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According to the Times Online, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "has outstripped his mentor, Osama bin Laden" by building up "a formidable terrorist network that stretches from Britain to Afghanistan."
Al-Zarqawi commands more people, has access to greater funds and enjoys growing support among young Muslims drawn to his slick internet websites, which give lurid details of his latest attacks on “infidels”.A recent study about Iraq’s insurgency by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington estimated that 3,000 foreign fighters had gone to Iraq to join the insurgency.
Now, battle-hardened, they form the vanguard of a “foreign legion” ready to take the jihad to their homelands in what US intelligence officials refer to as “bleed-out”.
The National Counterterrorism Centre in America believes that al-Zarqawi’s network extends to 40 countries and that he has developed links with 24 militant groups worldwide.
Already notorious in Iraq for committing the worst outrages of the insurgency, including personally beheading several foreign hostages and killing thousands of Shia Muslim civilians, al-Zarqawi carried out his first big operation abroad last week.
Iraqi suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, the Jordanian capital, killing mainly Jordanian civilians, many of whom were attending a wedding reception. Hala al-Faroukah, the mother of the bride, died of her wounds while in a coma yesterday. Her death brought to 62 the number of people killed in the attacks on November 9.
“This is Zarqawi marking out his new territory,” an Arab intelligence source said. “I believe there’s a leadership struggle under way in al-Qaeda and he wants to establish himself as the new supremo.”
The evidence suggests that the 38-year-old, who grew up in the depressed Jordanian town of Zarqa, may already be well on his way to achieving his goal.
This year the Americans released a letter that they had intercepted from Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s No 2, to al-Zarqawi on their common goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Arab world.
In the 6,000-word missive, al-Zawahiri told al-Zarqawi that after US forces were driven from Iraq the jihad must be waged against “secular countries neighbouring Iraq”. The attacks in Jordan suggest that such a phase may already be under way, as foreign fighters begin to return to their home countries.
Taking the "insurgency" home is documented in this Jihad Watch archive.
Posted by at November 18, 2005 2:10 AM
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I think mission impossible needs to take Zarqawi out before someone declares him Mahdi. He may not be Mahdi but he would love the title. I think Mahdi has to be from Mohammads family line. I dont know if Zarqawi is Mahdi, but he and Mohammad have the same first name...Abu...now dont you think thats just a little too coincidental?
If Abu were to become Mahdi, every muslim would instantly obey him. If you think there is trouble now, just wait till Abu-Mahdi takes charge. For this reason and all the obvious ones, Abu's got to go...Put some psychics or remote viewers on the job, track him down and instantly send him home to Iblis and his new roommates the Jinn brothers. Thats 'Big Bad Jinn', 'Horrible Harry Jinn', and 'Bubba the Giant Jinn'. They have big plans for his homecomming. 'Stoke those fires, here comes Abu'.
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at November 18, 2005 3:20 AM
hmm..."if Zarqawi is Mahdi" is that eschatology...or scatology? Allah is mighty...mad!
Posted by: islamophobic pride at November 18, 2005 4:42 AM
Hallo Everyone,
as far as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is concerned I have two questions.
1)
Does anyone have any thoughts on the repeated claims about his death that seem to have circulated through the press more than once this year?
2)
As Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a Suni Muslim ... much in the way of Jihad comes also from Shiite Muslims not to speak of the Whaabi ( and they all have there fierce disagreements ) how is it that a guy like Osama Bin Laden or al-Zarqawi seem to appeal beyond secterian lines or do they? Is it that all Muslim Jihadists stick together when it comes to fight infidels yet begin to butcher each other later ?
Any thoughts highly appreciated. Also if you know a book or article detailing the differences and commen angenda among the variety of muslim sects I´d be very thankfuö
God bless
Rob
P.S yes my second "question" is longwinded ain´t it :-)
Posted by: Saint Peter Paschal at November 18, 2005 6:19 AM
"According to the Times Online, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 'has outstripped his mentor, Osama bin Laden" by building up "a formidable terrorist network that stretches from Britain to Afghanistan.'"
Please. What a steaming pile of self-important, journalistic hyperbole. OBL may be in eclipse because he's well into middle age and sick, but I think if you measured performance and OBL's legacy in Sudan, that it's ridiculous trying to suggest one has outranked the other. Zarqawi has, however, had the advantage of being able to build on what OBL got up and running.
Posted by: waterdragon52 at November 18, 2005 6:21 AM
I agree with Waterdragon. We will count Osama Bin Laden down and out at our own peril.
