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Abu Musab Zarqawi has been named as the link between Iraq and al Qaeda. He has been involved with terrorist activites for many years and is thought to be one of Osama bin Laden's chief supporters.
1966 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was born as a Palestinian-Jordanian.
1990 Zarqawi went to Afghanistan
1991 Zarqawi helped fight against Russia in Khosht
1999 Zarqawi planned a terrorist attack for the millennial celebration Jordan. The Radison SAS hotel in Aman an other American, Israeli, and Christian sites were targeted. The plot was discovered before it was carried out. Zarqawi escaped before he could be indicted.
2000 Zarqawi went to Afghanistan, where he oversaw a terrorist training camp. He also specialized in chemical and biological weapons.
2001 Zarqauwi was sentenced to 15 years for his terrorist plots in Jordan. However, since he escaped, before he was arrested, he has not served any of his term.
October 2001 After the Taliban lost control in Afghanistan Zarqawi fled to Iran with a wounded leg. While he was there Zarqawi dispatched two Palestinians and a Jordanian who entered Turkey and then they were supposed to go to Israel to conduct bombing attacks.
15 February 2002 The three terrorists who were sent by Zarqawi were caught in Turkey.
May 2002 Zarqawi traveled to Iraq. He had his leg amputated and had a prosthetic limb to replace it.
May-July 2002 Zarqawi spent time recovering in Baghdad. At the same time several extremists also came to Baghdad and established a base of operations.
Late Summer 2002 Zarqawi traveled to Lebanon to meet with leaders from Hezbollah, another terrorist group.
October 2002 Lawrence Foley, an United States official with the Agency for International Development, was assassinated. After some arrests were made of the actual shooters in December 2002, and Zarqwai was linked to the plot by providing the murder weapons.
Early 2003 Zarqawi returned to the Ansar al-Islam camp in northern Iraq. Other terrorist who have trained at this particular camp have plotted chemical attacks with various toxins in Britain, France, Georgia, and Chechnya.
January 2003 Several terrorists were arrested in Britain for planning to put the toxin ricin in the military food supply. These terrorist were linked to Zarqawi.
5 February 2003 United States Secretary of State Collin Powell spoke to the United Nations Security Council and provided information the Zarqawi ties the terrorist group al-Qaeda to Iraq.
Why isn't Al-Zarqawi on the FBI's 10 most wanted list?
Hey hotshot, can you prove that Zarqawi, the Superterrorist does not exist?
Originally posted by Umbrax
Why isn't Al-Zarqawi on the FBI's 10 most wanted list?
Why isn't Al-Zarqawi on there?
Originally posted by Ray Davies
As for this.....
Hey hotshot, can you prove that Zarqawi, the Superterrorist does not exist?
You have the nerve to say this and accuse him of semantics?
Seekerof wrote:
Highly unlikely, ImJaded, but if Zarqawi is a ghost from make-believe then why would ordinary Arab Muslims being chanting or citing his name?
Originally posted by Ray Davies
You have the nerve to say this and accuse him of semantics?
as posted by wecomeinpeace
...it was the Zarqawi super-being in Zarqawizilla form...
1966 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was born as a Palestinian-Jordanian.
1990 Zarqawi went to Afghanistan
Originally posted by Umbrax
How about this...
He used to exist?
www.msnbc.msn.com
Iraq militants claim al-Zarqawi is dead
...
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq “during the American bombing there,” according to a statement circulated in Fallujah this week and signed by the “Leadership of the Allahu Akbar Mujahedeen.
...
It said al-Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing because of his artificial leg.
According to the wikipedia link that I followed on Dronetek's post, there is mention that no sightings of al-Zarqawi have been confirmed since 2001.
That is an interesting aspect there, Umbrax, but bear in mind, the same has been said a number of recorded/documented times for OBL:
Another 'Osama Bin Laden is Dead and Buried.'
seekerof extra DIV
Originally posted by Seekerof
That was a nice comeback there, wecomeinpeace, but it in no way, shape, or form explains why ordinary Arab Muslims, or Arab Muslim governments, would bother with vengefully citing the man's name and what they would do if they got their hands on him, for nothing or if he was as you portray Zarqawi to be: a fictitious CIA non-existent ghost.
Originally posted by Seekerof
That is an interesting aspect there, Umbrax, but bear in mind, the same has been said a number of recorded/documented times for OBL:
Another 'Osama Bin Laden is Dead and Buried.'
Originally posted by wecomeinpeace
Of course it explains it. As I described above, his name is splashed all over the media immediately any terrorist event happens, big or small. And many of these countries get fed intel from Western govts, which also simultaneously put pressure on them to help in the fight against terror and to root out the terrorists. Jordan is also "a key US ally in the war on terror". There intel comes from the US, Britain, and possibly from Israel.
But after the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan, Zarqawi went back to Jordan with a radical Islamist agenda.
He spent seven years in prison there, accused of conspiring to overthrow the monarchy and establish an Islamic caliphate
Originally posted by Syrian Sister
If the answer to any of these is no, then you don't belive Zarqawi exists
Or option B he exist but people exaggerate the exploits
To tell you the truth, I have laughed before at the thought of limping around on one leg like a villain in a James Bond movie.
but there is definitely a well-funded organization behind these attacks.
For what to make up one man LOL there is enough crazy sick people in this world you dont need to make up one. You have more then enough real ones to pick from.
i could start a legitimate looking fugitive killer website and accept donation that go towards finding fugitive killers.
but the picture was me?
wouldnt u feel dumb.
