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Zarqawiâs profile is worrying the US

2004-03-03

Itâs by Walter Pincus, so itâs time to break out a jolly can of fisk ...
The Jordanian-born jihadist who quickly became a suspect in yesterdayâs bombings in Iraq also wants to assume a leading, independent role in future terrorist operations in other countries, according to senior intelligence officials.

I think he's already done that: Jordan, Europe, Afghanistan, probably a few others as well...

Abu Musab Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for two dozen bombings in recent months and was on record threatening new attacks against Iraqi Shiites before yesterdayâs attacks. But U.S. officials are also increasingly concerned about Zarqawiâs ambitions beyond Iraq. Although Zarqawi has worked with al Qaeda in the past, officials say it is increasingly clear he operates independently of Osama bin Ladenâs organization and has developed his own network of operatives.
Except that he gets his marching orders from Saif al-Adel and praises Binny and Ayman in his love letters. As for running his own mob, al-Qaedaâs a decentralized beast. Hambali ran his own outfit down in Southeast Asia too, we call it JI.
"He is a thinker" and "a good organizer" who "sees Iraq as a springboard into broader and more jihadist actions in the region," said one senior intelligence official. The focus on Zarqawi, his network and his longer-term plans had intensified before yesterdayâs attacks. It comes as U.S. intelligence officials recalibrate their tactics in the fight against terrorists, paying particular attention to the emergence of such smaller, largely autonomous groups. CIA Director George J. Tenet told a Senate panel Feb. 24 that the battering of al Qaedaâs leadership has "transformed the organization into a loose collection of regional networks" that pursue shared, though not always identical, goals. The groups "pick their own targets, they plan their own attacks," he said.

That's what we're seeing here, too, but somehow we're seeing it differently. What're we missing? Or is the press missing something? Is Tenet? (I doubt it. I also doubt he's spilling everything...)

Although al Qaeda may have been wounded, one senior intelligence analyst said, "there has been no comparable weakening in the wider Islamic jihadist movement." U.S. intelligence officials consider Zarqawiâs most immediate threat to be in Iraq, "which he is using as a recruitment poster," said the senior analyst. Bin Laden and his top al Qaeda deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, are believed to be on the run somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, leaving Zarqawi to become what one U.S. official described as the unofficial "umbrella leader" of Islamic resistance groups in Iraq. Zarqawi has used foreign fighters and former members of Saddam Husseinâs Baathist Party, and claims to have carried out a series of bombings there.
Thank God we know that Baathists would never ally themselves with religious fundamentalists!
In early January, Zarqawi met with Hassan Ghul, a trusted bin Laden emissary, to discuss whether al Qaeda would participate in future Iraq operations, according to the senior intelligence officials. Ghulâs mission was to determine whether the tide was already turning against the jihadists in Iraq, or whether al Qaeda should join the fight as an opportunity to reassert its leadership role in the region, officials said.
Yet theyâve been sending Euro jihadis to Iraq for months now. Thatâs pretty much the limit of the actual news in this story, the rest just rehashes the tired old meme that Zarqawi isnât really an al-Qaeda leader that weâve seen floating around for the last several months. But then, itâs Pincus so this is to be expected.

Posted by:Dan Darling

#2 comments); ?>werwer

Posted by: B 2004-3-3 10:52:43 AM

#1 comments); ?>werwer

Posted by: Anonymous 2004-3-3 1:16:53 AM

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