The Zero-Hour: Remember the Zarqawi letter.

The savage decapitation of Nick Berg. The brutal murder of Ezzidin Salim, president of the Iraqi Governing Council. The discovery of sarin nerve gas in a roadside bomb planted in the hope of killing American troops. The relentless attacks on Coalition forces. In the ghastly crescendo of the past week reverberates the sinking fear that events are careening out of control, that Iraq is plunging into chaos. Events, however, are actually proceeding exactly according to plan — the plan it must remain our mission to recognize and defeat.

It was back in January when a courier was apprehended attempting to deliver to al Qaeda's leadership an extraordinary letter from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the ruthless terrorist commander for whom the Berg beheading was only the most recent barbarity. The letter is receiving scant attention these days. It is old news, overwhelmed by daily butchery and the mainstream media's myopia over abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. It is more than worth review, though. It foretold with precision the very mayhem we are now slogging through, and mapped out a plan for terrorist victory that we owe it to our country, and to those who have laid down their lives in this cause, to demolish.

Five months ago, Zarqawi starkly described his anxiety: although numerous successful terror attacks had been executed by his militant Islamists — amiably labeled "the insurgency" by the press, but called "the mujahedeen" by Zarqawi — the United States was standing firm. "America," he wrote, "has no intention of leaving, no matter how many wounded nor how bloody it becomes."

This, he bemoaned, set the stage for the jihadists' crushing defeat, for it meant not only that "our field of movement is shrinking and the grip around the throat of the mujahedeen has begun to tighten," but also that soon the U.S. would turn over control of Iraq to an indigenous government whose security forces would be "intimately linked to the people of this region." That could not be allowed to happen, for it would leave the militants with only two choices, both unacceptable: to fight the Iraqi people or to skulk away in defeat. As Zarqawi ruefully put it:

1) If we fight them, that will be difficult because there will be a schism between us and the people of the region. How can we kill their cousins and sons and under what pretext, after the Americans start withdrawing? The Americans will continue to control from their bases, but the sons of this land will be the authority. This is the democracy. We will have no pretext.

2) We can pack up and leave and look for another land, just like it has happened in so many lands of jihad. Our enemy is growing stronger day after day, and its intelligence information increases. By God, this is suffocation! We will be on the roads again. People follow their leaders, their hearts may be with you, but their swords are with their kings.

Zarqawi nevertheless took heart. Things in Iraq were not hopeless. Although the American occupation had made it difficult to recruit and train new militants, "praise be to Allah," he observed, "with relentless effort and searching we have acquired some places and their numbers are increasing, to become base points for the brothers who will spark war and bring the people of this country into a real battle with God's will." Moreover, weaponry in what had been Saddam's Iraq had proved abundant, enabling pockets of jihadists to cause mounting casualties for just over 130,000 U.S. troops trying to occupy and subdue a battlefield the size of California. As Zarqawi recounted: "There is no doubt that American losses were significant because they are spread thin amongst the people and because it is easy to get weapons. This is a fact that makes them easy targets, attractive for the believers."

For the Islamic militants at his command, then, Zarqawi saw their terrorist campaign as a race against time — time that would run out if a successful transfer of sovereignty were permitted to occur. In his prophetic words:

We are hoping that we will soon start working on creating squads and brigades of individuals who have experience and expertise. We have to get to the zero-hour in order to openly begin controlling the land by night and after that by day, God willing. The zero-hour needs to be at least four months before the new government gets in place. As we see we are racing time, and if we succeed, which we are hoping, we will turn the tables on them and thwart their plan. If, God forbid, the government is successful and takes control of the country, we just have to pack up and go somewhere else again, where we can raise the flag again or die, if God chooses us.

Sovereignty, of course, is scheduled to revert to the Iraqis on July 1. To say that Iraq has been a bloody mess since Zarqawi penned this letter would be an understatement. It is not, however, an unexpected mess. It is exactly what was promised.

The sarin, the Council president's brazen murder, and the butchery of Nick Berg must anneal our resolve, not diminish it. The enemy is desperately stepping up its attacks because the enemy has glimpsed defeat. Defeat for the jihadists can be avoided only if America loses its sense of purpose and shrinks from its mission. It can be avoided only if an effectively abandoned Iraq is allowed to descend into civil war — particularly, the sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shia that Zarqawi expressly sought to provoke.

Even for those of us who remain steadfast that the U.S. incursion into Iraq was a vital step toward vanquishing the militant Islamic threat that Saddam protected and promoted, it must be conceded that there is much for people of good will to debate — both about the concept and the execution. But now is not the time. There is, after all, nothing to debate about this: In Iraq are thousands upon thousands of our best and bravest, in the thick of what the enemy aptly calls "the zero-hour"; and we have not only rhetorically linked this battle to the war our nation engaged after the 9/11 attacks, but our military is incontestably fighting the world's most lethal terrorists at this very moment.

