Part I: The Arsonist: Zarqawi
"He's been centrally elevated to such a position that he seemingly has a hand in everything," Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland, said in an interview before Zarqawi's death. "Certainly he's a real figure, but he's a myth-laden figure, and it's difficult to discern where the lines are."
--"Al-Zarqawi's Biography," Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, June 8, 2006.
"He was a monster."
--Stan Bigley, brother to Ken Bigley, British contractor who was beheaded by Zarqawi, quoted in, "Al-Queda Leader in Iraq Killed by U.S. Bombs," New York Times, June 9, 2006.
All…Then all afire with me…
Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.
--"The Tempest," Act I Scene ii, William Shakespeare
First of all, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was not his real name.
He made it up, like so much of the rest of his life. His real name was Ahmed Fadhil Nazar al-Khalaylah. He grew up in Jordan, in the slums of an industrial city named Zarqa, 17 miles northeast of Amman. That's where he got his made-up name.
From the beginning, Zarqawi was a street thug, a high-school drop-out who frequently got into drunken brawls. When he was about 20, he went to Afghanistan where he fell in with Islamic radicals who were fighting the Soviets. When he got home, he got involved in a local group of extremists and subsequently wound up in a Jordanian prison. There, for the next seven years, he grew more and more radical. Within months after his release along with a general amnesty by King Abdullah in 1999, he was plotting to blow up American-owned hotels in Jordan during millennium celebrations. The plot was discovered and he fled to Pakistan, and from there, back to Afghanistan where he hooked up with al-Qaeda.
With financial backing from al-Qaeda, Zarqawi operated training camps that attracted other Jordanian militants. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan after 9-11, Zarqawi joined the Taliban.
But eventually, his ego and differing mission and style led to clashes with al-Qaeda. Over time, as he traveled around Europe and the Middle East, he developed great skill as an operative, a specialist in clandestine activities, according to Gen. Hamidou Laanigri, head of the Moroccan security service. "He can falsify documents, move around, has access to a variety of passports and has an amazing capacity to elude the authorities." ("Al-Zarqawi's Biography," Washington Post.)
In recent years, al-Zarqawi became more prominent, forming cells in Europe as well as numerous terrorist cells in Iraq. But his growth in fame was due to two reasons: one, that the U.S. government transformed him into a larger-than-life figure by exaggerating his capabilities and using him to personify the Iraqi resistance, and two, he enhanced his own legend by embracing savage tactics that have generated enormous publicity.
In fact, he was scolded in a letter sent to him by Bin Laden himself, who felt that beheading victims on-camera and bombing Muslim people would turn the tide of public opinion of the Arab "street" against Zarqawi, and by extension, al Qaeda as well. Zarqawi ignored the request, but he did stop broadcasting it when he beheaded people.
The problem with the bloody violence of Zarqawi's tactics is that it seemed to crack open a hornet's nest of semi-restraint among radicals, giving tacit permission to unleash on their home country a savagery that cannot now be put back into the box.
Even some supporters of the Sunni insurgency regret the violence:
"Zarqawi schooled many young people into adopting kidnapping, beheading and blackmail as part of the armory of holy war, and it's our sadness that there have been so many graduates from this school," said one who was interviewed for an article in the New York Times.
The death of Zarqawi was a great boost to the morale of not only American and Iraqi and British military serving in Iraq, but to the politicians who frequently use and abuse that service for good PR:
"Today Zarqawi was defeated," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, appearing at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. military commander in Iraq. "This is a message to all those who use violence and killing and devastation to disrupt life in Iraq to rethink within themselves before it is too late."
--"Insurgent Leader al-Zarqawi Killed in Iraq," Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer, Washington Post, June 8, 2006.
"Through his every action, he sought to defeat America and our coalition partners and turn Iraq into a safe haven from which al-Qaeda could wage war," said President Bush, "Now Zarqawi has met his end, and this violent man will never murder again."
--ibid
Al-Zarqawi's organization, al-Qaeda in Iraq, had recently recast itself as part of a coalition of at least seven insurgent groups, called the Mujahideen al-Shura Council, or the Council of Holy Warriors, headed by an Iraqi, Abdullah al-Baghdadi, which claimed responsibility for hundreds of attacks during the past three years, including some of the deadliest suicide bombings and gruesome beheadings of foreign hostages, according to the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Recently, the focus of the groups' attacks shifted from American military targets to the targeting of civilians, most of them Shi'ites. In an audio statement just last week, al-Zarqawi actually called for the killing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shi'ite cleric, and one with deep ties to thousands of Shi'ites in Iran.
Zarqawi's ambitions, apparently, went beyond killing Americans and fomenting civil war in Iraq. He also wanted to springboard a wider regional war in the Middle East between Shi'ites and Sunnis--more about that later--and his primary goal appears to have been to topple the monarchy in his native Jordan and attack Jewish targets in Israel and around the world.
"What has befallen us today will not affect our determination…We pledge to God to continue raising his way in the Land Between the Rivers, or die. (Mesopotamia means "the Land Between the Rivers.")…We pledge to Sheik Osama bin Laden, our emir, that he shall see from the Qaeda organization during the coming days longer breath, more strength, and further scourging of Americans…There is between us and them a lengthy war, and those who have blasphemed shall see who prevails. God is the victor."
