TA-INDIVIDUALS: Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi: Al-Qaeda Connection in Iraq?

Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, 37, whose real name is Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, is a veteran of the Afghan war against Soviet occupation. Per U.S. officials, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi or Al-Zarkawi is the connection between Al-Qaeda and Iraq.

He is a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, who was wounded in Afghanistan in fighting following the September 11th attacks. He avoided capture and fled to Iran. Most reports indicate that after a stay in Iran he went to Iraq for medical treatment, where one of his legs was amputated and replaced with a prosthesis. His next reported location was in a terrorist camp in southern Lebanon. Following that he was variously reported to have travelled to northern Iraq to visit Ansar al-Islam. This visit is the basis of the US administration attempts to link Saddam Hussain's regime to terrorism in general, and al Qaeda in particular. On 31 January, 2003, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a Senate panel that al-Zarqawi was residing in Bahgdad. President Bush has also made claims regarding al-Zarqawi being treated in a Baghdad hospital. More recently, US Secretary of State Colin Powell used the al-Zarqawi/Iraq connection as ammunition in the US Administration's efforts to solidify their case for war against Iraq. Jordanian officials have publicly disputed the US administration's claims. Their position is that al-Zarqawi is also wanted by Iraqi authorities. Other claims say that al-Zarqawi was in Iraq, but has since departed for points unknown.

Al-Zarqawi has a criminal record in Jordan. He was identified in the October 2002 murder of US AID representative Laurence Foley in Amman, Jordan. He was sentenced in Jordan to 15 years hard labor for his part in various terrorist conspiracies, including an aborted plot to hit various tourist an religious sites in Jordan during the 2000 celebrations, which he has never served. Other sources in Jordan claim al-Zarqawi's planned attacks would have involved the use of chemical gas against US and Israeli interests in Amman. Jordanian authorities managed to foil the plot in 1999, and arrested and executed several of the plot's members.

Identified as one of al Qaeda's top chemical weapons experts, Al-Zarqawi has also been linked to Ansar al-Islam, the pro al Qaeda militia that operates out of Kurdish northern Iraq. There are also links the recent al Qaeda cells discovered in England. The English cells appeared to be manufacturing ricin, a deadly poison that al-Zarqawi has experience and interest with. While it is known that Zarqawi ran a poison-training camp in Afghanistan, his network's relationship with al Qaeda is not clear. European officials believe that money changed hands between the two networks, but they are not sure Zarqawi took orders from al Qaeda leaders. They say he is closely linked with the Chechen rebel movement, which tends to operate independently within the world of Islamist terror. Zarqawi also appears to have close links with Iran and Qatari royalty.

A suspect who provided extensive information about Zarqawi to German officials last year reportedly said the Jordanian was aligned with Iran and opposed to al Qaeda. Zarqawi had "links with all [terrorist] groups with the exception of al Qaeda. � He is against al Qaeda," the suspect was quoted as saying by The Chicago Tribune this week.

Quote from Al=Zarqawi Letter:
Zarqawi's letter
"Here is the current situation as I, with my limited vision, see it. I ask God to forgive my prattle and lapses. I say, having sought help from God, that the Americans, as you know well, entered Iraq on a contractual basis and to create the State of Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates and that this Zionized American Administration believes that accelerating the creation of the State of [Greater] Israel will accelerate the emergence of the Messiah. It came to Iraq with all its people, pride, and haughtiness toward God and his Prophet. It thought that the matter would be somewhat easy. Even if there were to be difficulties, it would be easy. But it collided with a completely different reality. The operations of the brother mujahidin began from the first moment, which mixed things up somewhat. Then, the pace of operations quickened. This was in the Sunni Triangle, if this is the right name for it. This forced the Americans to conclude a deal with the Shi`a, the most evil of mankind. The deal was concluded on [the basis that] the Shi`a would get two-thirds of the booty for having stood in the ranks of the Crusaders against the mujahidin."

