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Al-Qaeda or not, al-Zarqawi's worth
$10m
By Ritt Goldstein
In an
apparent attempt to downplay the internal Iraqi dynamics
behind ongoing attacks, the Bush administration has
blamed al- Qaeda for much of the violence. Key in
this effort has been the portrayal of the ultra-orthodox
Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam and its alleged leader, Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, as the perpetrators.
The Bush
administration and some of its allies accuse Ansar, long
at odds with the secular, Western-oriented Kurdish
groups allied with the coalition, of close links with
al-Qaeda.
Zarqawi, a 38-year old Jordanian
radical who fled to Iraq in 2001 after losing a leg in a
US missile strike on his Afghan base, now stands accused
of masterminding a string of spectacular suicide
bombings in Iraq. In 2003, he was named as the brains
behind a series of suicide bombings - from Casablanca in
Morocco to Istanbul in Turkey.
But the "facts"
keep changing. According to US administration
pronouncements, Zarqawi was first a "close associate of
[Osama] bin Laden". Then his relationship to bin Laden
became "uncertain", before he was back to being a "close
associate".
An official US statement declaring
Ansar a terrorist group claimed that Zarqawi was a
"senior al-Qaeda operative", but later he was only
"suspected" of being some kind of affiliate. Until two
weeks ago, he was considered the leader of Ansar
al-Islam. Now he is thought to head a Jordanian
extremist group called al-Tawhid, and only linked to
al-Qaeda and other groups.
The pronouncements
vary with the political imperatives of the moment. The
Bush administration badly needs to deflect attention
from Saddam Hussein's much-alleged, but never found,
weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Last winter
Zarqawi was supposedly working with explosives and
deadly toxins at a terror camp in northeast Iraq. US
Secretary of State Colin Powell warned the United
Nations Security Council of the dangers he posed in a
presentation in February last year. Powell claimed that
Zarqawi and Ansar al-Islam were Saddam's link to
al-Qaeda. The "evidence" behind Powell's assertions
proved as empty as that on WMDs.
Powell provided
a satellite picture of the alleged terror camp. A number
of journalists went immediately to the place, but found
only a radio station and living areas. Powell said Ansar
had cyanide gas, VX nerve gas and the toxin ricin. The
US claimed at first to have found "evidence of chemical
weapons production" after it attacked Ansar camps, with
the help of Kurdish forces, in March 2003 last year. The
claim later proved unfounded. In October last year,
former Powell aide Greg Thielmann revealed that Powell
had misinformed Americans during his testimony.
The US doubled the bounty on Zarqawi last week
to $10 million, calling him the mastermind behind a
blueprint for terror in Iraq. He is the "wildcard" in
the US's pack of wanted men. The US decision came after
coalition forces claimed to have found a letter Zarqawi
is said to have written to bin Laden, in a safe house in
Iraq. "We believe the report and document are credible,"
said General Mark Kimmitt from the US forces.
Zarqawi tells bin Laden in the alleged letter -
stored on a compact disc - that al-Qaeda would be
welcome in Iraq. But several questions have been raised
about the letter. Foremost, if al-Qaeda was already
present in Iraq as alleged so often before, why would
Zarqawi need to invite them. The Washington Post notes
that there has been no independent verification of the
document's authenticity.
US forces blamed
al-Qaeda and Ansar for the suicide bombings that killed
more than 100 people, including several Kurdish leaders,
in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil on February 1. Two
days later, Jaish Ansar al-Sunna, a resistance group
based in the Sunni triangle that had warned people
aiding the occupation, claimed responsibility for the
Irbil blasts.
Coalition forces then said that
Jaish was related to al-Qaeda and Ansar, another attempt
to blur distinctions among groups resisting US
occupation of Iraq. In blaming al-Qaeda and Ansar, the
US and its allies have sought effectively to legitimize
the presentation Powell made to the Security Council a
year ago. If public perceptions of the Ansar threat were
to grow, the invasion of Iraq would be seen as more
legitimate.
US officials have again pointed to
al-Qaeda and foreign terrorists as the leading suspects
behind recent attacks. On Tuesday last week, a bomber
killed 53 people at a police recruitment center in
Iskandariyah south of Baghdad. The next day, another
bomber claimed 47 at an army recruitment center in
Baghdad. On Saturday, a rebel assault routed security
forces in al-Fallujah, killing at least 20.
But
it is widely acknowledged that there are few foreigners
among the thousands arrested by coalition forces. The
Iraqi police have corrected their initial statement that
"foreigners" were behind the assault in al-Fallujah. The
Associated Press noted that "US and Iraqi officials have
made conflicting reports on who carried out the attack".
US officials insist that the attack was carried out by
non-Iraqis. Foreigners had been blamed in the car
bombing that killed Shi'ite leader Ayatollah Mohammed
Bakr al-Hakim and many of his followers in August last
year. Nothing ever came of that allegation.
(Inter Press Service)
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