View Full Version : Al Zarqawi Out?
Hi Guys
FWIW, the Seattle Times, Kansas City Star, and Chicago Tribune are reporting that Al Zarqawi has stepped aside as the leader of the insurgency in Iraq. New shitbird's name is Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi. My apologees to all here for my lack of computer skills...I don't know how to make a @#$&* link to the stories.
Still enjoy the hell outta lurking..
Luke
CPTAUSRET
01-27-2006, 11:59
Hi Guys
FWIW, the Seattle Times, Kansas City Star, and Chicago Tribune are reporting that Al Zarqawi has stepped aside as the leader of the insurgency in Iraq. New shitbird's name is Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi. My apologees to all here for my lack of computer skills...I don't know how to make a @#$&* link to the stories.
Still enjoy the hell outta lurking..
Luke
tugboat:
Glad you are here, was a reason given?
Terry
The Reaper
01-27-2006, 12:01
No corroborating report from any major new sources yet.
TR
rubberneck
01-27-2006, 12:06
He doesn't strike me as the type that would willingly give up control. Hopefully his demotion came as the result of a bullet behind the ear.
Eagle5US
01-27-2006, 14:04
No corroborating report from any major new sources yet.
TR
Seattle Times is definitely not a "major news source" :D
Eagle
The articles quote a web site that has traditioally been a favorite place for AlQ to post news, videos of attacks and general propaganda. None of the articles give the web address. The writers and analysts SPECULATE about a rift between Al Q in Iraq and the other groups within their particular Shura: Al Q being allied with four or five other religiously oriented groups ( nationalist groups aren't welcome in Al q's world ). The reason that Al Q gives on the web site was basically "turning the war over to the Iraqiis"
My two cents : Bad for us because it frees the f***er up to plan and coordinate ops in other places. Just like the Saudis didn't want Osama hanging around Saudi causing trouble ( and constantly plotting to take over the country) the Iraqi insurgents don't want Zarqawi around. He's the kind of revolutionary ideologue that intends to rule whatever country he ends up in with a "my way or the hiway" attitude. If you"re the leader of another insurgent group, you don't need too many men like Zarqawi around...you spend too much energy watching your back. Eventually you, or Zarqawi, loses.
The R**heads are, however, happy to have Zarqawi cause trouble all over the REST of the world. Look for him behind the counter at 7-11.
Roguish Lawyer
01-27-2006, 15:09
Article is by Chicago Tribune, which I'd consider a "major" news source.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=zarqawi24&date=20060124&query=al-zarqawi
Nation & World: Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Zarqawi gives up council control
By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune
BAGHDAD, Iraq — In a further sign of the rifts emerging within Iraq's insurgency, Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has stepped aside as the head of a new council of radical groups in favor of an Iraqi, according to a posting on a Web site used by al-Qaida and other insurgent groups.
The statement, which could not be independently verified, said Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, "who is Iraqi," had taken over from al-Zarqawi as "emir" of the new Mujahedeen Shura, or Council, which groups six extremist organizations including al-Qaida and whose creation was announced last week.
The formation of the council and the appointment of an Iraqi to lead it come at a time of deepening divisions within Iraq's insurgency over ways to respond to the new realities of post-election Iraq and how to prepare for the day when U.S. troops start going home.
Most notably, some Iraqi nationalist insurgent groups are turning against al-Zarqawi and his foreign Arab volunteers, whose spectacular suicide bombings have served the insurgency's goals well until now but whose Islamic extremism has come to be seen as a liability by rebels whose aim increasingly is to secure a role for Sunnis in Iraq's new political order.
A statement announcing the formation of the council a week ago, issued by al-Zarqawi's chief spokesman, explained that the council's purpose was to "unite the approach of the mujahedeen ... in order to dismiss all the differences and disagreements and controversies," an acknowledgement of the rifts that have opened within the insurgency.
Though there was no way of independently verifying the information, the Web site is the main one used by al-Qaida in Iraq to post news, claims of responsibility and videotapes.
On Friday, the site's administrator named al-Baghdadi as the leader of the council, which comprises al-Qaida in Iraq, an affiliated group called the Victorious Sect Brigade, and four lesser-known allied groups. Leading Iraqi nationalist groups are not included.
