dozen terrorist operatives disguised as U.S. soldiers, was most likely planned and executed with assistance from the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that handles foreign subversive operations. In fact, the operation appears to have been intended to kidnap American soldiers and bring them to Iran for torture and interrogation; when spiriting them off to Iran became impossible, the kidnappers executed them.

After he was captured in 2007, al-Khazali was jailed until January 2010, when he was freed in a prisoner exchange and resumed leadership of AAH. The Long War Journal was strongly critical of the Obama administration for believing AAH might “lay down their arms and join the political process” after al-Khazali and other leaders of the organization were released.

After American troops began pulling out of Iraq, al-Khazali began recruiting large numbers of Iraqi Shiites to fight on behalf of the Assad regime in Syria, a client of Iran. AAH has grown more powerful and influential since then, boasting a full-fledged Syrian franchise called Harakat al-Nujaba.

Even given the Biden administration’s reputation for shocking incompetence, it hardly seems possible that high-ranking State Department officials would not know who Qais al-Khazali was. For starters, he is the publicly acknowledged “secretary-general” of his militia group.

AAH was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the State Department in January 2020. Qais and his brother Laith became Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) at the same time.

“AAH, led by Qays and Laith al-Khazali, is an Iran-backed, militant organization that has claimed responsibility for more than 6,000 attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces since its creation in 2006,” the State Department noted.

Qais and Laith al-Khazali were designated for sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in December 2019. These sanctions were issued after AAH militants opened fire on Iraqi protesters to suppress widespread popular discontent with the Shiite-dominated, Iran-friendly government in Baghdad.

OFAC noted that AAH has also been involved in “widespread forced disappearances, abductions, killings, and torture” of Sunni Iraqis, including an attempt to drive Sunnis completely out of Iraq’s Diyala Province. 

Qais al-Khazali was the keynote speaker at the Iraq Forum conference attended by Romanowski and Leaf, according to an Iraqi whistleblower cited by the Long War Journal. Instead of boycotting the event, the Biden officials were reportedly active participants, delivering presentations of their own.

“What message does this send to U.S. soldiers who fought against these groups, who have had their friends killed or wounded?” Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal wondered in a Fox News Digital interview on Tuesday. “This is a complete kick in the gut to anyone who served in Iraq and who had to deal with these Shia militia groups.”

Roggio said he was told by State Department officials that a “major breakdown somewhere” led to Romanowski and Leaf attending the event with al-Khazali.

“Either they knew he was in attendance and they didn’t care and allowed their senior personnel to attend or they didn’t know and have a major breakdown in their security apparatus. Neither is comforting,” he said.

“We’ve legitimized them. Khazali is loving this, because he’s being legitimized. The Iranians are emboldened by this,” Roggio said.

A State Department spokesperson attempted damage control by telling Fox News Digital that Leaf, at least, spoke at the forum on a different day than al-Khazali, and was never in the same room with him. The State Department refused to answer when Fox News Digital asked if the Biden administration knew al-Khazali would be a featured speaker at the event.

“U.S. officials should never participate in a forum that a specialty designated global terrorist is involved in, even if they’re in attendance on different days,” Roggio retorted.

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