We have to win, and win convincingly. Anything less will tell the jihadists that, when the going gets tough, the U.S. doesn't have the stomach to face them down. If that is our posture, 9/11 will most be remembered as a harbinger of worse to come.

— Andrew C. McCarthy, a former chief assistant U.S. attorney who led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others, is an NRO contributor.

Thanks for space to rant.

8 TEXT FROM INTERCEPTED LETTER WRITTEN BY SUSPECTED TERRORIST LEADER ABU MUS’AB AL-ZARQAWI ~ CENTCOM | 2/19/04

We need to remind the free world of Osama's original Jihad statement, as well - with which he inflamed the Arab world, and fellow jihadist nutcases worldwide - by spreading Big Time LIES, readily debunked - which OUR free press brushed aside as deserving less time, space, publicity - than a single corrupt, unresprentative MP.

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm

FAS Note: The following statement from Usama bin Laden and his associates purports to be a religious ruling (fatwa) requiring the killing of Americans, both civilian and military. This document is part of the evidence that links the bin Laden network to the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The original Arabic text of this statement may be found here.

Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders

World Islamic Front Statement

23 February 1998
Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin
Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt
Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group
Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan
Fazlur Rahman, amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh

Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders.
The Arabian Peninsula has never -- since Allah made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas -- been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.
No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples. (LIE)
If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.
Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance (ALLIANCE IS TRUE - LOVE THEY NEIGHBOR AND YOU, TOO, CAN BE AN ALLY - OSAMA, "infliction on the Iraqi people" by US = Big Time LIE, and YOU and your elite Arab corrupt pals know full well who murdered, raped, tortured, oppressed and otherwise abused the longsuffering Iraqi people - Saddam and his accomplices) and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million...(LIE) despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, (LIE) as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation. (LIE - you address your co-liars, unelected Arab "leaders" - and the world's free press - who KNEW, covered up Saddam's genocidal crimes, and BLAMED the heroes who risk their lives voluntarily to liberate Saddam's VICTIMS - and America - who pays in blood and $$$ for the FREEDOM of others...for protection from BULLIES like yourself.)
So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors. (LIE)
Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, (LIE - Yeah, our troops are "destroying" Iraq - by risking their lives, and dying for Iraqis that Saddam neglected and abused - with help from his wealthy, Arab neighbors who took 40 pieces of silver to ignore the cries from the mass graves) the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula. (Oh, shut UP, Osama! EXPLAIN yourselves, WORLD PRESS?! Why weren't OSAMA'S LIES investigated, debunked - America and our brave warriors CELEBRATED on the front pages of OUR free nation's papers!!! For weeks, if necessary, until the truth drowned out the deadly lies that continue to inflame and breed misled, hate-filled terrorists.)
All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims. (Osama's pack of LIES = PROOF THAT THE WEAK FOUNDATION OF LIES MOTIVATING THIS ENEMY, AND HIS APPEASERS, WILL NOT SUPPORT A CIVILIZED WORLD AND, INSTEAD OF FREEDOM, PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS = DEATH, DECEIT, DESPAIR.). And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al-Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: "As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life." (Look in the mirror, Osama, you liar, and hypocrite!)
On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military (don't remember the frontpage, longterm coverage of this enemy's threats to all we hold dear) -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah." (Osama = hypocrite-liar)
This is in addition to the words of Almighty Allah: "And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? -- women and children, whose cry is: 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'" (Osama = hypocrite-liar)
We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops (Osama = hypocrite-liar. Our troops are faithful, blessed, prayed over, protected - and have far more than 72 of your empty promises waiting them) and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
Almighty Allah said: "O ye who believe, give your response to Allah and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And know that Allah cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered."
Almighty Allah also says: "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For Allah hath power over all things." (BIG LIE. Osama = hypocrite-liar)
Almighty Allah also says: "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.

OUR press couldn't spend a few weeks investigating Osama's verifiable lies - POST-911 - defending our giving, loving, courageous nation - and our honorable troops who walk the walk - who DO risk their lives for strangers?

And WHERE, pray tell, are Osama's legions of caring "angels" - aiding the oppressed, hungry, poor, widows, orphans - comforting the lonely, sick - and caring for the dying? Loving his neighbors? Liar!

Where is the defense of OUR free (thanks to our troops, past and present) PRESS - still pretending in print to the world daily that there is no difference between the terrorists - pursuing death - who attack our troops and our brave, noble warriors - who pursue life, better life for themselves - and for others?

That jihad statement was written in February, 1998....while Monica had access to the White House, and our press covered up domestic scandals, and buried foreign threats, in pursuit of personal power.

Wake up, Democrats! You chase God and Christians out of the public square, you won't like your new master - even if it's YOU.

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