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What
is al-Qaida in Iraq? |
Posted:
11.16.05
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As military action in Iraq continues, the Bush administration
has made getting rid of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida
in Iraq, a top priority.
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Continued attacks against U.S. forces and other targets in and
around Iraq have raised questions about the role of Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader who has vowed to chase the United
States out of the Middle East.
The jihadist's actions have made him as important a figure as
Osama bin Laden in the war against terror and the United States
has put a $25 million bounty on Zarqawi's head.
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Who is Zarqawi? |
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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was born in a working-class Jordanian industrial
town in 1966. According to various accounts, he was angry and
combative at a young age.
He dropped out of high school and left his family to fight the
Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the early 1980s.
He returned to Jordan with fanatical beliefs in what he called
jihad, a holy war waged in the name of Islam.
He was thrown in jail, where his views grew stronger and he developed
leadership skills.
"In prison, [Zarqawi's] mentor describes him as having had
remarkable charisma and incredible organizational abilities,"
said Bernard Haykel, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern
studies at New York University.
Once released from prison, Zarqawi returned to Afghanistan and
created an organization called Al Tawhid, which was determined
to overthrow the moderate Jordanian government and replace it
with an Islamist regime.
His group was also behind foiled plots to disrupt millennium
celebrations in the United States and Jordan.
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A splinter
group or a subordinate group? |
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In February 2003, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said in
his speech to the United Nations that Zarqawi was "an associate
and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants."
Since then, however, there has been widespread debate over whether
or not Zarqawi is operating with bin Laden's approval.
"Someone could legitimately say [Zarqawi] is not al-Qaida,"
said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at a press briefing
in June 2004.
Loretta Napoleoni, the author of a book about Zarqawi and al-Qaida,
said that Zarqawi has surpassed bin Laden as a symbolic leader
of the terrorist movement in the Middle East and has taken on
the image of a "jihadist Zorro."
And as he has become better known, he is no longer confused with
bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri of Egypt.
In July 2005, Zawahiri wrote a letter criticizing Zarqawi for
killing Muslim civilians, although the authenticity of that letter
has been challenged.
"There is a split [between Zarqawi and al-Qaida], I think,
over tactics but not really over strategy," said Professor
Haykel.
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A dangerous
organization |
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 Among
the incidents believed to be the work of al-Qaida in Iraq are
the truck bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Iraq, which killed
the region's top U.N. official, the car bomb assassination of
the Iraqi Governing Council President Izzedin Salim, and the televised
beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg.
"[Zarqawi] has a number of young folks bent on jihad that
he puts right into the fight and right into the suicide vehicles,"
said Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
Experts knowledgeable about the situation in Iraq are quick to
point out that Zarqawi is only the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq
and not of the whole insurgency movement.
"The resistance itself is fragmented and consists of parties
[and] factions that have differing strategic objectives even if
their tactical goals are held in common," said Steve Simon,
a counterterrorism official during the Clinton administration.
Even if he is captured or killed, the United States and its allies
will continue to have difficulty quashing the insurgency.
"Zarqawi will be bigger icon in death than in life,"
said Napoleoni. "Bringing him to justice will not make the
fight any easier."
--Compiled
by Brian Wolly for NewsHour Extra
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I think we've been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or through video games, and I don't think that's a first-hand effect.