A subsequent posting explained: "What Sheik Abu Musab did when giving up the title of Emir, this is a favor by the Emir of Slaughter to block the road to all those who say he is a foreigner." The Emir of Slaughter is an honorific used by extremists to refer to al-Zarqawi, America's most-wanted man in Iraq with a $25 million bounty on his head.
So, will we see a decrease in violent attacks on Iraqis now? :munchin
Airbornelawyer
01-27-2006, 16:59
A more detailed analysis of developments among Iraqi terrorist/insurgent groups, the rift between Iraqi Sunni elements and mainly foreign Islamist elements, and Zarqawi's response: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/01/2e2e0357-55e5-4e06-ad2d-b890f8f21442.html
The Reaper
01-27-2006, 17:01
So, will we see a decrease in violent attacks on Iraqis now? :munchin
That depends.
As long as the victims are insurgents, I don't care who is killing them.
TR
Airbornelawyer
01-27-2006, 18:36
The optimist in me sees this as part of a developing end game which we dare not call victory lest we jinx it. The optimist in me is usually getting his ass kicked by my inner pessimist, though.
Given Iraq's demographics and the perception of the US as a paper tiger, Ba'athist and Sunni insurgent elements (there is significant overlap) had one overarching goal: create enough chaos that the US and its allies would seek a compromise, abandoning any hope of democratization and putting a strongman (ideally of course, a Sunni Ba'athist) back in charge, in the hopes of achieving stability.
The April 2004 decision to abandon hopes of reestablishing control over Fallujah, and instead empowering a former Ba'athist general to lead a "Fallujah Brigade", probably only encouraged them.
Over the past year, or at least since November 2004, when we retook Fallujah, and in the wake of the January 2005 elections, many Sunnis began to reevaluate that strategy. Now, significant elements of major Sunni tribes, as well as mid-level Ba'athists and former Iraqi officers, have concluded that the strategy failed. The US did not cut and run, and the other elements of Iraqi society only increased their power.
The Islamists, whose goal was pretty much chaos for chaos' sake, to weaken America and its allies in general, and who care little for Iraq's future, overplayed their hand by attacking less committed Sunnis, creating tribal vendettas, as well as Shi'ites who had tribal ties to Sunnis.
So now many Sunnis are looking for a way out. They are looking to establish control over Sunni areas with two objectives: (i) to be seen as a positive force so the US and the Iraqi government will accept them into the political process; and (ii) to establish control over Sunni areas so that as US forces draw down, these Sunnis will be in a position to take local control rather than Kurdish and Shi'ite units of the Iraqi Army from other parts of the country. Basically, having lost hope of retaking control of all of Iraq, they are looking for a way to incentivize the Americans and the Iraqi government to at least give them control of a chunk of Iraq. Presumably, they would also like to leverage the carrot - "we can bring stability to the Sunni Triangle so America can go home" - and the stick - "we are organized and can cause problems" - to also get some share of Iraq's oil wealth, since most of Iraq's oil industry is in non-Sunni areas.
NousDefionsDoc
01-27-2006, 19:05
Great analysis AL.
If I'm out of place stepping in here, please let me know.
The Debka File (http://www.debka.com) reported in December (http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1122) that al Zarqawi has been working through al Qaida in Iraq to establish bases in Gaza for attacks on Israel. With increased Jordanian involvement in Palestinian terror, like the Hashemite invitation to Hamas leaders to come to Jordan, this kind of foreign intervention seems welcomed by Hamas, part of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood. With the increasing tension in Israel's territories, perhaps Zarqawi will begin to focus his efforts on attacks against Israel and is thus leaving his organization in Iraq to Iraqis.
Whatever
02-26-2006, 18:26
Lot's of informed analysis. I hope you are right and this doesn't unite Ba'athist elements, Sunni Jihaddis(ts) and foreign shitheads under a leader will breathe fresh air into a faltering insurgency.
Here is anothoer article referencing Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi
I guess this makes him the new Sunni Insurgent "BaghDaddi." Enough pun-ishment.
http://www.siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications151006&Category=publications&Subcategory=0
Mike
"If you are going to lie to me, lie with conviction."