--statement of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (Iraq), released following the acknowledged death of al-Zarqawi, issued in the name of Abdul Rahman, who has been cited as Zarqawi's deputy and possible successor.
--"Al-Zarqawi's Biography," Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, June 8, 2006.
"He was a monster."
--Stan Bigley, brother to Ken Bigley, British contractor who was beheaded by Zarqawi, quoted in, "Al-Queda Leader in Iraq Killed by U.S. Bombs," New York Times, June 9, 2006.
All…Then all afire with me…
Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.
--"The Tempest," Act I Scene ii, William Shakespeare
First of all, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was not his real name.
He made it up, like so much of the rest of his life. His real name was Ahmed Fadhil Nazar al-Khalaylah. He grew up in Jordan, in the slums of an industrial city named Zarqa, 17 miles northeast of Amman. That's where he got his made-up name.
From the beginning, Zarqawi was a street thug, a high-school drop-out who frequently got into drunken brawls. When he was about 20, he went to Afghanistan where he fell in with Islamic radicals who were fighting the Soviets. When he got home, he got involved in a local group of extremists and subsequently wound up in a Jordanian prison. There, for the next seven years, he grew more and more radical. Within months after his release along with a general amnesty by King Abdullah in 1999, he was plotting to blow up American-owned hotels in Jordan during millennium celebrations. The plot was discovered and he fled to Pakistan, and from there, back to Afghanistan where he hooked up with al-Qaeda.
With financial backing from al-Qaeda, Zarqawi operated training camps that attracted other Jordanian militants. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan after 9-11, Zarqawi joined the Taliban.
But eventually, his ego and differing mission and style led to clashes with al-Qaeda. Over time, as he traveled around Europe and the Middle East, he developed great skill as an operative, a specialist in clandestine activities, according to Gen. Hamidou Laanigri, head of the Moroccan security service. "He can falsify documents, move around, has access to a variety of passports and has an amazing capacity to elude the authorities." ("Al-Zarqawi's Biography," Washington Post.)
In recent years, al-Zarqawi became more prominent, forming cells in Europe as well as numerous terrorist cells in Iraq. But his growth in fame was due to two reasons: one, that the U.S. government transformed him into a larger-than-life figure by exaggerating his capabilities and using him to personify the Iraqi resistance, and two, he enhanced his own legend by embracing savage tactics that have generated enormous publicity.
In fact, he was scolded in a letter sent to him by Bin Laden himself, who felt that beheading victims on-camera and bombing Muslim people would turn the tide of public opinion of the Arab "street" against Zarqawi, and by extension, al Qaeda as well. Zarqawi ignored the request, but he did stop broadcasting it when he beheaded people.
The problem with the bloody violence of Zarqawi's tactics is that it seemed to crack open a hornet's nest of semi-restraint among radicals, giving tacit permission to unleash on their home country a savagery that cannot now be put back into the box.
Even some supporters of the Sunni insurgency regret the violence:
"Zarqawi schooled many young people into adopting kidnapping, beheading and blackmail as part of the armory of holy war, and it's our sadness that there have been so many graduates from this school," said one who was interviewed for an article in the New York Times.
The death of Zarqawi was a great boost to the morale of not only American and Iraqi and British military serving in Iraq, but to the politicians who frequently use and abuse that service for good PR:
"Today Zarqawi was defeated," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, appearing at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. military commander in Iraq. "This is a message to all those who use violence and killing and devastation to disrupt life in Iraq to rethink within themselves before it is too late."
--"Insurgent Leader al-Zarqawi Killed in Iraq," Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer, Washington Post, June 8, 2006.
"Through his every action, he sought to defeat America and our coalition partners and turn Iraq into a safe haven from which al-Qaeda could wage war," said President Bush, "Now Zarqawi has met his end, and this violent man will never murder again."
--ibid
Al-Zarqawi's organization, al-Qaeda in Iraq, had recently recast itself as part of a coalition of at least seven insurgent groups, called the Mujahideen al-Shura Council, or the Council of Holy Warriors, headed by an Iraqi, Abdullah al-Baghdadi, which claimed responsibility for hundreds of attacks during the past three years, including some of the deadliest suicide bombings and gruesome beheadings of foreign hostages, according to the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Recently, the focus of the groups' attacks shifted from American military targets to the targeting of civilians, most of them Shi'ites. In an audio statement just last week, al-Zarqawi actually called for the killing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shi'ite cleric, and one with deep ties to thousands of Shi'ites in Iran.
Zarqawi's ambitions, apparently, went beyond killing Americans and fomenting civil war in Iraq. He also wanted to springboard a wider regional war in the Middle East between Shi'ites and Sunnis--more about that later--and his primary goal appears to have been to topple the monarchy in his native Jordan and attack Jewish targets in Israel and around the world.
"What has befallen us today will not affect our determination…We pledge to God to continue raising his way in the Land Between the Rivers, or die. (Mesopotamia means "the Land Between the Rivers.")…We pledge to Sheik Osama bin Laden, our emir, that he shall see from the Qaeda organization during the coming days longer breath, more strength, and further scourging of Americans…There is between us and them a lengthy war, and those who have blasphemed shall see who prevails. God is the victor."
--statement of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (Iraq), released following the acknowledged death of al-Zarqawi, issued in the name of Abdul Rahman, who has been cited as Zarqawi's deputy and possible successor.
posted by Deanie Mills at 7:29 AM
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