Links
Tracking the threat
The missing pieces
The Zarqawi Node in the Terror Matrix
U.S. Intelligence Is Tracking New Terror Mastermind and His Network
Zarqawi's letter


[Edited on 3-18-2004 by worldwatcher]

Al-Zarqawi and his branch of Al-Qaeda is currently suspected to be behind the beheading of an American soldier.

Video Shows Beheading of American

The title of the video showing the American soldier beheading is credited to Al-Zarqawi by jihadist websites. If Al-Zarqawi was involved in the actual beheading, I would lean towards him being the FIRST guy from the left...(purely speculation). After watching the video, which was extremely disturbing, the guy in the middle who read the statement and actually sliced the neck of David Berg did not seem to be Al-Zarqawi in my opinion. I am leaning to the First masked man being Al-Zarqawi or that Al-Zarqawi is not present in the video.



Al-Zarqawi is said to have prostetic leg and the first guy does look to have a skinnier ankle than his other ankle...again purely speculation, since we don't know if he actually partook in the beheading, witnessed it, or simply ordered it.


[Edited on 5-11-2004 by worldwatcher]

According to FOX, the CIA believes the man in the middle who actually does the beheading of Berg is Abu Mussab Al- Zarqawi.

from the video and images, you cannot clearly see this man legs, perhaps reason why Berg was directly infront of him? but finding the abnormal prostetic leg would be sufficient proof to identify Zarqawi.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
According to FOX, the CIA believes the man in the middle who actually does the beheading of Berg is Abu Mussab Al- Zarqawi.

from the video and images, you cannot clearly see this man legs, perhaps reason why Berg was directly infront of him? but finding the abnormal prostetic leg would be sufficient proof to identify Zarqawi.

This appears to be a feeble attempt by the administration to place al-qeada at the scene of the crime.
ACCORDING TO CNN the man in question IS NOT Zarqawi.
ACCORDING TO CNN the voice is not his.
ACCORDING TO CNN the accent is not correct.

Not that i put that much faith in CNN, but they directly contradict FOX here, so for anyone to say emphaticly
"Thats zaqari!" is a streatch.
Grainy footage and masked men, i think it kinda looked like elvis, but who can tell?

Too bad he died a while back, though.

www.payk.net...

www.msnbc.msn.com...
(Updated: 6:31 a.m. ET March 04, 2004)

And a GREAT article here:

eatthestate.org...

"Enter the figure of Abu Musab Zarqawi. Or re-enter, to be accurate: Zarqawi is the guy Colin Powell mentioned in his pre-war presentation to the UN as Saddam Hussein's link to Al Qaeda, the so-called high-level operative who passed through Baghdad in search of medical treatment. In Pentagon press conferences, Zarqawi and his group of "infiltrators" has become the convenient source of the bombing attacks...

...At first, the Bush administration portrayed Zarqawi as part of Osama bin Laden's inner circle or most-trusted agents. But soon the backpedaling began. Zarqawi became an "associate" of Al Qaeda, a man who had trained in one of their camps. Then it turned out that his training was in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion in the late 1980s, long before the Taliban and Al Qaeda entered the scene. Other terrorism experts describe him as a "fellow traveler" of Al Qaeda or inspired by Osama bin Laden. One Arab specialist, a professor at the University of Michigan, told the Washington Post that Zarqawi actually appears to be "a rival of the bin Laden group," with his own terrorist gang. This is a far cry from original Bush administration contentions that Zarqawi was Osama's lead link to Saddam Hussein.

Two weeks ago, US forces in Iraq claimed to have captured a computer disk containing the draft of a letter to Al Qaeda requesting help in waging a Sunni jihad against the Shiites, Kurds, Iraqi police, and US forces. The Pentagon was quick to name Zarqawi as the author of the letter, and the US media raised few questions about either the authenticity of the document or the likelihood that Zarqawi wrote it. Even the most basic question--how can they know who authored a computer file that lacks a signature?--went unasked...

