| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq-Jordan |
| Zarqawi endorsement of Binny is credible |
| 2004-10-18 |
| U.S. officials are calling credible a statement attributed to Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's militant group declaring allegiance to Osama bin Laden. In the statement posted Sunday on Islamist Web sites, the Unification and Jihad group headed by al-Zarqawi promised bin Laden it would "listen to your orders." A U.S. official said the pledge is in al-Zarqawi's interest "because it increases his standing to be seen as a senior al Qaeda leader." The statement is in al Qaeda's interest, the official said, because "it shows they have someone doing their bidding on the ground in Iraq." The statement addressed bin Laden as "the sheik" and said al-Zarqawi's movement "badly needed" to join forces with al Qaeda. "We will listen to your orders," it said. "If you ask us to join the war, we will do it and we will listen to your instructions. If you stop us from doing something, we will abide by your instructions." U.S. intelligence officials have said there are ties between al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda, although they said the two groups sometimes competed for recruits and funds. In June, the U.S. State Department offered $25 million for al-Zarqawi, saying he had "a long-standing connection to the senior leadership of al Qaeda." But other observers consider al-Zarqawi a potential rival to bin Laden, whose group was behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (Full story) Sunday's statement said al-Zarqawi has "exchanged views" with al Qaeda over the past eight months. "They showed understanding for our strategy, and they showed their support for our strategy and style and system," the group's statement said. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence reports suggested al-Zarqawi had his leg amputated in a Baghdad hospital after being wounded fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The allegation was part of Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 2003 presentation to the U.N. Security Council in which he laid out the U.S. case for war. But in April, a senior U.S. official said that report had been called into question: Al-Zarqawi was thought to have received medical treatment in Baghdad, but reports that he had his leg amputated appeared to have been incorrect, a U.S. official said. Powell held up al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda-affiliated group operating in Baghdad as evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq. He told the Security Council that after al Qaeda and the Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan, al-Zarqawi established a camp in northeastern Iraq to train terrorists in using explosives and poisons. Intelligence services disagreed whether the camp was linked to Saddam Hussein's regime, and Iraqi officials steadfastly denied they had any ties to al Qaeda, insisting such charges were part of a U.S. disinformation effort to justify a military attack. Powell said that during al-Zarqawi's stay in Baghdad, nearly two dozen of his associates set up a base of operations in the capital to move people, money and supplies throughout the country. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Zarqawi endorsement of Binny is credible Left unmentioned was the development behind this determination; the discovery of a pair of well-used kneepads with Zarqawi's name on them in a raid on a Fallujah terrorist safe house. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-10-18 9:37:35 PM |
| #2 CF, that is a distinction without much of a difference. |
| Posted by: Scott R 2004-10-18 7:14:46 PM |
| #1 When I first read the headline I read: Zarqawi endorsement of Kerry is credible Need.... coffeee..... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-10-18 4:24:50 PM |