Several sources said the importance of Zarqawi, blamed for many of the most spectacular acts of violence in Iraq, has been exaggerated by flawed intelligence and the Bush administration's desire to find "a villain" for the post-invasion mayhem.
US military intelligence agents in Iraq have revealed a series of botched and often tawdry dealings with unreliable sources who, in the words of one source, "told us what we wanted to hear".
"We were basically paying up to $10,000 a time to opportunists, criminals and chancers who passed off fiction and supposition about Zarqawi as cast-iron fact, making him out as the linchpin of just about every attack in Iraq," the agent said.
"Back home this stuff was gratefully received and formed the basis of policy decisions. We needed a villain, someone identifiable for the public to latch on to, and we got one."
Pentagon estimates have put the number of foreign fighters in the region of 5,000. However, one agent said: "The overwhelming sense from the information we are now getting is that the number of foreign fighters does not exceed several hundred and is perhaps as low as 200. From the information we have gathered we have to conclude that Zarqawi is more myth than man. He isn't in the calibre of what many politicians want to believe he is.
The Bush administration’s nearly constant focus on suspected Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi as the source of its problems in Iraq has helped turn the Islamic fundamentalist into a figure of mythic proportions, but despite the hype and hyperbole surrounding the mysterious Al-Zarqawi, little is actually known about the man or his alleged misdeeds.
In fact, so many of the US’s claims about Al-Zarqawi’s whereabouts and affiliations have proved suspect or false that many critics view new warnings of his alleged plans to stage attacks within the US as a case of the White House crying wolf.
Now, according to an article posted March 13 on Time magazine’s website, unnamed US intelligence officials say they have evidence that Al-Zarqawi is planning attacks -- at the urging of Osama bin Laden -- on stateside "soft targets," such as "movie theatres, restaurants and schools." Time’s sources attributed this information to a man recently interrogated in Iraq, who they claim was one of Al-Zarqawi’s top aides.
But one day later, MSNBC reported that another unnamed government official -- this one from the Department of Homeland Security -- said such warnings were alarmist and that the informant in Iraq was not a credible source.
As with these new reports, much of the previously released information about Al-Zarqawi has been contradictory. Mostly leaked by unnamed government intelligence and military sources and contained in statements from civilian analysts, "news" of Al-Zarqawi’s whereabouts, alliances, operations and intentions is largely unreliable. In fact, it is nearly impossible to report about Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi as man rather than legend.
The US intelligence apparatus has created it own terrorist organizations. And at the same time, it creates its own terrorist warnings concerning the terrorist organizations which it has itself created. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program "to go after" these terrorist organizations.
Counterterrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news chain. The terror warnings must appear to be "genuine". The objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies of America."
The underlying objective is to galvanize public opinion in support of America's war agenda.
The "war on terrorism" requires a humanitarian mandate. The war on terrorism is presented as a "Just War", which is to be fought on moral grounds "to redress a wrong suffered."
The Just War theory defines "good" and "evil." It concretely portrays and personifies the terrorist leaders as "evil individuals".
Several prominent American intellectuals and antiwar activists, who stand firmly opposed to the Bush administration, are nonetheless supporters of the Just War theory: "We are against war in all its forms but we support the campaign against international terrorism."
To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism must remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly reminded of the terrorist threat.
The propaganda campaign presents the portraits of the leaders behind the terror network. In other words, at the level of what constitutes an "advertising" campaign, "it gives a face to terror." The "war on terrorism" rests on the creation of one or more evil bogeymen, the terror leaders, Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, et al, whose names and photos are presented ad nauseam in daily news reports.
On the face of it, the content reflects much of what Zawahiri and his comrade, Osama bin Laden, have long been saying is the crux of the jihadi cause: Muslim lands have been invaded by infidels; apostate Muslim rulers welcome the invaders. Chief among the infidels are the American occupiers of the "Land of the Two Holy Mosques" (Saudi Arabia) and the Zionist occupiers of the "Holy Sanctuary," or Jerusalem. What's more, the recent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq only add to the humiliation suffered by Muslims, and now a defensive jihad is required against the "Zionist/Crusaders" until they are defeated and expelled from the Islamic world.
Beyond the clamor for continued and spiraling warfare, however, there is a new element in the letter. It is a warning to Zarqawi that the success of the jihad ultimately depends on mass appeal and public support. Without a popular mandate, we are told, the noble warriors, or mujahedin, cannot ensure victory after the infidel invaders are evicted.
But there are reasons to doubt that it is authentic. First is the suspiciously long delay between when the letter was written and when it was made public. Who benefits from this delay if not those who favor voting for the new Iraqi constitution at all costs? Its appearance on the eve of the vote in Iraq reinforces the notion that anarchy will be the only outcome if the constitution is defeated.
And then there is the improbable request for the payment of 100,000 (presumably dollars) from Zarqawi to Zawahiri, when one might have expected the opposite channel of funding. And the bizarre suggestion that if the reader is going to Fallouja, "send greetings to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Did the writer of this letter forget that it was already addressed to Zarqawi?
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was killed some time ago in U.S. bombing and a letter outlining plans for fomenting sectarian war is a forgery, a statement allegedly from an insurgent group west of the capital said.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq “during the American bombing there,” according to a statement circulated in Fallujah this week and signed by the “Leadership of the Allahu Akbar Mujahedeen.”