Free Republic

E-mail Author Send to a Friend Version October 21, 2005, 9:28 a.m. It’s Real The arguments over that Zawahiri letter suggests we don’t know our enemy. By Rita Katz On October 8, 2005, the U.S. government unsealed a letter allegedly written by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, to “the Emir (prince) of al-Qaeda in Iraq,” Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The letter’s authenticity was largely questioned; as reported by Reuters on October 14: “U.S. intelligence officials who released a letter purporting to be from an al Qaeda leader to Iraq insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi this week said on...

Doubts are mounting here about the authenticity of a letter from Al Qaeda's deputy chief to the terror organization's field commander in Iraq. The letter was made public October 11 by President Bush's new director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, in a press release that said, "The United States Government has the highest confidence in the letter's authenticity." If the letter were to be proven a forgery, it would be a blow to the credibility of an office that was created last year at the urging of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States following the intelligence...

Al Qaeda Dupes Liberal Left Into Fighting Jihad By Frank Salvato October 14, 2005 The recently released letter from Ayman al Zawahiri to Abu Musab al Zarqawi is now being painted as a forgery by al Qaeda in Iraq, Zarqawi's faction of the radical Islamist terror movement. This is understandable as it does expose many of their goals and strategies in their quest for global domination. But perhaps the most immediate reason to discredit the intercepted correspondence is that it spells out in the most simplistic of terms that they have been using the anti-war movement here in the United...

A posting on an Islamic Web site Thursday accused the United States of fabricating a letter in which al-Qaida's No. 2 leader asked for money and laid out the terrorist group's plans for expanding the insurgency in the Middle East. "We in al-Qaida declare that there is no truth to these claims, and they are baseless, except in the imagination of the politicians of the Black (White) House," according to the statement on a Web site known as a clearing house for al-Qaida material. The statement was signed Abu Maysara, who claims to be spokesman for al-Qaida in Iraq. It...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has obtained a letter from one terrorist leader to another that discusses plans to force a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, create an Islamic state there and then spread their fight into neighboring countries, Pentagon officials said. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would only broadly characterize the intercepted letter, which he said was written by Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri to the leader of al-Quaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Whitman would not say where, when or how it was obtained, or who intercepted it, but he said the Pentagon is confident it is authentic.

The U.S. has obtained a 13-page letter written by Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, to Abu Musab al Zarqawi in Iraq, outlining with what one senior official calls "chilling clarity" al Qaeda's stretagy for Iraq and beyond, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. The letter, which was written shortly after the London bombings in July, calls Iraq "the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era." Zarqawi is America's most-wanted insurgent in Iraq. Zawahiri, the man most intelligence analysts believe is the brains behind bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist organization, is considered...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 - A strategy document outlining proposals for eliminating the threat from Al Qaeda, given to Condoleezza Rice as she assumed the post of national security adviser in January 2001, warned that the terror network had cells in the United States and 40 other countries and sought unconventional weapons, according to a declassified version of the document. The 13-page proposal presented to Dr. Rice by her top counterterrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, laid out ways to step up the fight against Al Qaeda, focusing on Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan. The ideas included giving "massive support" to...

<p>Al-Qaida attacks around the world have increased dramatically over the past few months. Now NBC News has obtained new evidence of what al-Qaida is thinking, in the form of what appears to be a planning memo written by an al-Qaida militant that specifies which Americans and others to target in Iraq and worldwide.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 11 — American forces arriving in Iraq are being singled out for kidnapping by insurgents, according to senior military officers. The insurgents, they say, may make a symbolic spectacle of abducted soldiers or use captives to negotiate the release of Iraqi prisoners. Military commanders are also concerned about a possible new terrorist tactic: posing as police officers. Two American civilians and their translator were killed Tuesday, and initial reports indicated that their attackers were dressed in Iraqi police uniforms. The warning on kidnapping is being given to Marine Corps and Army ground forces rotating into Iraq. The...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has evidence that a Jordanian-born militant was behind this week's devastating suicide bombings in Iraq, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Wednesday. The statement by Gen. John Abizaid is the most direct assertion yet by a U.S. official that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is carrying through on a terrorist campaign inside Iraq, as described in a letter purportedly written by al-Zarqawi and intercepted recently by U.S. intelligence. The letter outlined plans to attack Shiite religious sites to foment a civil war. The Bush administration says al-Zarqawi has links to Osama bin Laden,...

