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| Terror Networks & Islam |
| The mind of Abu Musab Zarqawi |
| 2005-01-11 |
| The Muslim extremist believed responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks on civilians and soldiers in Iraq was ruthless, uncompromising and fiercely certain of his violent interpretation of Islam while in prison, say Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's former cellmates. The ideological seeds of what one Western diplomat estimates is al-Zarqawi's 2,000-strong army of fighters in Iraq today can be found in the time he led a prison gang during the late 1990s while serving time for allegedly trying to topple the Jordanian government. "Al-Zarqawi was a simple, but a dangerous man," said Yousef Rababaa, who shared al-Zarqawi's cell block in Jordan for three years until 1999. "You just don't come near him if you don't buy his bigoted gospel." Rababaa said al-Zarqawi led a fanatical group of about 20 prisoners known as al-Tawhid, which refers to the central Islamic tenet of monotheism and is similar to the name al-Zarqawi initially used for his fighters in Iraq. The rhetoric was meant to evoke a pure ideal of Islam, one al-Zarqawi believed was worth killing to protect and spread. Rababaa headed a rival prison group espousing the need to purge Muslim lands of foreign occupiers, but al-Zarqawi didn't consider him militant enough. Rababaa said al-Zarqawi tried to persuade him to join his group, and when he failed, "labeled me an 'infidel.' " "I knew my adversary as a man who neither pursued the path of reconciliation nor was able to maneuver because of his background and his limited thinking," Rababaa told The Associated Press. Rababaa, 35, was sentenced to life in jail in 1996 for plotting terrorism against Israeli targets in Jordan, but - like al-Zarqawi - he was freed under a royal amnesty in 1999. For all his self-taught religion and guerrilla training, some of al-Zarqawi's activities in Iraq recall the teenage thug and prison enforcer he once was. He is believed to have been the masked man who appeared in videos decapitating at least two civilian American hostages in Iraq. Now 38, al-Zarqawi dropped out of school at 17, family members have said. A thug in his teens, al-Zarqawi was known for heavy drinking and street fighting. In the 1980s, he was jailed for sexual assault, security officials have said without providing details. He also had a passion for tattoos. In prison, Rababaa said al-Zarqawi covered up the tattoos, which he came to see as reminders of a shameful past. A prison doctor said he had at least one tattoo, a green anchor denoting his love of the sea, removed from his left arm. Al-Zarqawi embraced religion when he was in his early 20s. Like many poor, frustrated young men, he was drawn to the calls of pride and identity made by radical preachers. His late mother, Umm Sayel, said in an interview last year in the family home in Zarqa that her son hung out at mosques because he had so much free time, and he soon was bringing clerics home to explain the Quran to him. Zarqa is an industrial city 17 miles from Jordan's capital, Amman. Like other Arab men with religious fervor, al-Zarqawi traveled to Afghanistan a few times between 1991 and 1995 to fight alongside U.S.-backed Afghans battling Soviet occupiers. Back in Jordan, he led a plot to topple the kingdom's pro-Western monarch, which he considered an "infidel," according to military court documents. He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 15 years in jail, but he was freed under a general amnesty when Jordan's King Abdullah II ascended to the throne in 1999. Rababaa, his former prison mate, doesn't underestimate al-Zarqawi's capacity for violence, but questions whether he could have planned the wave of suicide bombings and other attacks in Iraq for which he has claimed responsibility and for which the Americans blame him. Another ex-convict, who said he befriended al-Zarqawi while serving a life sentence for anti-government activities, said he had a hard time imagining the militant as guiding Iraq's insurgency. The second ex-con spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of drawing police attention. The second ex-con said al-Zarqawi was feared by other inmates and, while loyal to his friends, was quick to fight if crossed, but lacked the brains and skills of a planner. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 If only we had set up some basketball camps like they do in the US inner cities, Zarq would have had something else to do with his idle time. No, he definitely has an infidel complex. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-01-11 2:53:25 PM |
| #7 "Now 38, al-Zarqawi dropped out of school at 17, family members have said. A thug in his teens, al-Zarqawi was known for heavy drinking and street fighting. In the 1980s, he was jailed for sexual assault, security officials have said without providing details." "Al-Zarqawi embraced religion when he was in his early 20s. Like many poor, frustrated young men, he was drawn to the calls of pride and identity made by radical preachers." or, another psychotic sociopath finds facilation for his perversions in the religion of Peace and Love. Along the lines Remoteman, I'd like to see him beaten with his good leg until we see what is really in his mind. |
| Posted by: TomAnon 2005-01-11 2:36:43 PM |
| #6 Sorry, Raman. Is his nickname "Top"?? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-01-11 10:34:52 AM |
| #5 Pete.. I've been predicting that we will know when Zarqawi is captured, because the news reports about him will change from "elusive mastermind" to "dumbo that wasn't all that important anyway". Suddenly, after rumors of his capture, we get the indepth news reports with interviews from prison cell mates saying he was "dumbo". You do the math. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-01-11 9:24:03 AM |
| #4 he was freed under a royal amnesty in 1999. WTF is it with the mooselimbs and their letting people out of jail? He was trying to overthrow the government for goodness' sake, then you go and let him out?! You really think he's reformed? Oh yes, he memorized the Koran, lol. |
| Posted by: Spot 2005-01-11 8:56:47 AM |
| #3 All I want to know about the "mind" of al-Zarqawi is that it is spread all over a street or wall courtesy of a USMC 7.62mm bullet fired from a DMR. I think that is the best way to put this "poor, frustrated young man" out of his and the world's misery. |
| Posted by: Remoteman 2005-01-11 5:29:35 AM |
| #2 Sorry, Raman. |
| Posted by: Pete Stanley 2005-01-11 3:53:24 AM |
| #1 Still cannot reconcile this. (among other things) 12. On June 20, 1994 Ramzi Yousef and al-Zarqawi, at the instigation of the Iraqi intelligence, caused an explosion at Mashad in the Iranian territory adjoining Pakistan which killed a large number of Shias. Zarqawi, along with the late Riaz Basra, the leader of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ), the militant wing of the SSP, helped the Taliban in the capture of Kabul in September, 1996. Three scenarios. 1. Rahman is wrong about 1996 activity in Kabul, and Zarqawis ex-prison buddies are lying for him. 2. Rahman is right about '96, Zarqawi's ex-prison buddies are telling the truth. Zarqawi is actually dead but his passport lives on. 3. Rahman is wrong about '96. Zarqawi's friends are also telling the truth about his abilities. Zarqawi has always been a puppet of the Baathist Iraqis. LeJ = Iraqi asset? |
| Posted by: Pete Stanley 2005-01-11 3:47:52 AM |