Saint Pete,
My thoughts on reports of either one of these guys being dead are these, that the best thing the devil ever did for his cause in the 20th century was to make everyone believe that he does not exist.
'Time for a showdown at the Ok Corral.
Posted by: Isabellathecrusader at November 18, 2005 7:53 AM
St Pete
Interesting thought. What if Zarqawi is dead, but his myth is kept alive by somebody else assuming the name. Muslim fabatics adopt a nome-de-guerre quite often, so it wont be out of keeping. I remember the Pirate Roberts thing in the movie The Princess's Bride.
Posted by: DP111 at November 18, 2005 8:17 AM
Isabellethecrusader, very well said
Ultimately when you fight the Devil and his selfapointed minions wethere one or the other posterchild for islamic jihad did bite the dust is only "so much important"
DP111, yes it could very well be
a few things to ponder as sail towards the "Cliffs of Insanity" now who is that man in black persuing us? hehehe
at November 18, 2005 9:39 AM
Wow, it never ceases to amaze me at how muslims kill indiscrimanently, even each other. I wonder when we will see this headline in the US:
"Southern Baptists massacre hundreds of Methodists over the mode of baptism."
How do they expect to convince us that islam is peaceful; not only are they killing non muslims worldwide, but killing each other off as well. I say leave them be, and when they've killed each other off, we'll go in and take care of what's left.
Posted by: pastor_matt023 at November 18, 2005 11:06 AM
my point wasn't actually to remind folks that it may be premature to count OBL as being surpassed. Until he's dispatched the way Saddam's sons were after the invasion, he's certainly capable of doing a great deal of damage, if not from an active field position.
What I'm saying is that how do you go about comparing the two and declaring one more successful at savagery than the other? We don't fully appreciate OBL's connection to the Islamist warlords of Sudan and Somalia.
Posted by: waterdragon52 at November 18, 2005 1:10 PM
I think it's a fallacy to think that once we capture or kill osama bin laden, that we will be a step ahead of the war against terrorism. People like al-zarqawi, and al-zawahiri, shows that once obl is taken out of the picture, there are others to pass the reigns on to. obl isn't the main problem, the problem is islam. Taking out obl is only one battle in the long war against islam. So whether al-zarqawi is surpassing obl in means of followers, resources, land, etc, is irregardless of the fact that taking out one is only one of a billion that we have to deal with. Only until we acknowledge what the real reason for their terrorism is, islam, will we then start to win this war.
Posted by: pastor_matt023 at November 18, 2005 1:41 PM
Think of it this way:
OBL = (1/1,200,000,000) X 100%
= 0.000...0001% of the whole job
at November 18, 2005 7:34 PM
Terrorism continues it's march and nothing has changed while it is reasonable to conclude that bin Laden is dead.
Actually, one thing has changed, most of the terrorists are focusing on Iraq.
Posted by: learjet0450 at November 18, 2005 8:18 PM
"Actually, one thing has changed, most of the terrorists are focusing on Iraq."
Timing is everything. One has to wonder if we had not gone into Afgahnistan and Iraq, what would have become of the terrorism training camps and their trainees? To what degree was the terrorist build-up occurring prior to 9/11?
Was there going to be a "road trip" to Gaza? Perhaps a cruise to Mexico? Through no fault of their own, I think the decision of the president and congress to take out the Taliban and Saddam was instrumental in stopping the Jihadi momentum.
The problem is that the cancer, unless completely removed, grows back.
Posted by: XRDC at November 18, 2005 8:45 PM
XRDC said....The problem is that the cancer, unless completely removed, grows back.
The problem is that the Quran is the cancer, and that cannot be removed, and for centuries it has kept growing, because the Dr is blind. When and if the cancer overwhelmed its prey, this cancer will then turn on itself.
But what we must remember dear people, we are paranoid as there are only a few terrorists, (or so we are told). can anyone tell me, surly it is only the elected members of government who believe this, are they too out of touch with what is going on the real world to believe this, if so guys we have had it. It takes more than a few terrorists to slaughter tens of thousands of people world wide, each year.
People are now getting scared because our governments seem to be blind, and the people feel that they are not being protected, which will eventually cause people to take it into their own hands to protect themselves and their precious families. The governments had better wake up, and take control or else the people will. No where in history has two totally different makes of people with different gods and thinking ever been able to get along with each other for long, simply because of bigots in all races., this is why there is peace only when there is people of the same make and beliefs, shame, but that is how it is., which means that muticultusim can never work for long, once each race builds enough numbers to form an army, there can be problems sometime.....
at November 19, 2005 6:53 AM
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