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| Al-Qaeda turns down Zarqawi’s request to kill Shi’ites | ||
| 2004-02-21 | ||
| I suspect the identity of their current hosts could play a role in this ... The most active terrorist network inside Iraq appears to be operating mostly apart from Al Qaeda, senior American officials say. Most significantly, the officials said, American intelligence had picked up signs that Qaeda members outside Iraq had refused a request from the group, Ansar al-Islam, for help in attacking Shiite Muslims in Iraq. The request was made by Ansar’s leader, a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and intercepted by the United States last month. The apparent refusal is being described by some American intelligence analysts as an indication of a significant divide between the groups. It’s a difference of tactics, hardly the sign that they’re ready to go separate ways ... The officials declined this week to say how American intelligence agencies had learned that members of Al Qaeda had rebuffed Mr. Zarqawi’s proposal. One of his top lieutenants, Hassan Ghul, has been in American custody for several weeks. In an interview today, one official cautioned that it would be a mistake to see the two groups as having diverged, and that it was too soon to say whether Al Qaeda might support Mr. Zarqawi. This official described the fact that Mr. Zarqawi had appealed for help as a sign of "emerging links" between the two groups. Zarqawi takes his orders from Saif al-Adel. How is any of this even remotely unclear?
Somebody re-read the Milan wiretaps and tell me with a straight face that Zarqawi’s al-Tawhid Euromob isn’t working for al-Qaeda. A recent report by one intelligence agency shows lines of support, including supplies, money and recruiting, that extend to Mr. Zarqawi’s group from neighboring countries, including Iran, Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Mr. Zarqawi himself has traveled in and out of Iraq from Iran, where he took refuge after the American invasion last March, and from Syria, two military officials said. In public reports and private statements, American intelligence officials have been careful to portray Mr. Zarqawi as an associate of Al Qaeda rather than as a member. By contrast, the evidence since the war began of operations inside Iraq by Al Qaeda has been limited and generally inconclusive, American officials say. American intelligence officers believe Qaeda leaders to be in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is mostly an NYT hit piece against the administration’s linking of al-Qaeda disguised as a news story. About the only complete info here aside from this latest quibbling about who Ansar and Zarqawi work for is that al-Qaeda has turned down Zarqawi’s request, likely in deferrence to their current hosts in Tehran. | ||
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "This is not a world of homogeneous bad guys." Very cool post. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-2-21 12:58:40 AM |