...US officials have called Zarqawi a leader of Ansar al-Islam, a fundamentalist group in Northern Iraq whose camps were targeted by US bombs shortly after the invasion. Ansar is frequently cited by the Bush administration as Al Qaeda's proxy in Iraq, but Ansar is not a Sunni Muslim group like Al Qaeda; they're a Kurdish fundamentalist group, whose targets have historically been Kurdish secular parties, particularly the KDP and the PUK. It seems highly unlikely that they would call for a Sunni jihad in Iraq.

US officials have admitted that Zarqawi's "vision" differs from bin Laden's. While bin Laden wants to wage war on the West, as embodied by the US and Europeans, Zarqawi sees Israel and Jews as the prime target. If so, one would expect Zarqawi to be active in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, working with Hamas, or possibly in Lebanon, and not purportedly sneaking around in Iraq, bombing Shiite Muslim shrines.

And then the Zarqawi theory reached the level of high comedy last week when a group of 12 Sunni anti-US militias issued a communique that claims Zarqawi is dead, killed in a US bombing attack last year. Zarqawi's family confirmed to US officials and reporters that they haven't heard from him for four months. Deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brigadier General David Rodriguez told a group of reporters, "There is no direct evidence whether he is alive or dead at this point, that we have." The US media, naturally, failed to ask why, without evidence that the man is even alive, the Pentagon is making such elaborate claims about Zarqawi's involvement in the suicide bombings in Iraq."


Comments?

don't get me wrong you guys, I have always questioned the validity of these Al-Zarqawi/Al Qaeda claims. I am just adding to the story because another incident is being blamed on him. He is also being blamed for most of the recent terror attacks in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

If you read my original post, I made mention that even Al-Qaeda suspects denied Zarqawi loyalty or allegiance with Al-Qaeda.

Zarqawi had "links with all [terrorist] groups with the exception of al Qaeda. � He is against al Qaeda," the suspect was quoted as saying by The Chicago Tribune this week.

Al Zarqawi is the new Emmanuel Goldstein.


www.orwelltoday.com...



[Edited on 13-5-2004 by Jakomo]

Yeah, whatever......
Article here says that the voice in the video, after analysis, is being classed as a "high probability" that is is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has and is found to have significant links with Al-Qaeda:
C.I.A. Says Qaeda Militant Decapitated American

WASHINGTON, May 13 � The Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is believed with "high probability" to have been the masked man who beheaded the 26-year-old American Nicholas Berg in a gruesome video clip posted on an Islamist Web site Tuesday, a Central Intelligence Agency official said today.

The C.I.A. assessment, based on a technical analysis of the video, also identifies the voice on the video clip as believed with "high probability" to be that of Mr. Zarqawi, the official said. The Web site had identified Mr. Zarqawi as the man who carried out the beheading, but until today, American government officials had expressed some skepticism about that claim.

seekerof

""High probability"" just doesn't do it for me. If they HAVE a copy of his voice they can match it 100%.

This seems like it's "faith-based intelligence".


jako

Correct Jak...
"faith-based intelligence" can be very subjective, just like the information you provided, eh...."faith-based" that it is true? I hear ya.

I also hear your new PM (Paul Martin) going alot on "faith-based intelligence," "100% probability" when he stated thus?
WMD threat: PM---SADDAM'S MISSING WEAPONS IN TERRORISTS' HANDS

I hear ya again.



seekerof

[Edited on 13-5-2004 by Seekerof]

Seeker: So because I am Canadian I have to believe everything my Prime Minister says? ? It somehow reflects on my beliefs?

Most, if not all politicians, are liars. Paul Martin is no exception.

I am saying that the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States saying that there is a "high probability" that this is Zarqawi is "faith based intelligence" and you're comparing that to news articles that I post?

I am criticizing a powerful international intelligence agency, not a reporter or a paper. There's a huge difference between my questioning the validity of the CIA report and you questioning the validity of an MSNBC report.

