A Chilling Iraqi Terror Tape (New Zarqawi video given to Time Magazine)

TIME Magazine ^ | July 4, 2004 | MICHAEL WARE

[FairOpinion]

Jihad leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist and the most wanted man in Iraq, this weekend released a telling window into his organization, Attawhid wal Jihad, or Unity and Jihad. In a slickly produced hour-long video Zarqawi lays bare the milieu of his suicide bombers, their safehouses, their rituals and their targeting guidelines. Given directly to TIME, the video is a bold, menacing statement of the group's intent and capability. The subtext of this disturbing tape is that for the U.S. this is likely to be a long, drawn out fight in Iraq against a committed, well-organized enemy.

The tape contains many chilling scenes. When the chairman of the U.S. appointed Iraqi Governing Council, Izzedine Salam, then the country's highest Iraqi official, was assassinated last month in a car bomb Zarqawi quickly claimed credit. Now he shows the act, in graphic footage shot from a parked car: A convoy of white SUVs disappears down a Baghdad street, followed a moment later by a ball of flame and explosion so intense the windscreen through which the cameraman films cracks before your eyes.

[Kackikat]

Has anyone seen the video of the Marine whom they claim to have beheaded???

I don't believe it, because I haven't heard any more about it, but I wasn't at home earlier today for the news?????

I thought they had lied about it, to get us to stop praying for him.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping!

Good comments!

[xm177e2]

They seem to have videotaped many of their own attacks.

I guess, when being vigilant, also look for people, who look like they are waiting, and ready to start the tape rolling, when there is nothing apparently is going on...yet.

And they tip off the media sometimes.

[MoralSense]

Thoughtful and true, Wolf. And here's a prediction: Iraq's new government will declare martial law and go after the terrorists viciously and without compromise. Since the U.S. Army and Marines cannot be used as the instrument of foreign martial law, a withdrawal will take place much earlier than expected -- probably phased to some friendly Gulf state like Qatar or Bahrain, so as to be ready for conflict with Syria or Iran

[Coop]

Also, doesn't this latest Zarqawi video tend to back up Bush's claim that Iraq is the central front in the War on Terrorism?

I asked my good buddy Michael Moore, and he says "No."

Good to see you back here, and I agree that Al Jazeera almost certainly had a hand in this propaganda tape.

[AnimalLover]

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