By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2004; Page A20

In hiding after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein penned a directive warning his followers not to join forces with Islamic jihadists and other foreign fighters seeking to make Iraq their new battlefield, according to a document found with Hussein when he was captured, U.S. government officials said last night.

The document, which the CIA believes to be authentic, appears to be written to leaders of the Iraqi resistance and, as such, undercuts the argument of Bush administration officials that Hussein was working closely with al Qaeda and other religious extremists, a view not shared by most U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies.

On the contrary, the directive, which was first reported in today's New York Times, adds to the mounting evidence that the insurgency is largely Iraqi-directed and -controlled and that Hussein's links to al Qaeda before the war were not strong.

Vice President Cheney has sought to publicly link Hussein with al Qaeda and has repeatedly suggested that Iraq somehow participated in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. This view is disputed in intelligence reports, which state that there is no evidence linking Iraq to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or to al Qaeda's worldwide operations.

Al Qaeda members in secret CIA detention centers abroad have told interrogators in the past year that Osama bin Laden had rejected the idea of working with Hussein, who as president of Iraq led one of the most secular governments in the Middle East.

One senior U.S. official said the directive "was interesting but not hugely important" because it only confirmed the widespread belief that there was probably not much collaboration between former Baath Party members and foreign fighters who entered Iraq after the United States invaded it last spring.

Hussein apparently was concerned that foreign fighters such as al Qaeda members have a different goal than Baath Party loyalists who seek a return to power and the reemergence -- once the Americans leave -- of Hussein.

Hussein was captured last month with what some military officials have described as a treasure trove of documents, including the names of key leaders and a detailed description of the secret cells that form part of the insurgency. U.S. forces have used the documents to conduct successful raids, and U.S. military commanders in Iraq say they are making daily progress in eliminating the insurgency.

Some defense officials, particularly Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, initially described the insurgents as made up largely of foreign terrorists and "dead enders" seeking to kill or oust U.S. forces from Iraq. President Bush has portrayed the insurgency as a central front in the war on terrorism as well.

But field commanders and L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, have said that the vast majority of the insurgents are Iraqis, and that most are Hussein loyalists.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, the CIA's deputy director, John McLaughlin, said the CIA believes former Baath Party loyalists and other Iraqis account for 90 percent of the insurgency.