[Edited on 13-5-2004 by jsobecky]

I am thoroughly intrigued about finding out the truth about this man.

I have read the CIA claims that he was the actual person doing the beheading, but after watching the video again (no more for me) I am almost certain that the man in the middle who does the actual dirty deed has two good legs and therefore is not Al-Zarqawi.

Could this elusive mysterious man could be a complete ploy and pawn used to deceive the masses?

In my search for more information on this one legged man, I will share interesting and contradictory articles about him.
On Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, The Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"
Qaeda Leader Beheads U.S. Civilian in Iraq -Web Site
There seems to be much unclarity about this Zarqawi fellow. Is he a close al-Qaeda associate? German intelligence suggests that he is rather a rival of bin Laden, with ideological differences. His organization, al-Tawhid, is separate from al-Qaeda. Asia Times reported March 2 that "according to official US sources, Zarqawi's relationship to bin Laden is 'uncertain,' anda recent report by the intelligence branch of the US Department of State stressed that al-Qaeda and Ansar appear quite unrelated and independent of each other".

According to some reports, Zarqawi is presently under arrest in Iran; Jordan has requested his extradition to face trial but the Iranians say he carries a Syrian passport. An AP report states that a leaflet circulated in Iraq by a coalition of resistance groups says he was killed by an American bombing attack in the Sulaimaniya Mountains in Iraq. Since the real story's so unclear, those accustomed to making things up can do so unrestrained by a lot of cumbersome facts.

who is really behind this website, Al-Zarqawi? or someone else? I believe there will be a sudden change of stance from Government officials about the identity of the murderer in the video. It is in my opinion near impossible to prove the identity of the killer except to accept the claims made by the "unidentified" website.


[Edited on 5-14-2004 by worldwatcher]

more on Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
Distorted Intelligence? Secret German records cast doubt on the Saddam-Al Qaeda connection.

The German government evidence appears to demonstrate how the Zarqawi story told by Powell to the Security Council was partial at best and misleading at worst, in the sense that it took Zarqawi�s tenuous relationship to Al Qaeda and his mysterious visit to Baghdad and lifted them out of context to imply evidence of a closer collaboration between Iraq and bin Laden than the facts demonstrated.

Missing entirely from Powell�s speech was the qualifying and even contradictory information in the German files. Also missing was any reference to Zarqawi�s sojourn in Iran, which knowledgeable officials concede might be as significant, if not more important, than any visit he paid to Baghdad.

Poster circulated by US army

Insurgent Leader Al-Zarqawi Killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD, June 8 --Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the mastermind behind hundreds of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq, was killed early Wednesday by an air strike -north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.

Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born high-school dropout whose leadership of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq made him the most wanted man in the country, was killed along with several other people near the city of Baqubah, the officials said.

U.S. warplanes dropped two 500-pound bombs on a house in which Zarqawi was meeting with other insurgent leaders. A U.S. military spokesman said coalition forces pinpointed Zarqawi's location after weeks of tracking the movements of his spiritual adviser, Sheik Abdul Rahman, who also was killed in the blast.

well it's good to know that the boogeyman is finally dead, hopefully he will not be returning again. I'm not sure whether Al-Qaeda leaders have nine lives, but we should not hear or be influenced by the name of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi again.

***the Washington Post link has a photo gallery with images of the dead Zarqawi for those wishing to compare the many faces of a monster.



[edit on 6-8-2006 by worldwatcher]

If you do a little more research, it becomes quite obvious that Zarqawi was not really part of AQ, and the assumed name of his organization was more of an attempt to piggyback off a more well known "brand". So he branded himself AQ without having any significant ties to them.

I did the research, did you read the links I provided throughout the thread??
I brought this thread back to life, because it contains a lot of information that shows the "ambiguity" of the claims that made Al-Zarqawi the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. If you were to click on the all the links I provide, you'll get a very convoluted story that shows that Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is more of an enigma than a real person. Instead of asking if Al-Zarqawi died today, we should be asking when did Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh die.