US troops starting to repel shadowy forces By Patrick Bishop in Falluja (Filed: 28/02/2004) In their frustrating war with Iraqi enemies of the occupation, coalition troops are enjoying a run of success, killing a notorious bomb-maker and capturing a group suspected of two bloody suicide bombings. At the same time, the shadowy forces battling the occupiers appear to have admitted they are now under severe pressure from the Americans and local security forces. The latest coalition success is the death of Abu Mohammed Hamza, a bomb-making expert and lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom America has identified as its No...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/768rwsbj.asp Saddam's Ambassador to al Qaeda From the March 1, 2004 issue: An Iraqi prisoner details Saddam's links to Osama bin Laden's terror network. by Jonathan Schanzer 03/01/2004, Volume 009, Issue 24 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam-al Qaeda nexus. What you are...

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

An Iraqi prisoner details Saddam's links to Osama bin Laden's terror network. A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam-al Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who...

Today marks the Wisconsin primary, the coronation of John Kerry as the Democratic presidential nominee, and the completion of the destruction of the dreams of America's Deanie Babies. As of tomorrow Howard Dean has

<p>February 17, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda's chief terrorist in Iraq is trying to bring in hundreds of hardened Islamic fighters from Chechnya to help launch his offensive against U.S. forces, The Post has learned. Documents discovered on a computer disk of a captured high-level al Qaeda courier revealed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military commander of Ansar al-Islam, has proposed transferring up to 2,000 jihadi veterans from Chechnya to Iraq over the next few months, U.S. officials said.</p>

IF conclusive proof was needed that it is Islamic fundamentalists, and not the countries they despise, who are the enemies of ordinary Muslims, that proof has been provided by the events of the past fortnight in Iraq. In the worst violence since the end of combat operations last May, suicide bombers have switched their focus away from coalition soldiers and on to ordinary Iraqis - ordinary, but not randomly chosen. Two attacks last week, claiming almost 100 lives, targeted Iraqis queuing to apply for jobs as soldiers and policemen. These suicide attacks were followed at the weekend by assaults on...

"By God, this is suffocation!" That's the quotation of the week -- if not the new year. This exclamation, first reported in The New York Times, expresses the raw frustration of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terror-master believed to be operating in Iraq and long thought to have been a Saddam Hussein-harbored link to Al Qaeda. His frustration is the result of American success in Iraq. In a document intercepted last month by U.S. officials, the man believed to be Zarqawi bemoans U.S. resolve -- America "has no intention of leaving, no matter how many wounded nor how bloody it...

An NRO Primary Document EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier this week, Coalition officials discovered a letter believed to have been written by terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to al Qaeda operatives (see Michael Ledeen here). Below is the text of the letter, as translated and distributed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. 1. The foreign Mujahidin: Their numbers continue to be small, compared to the large nature of the expected battle. We know that there are enough good groups and jihad is continuing, despite the negative rumors. What is preventing us from making a general call to arms is the fact that the country...

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERSFROM: DANIEL McKIVERGANSUBJECT: Zarqawi Letter to Senior al Qaeda LeadershipWe have obtained a copy of the following letter purportedly written to senior al Qaeda leaders from Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist believed to be operating in Iraq. The existence of this letter, captured in a raid on a safe house in Baghdad on January 23, 2004, was first reported in the New York Times on February 10. TEXT FROM ABU MUS'AB AL-ZARQAWI LETTER1. THE FOREIGN MUJAHIDIN:THEIR NUMBERS CONTINUE TO BE SMALL, COMPARED TO THE LARGE NATURE OF THE EXPECTED BATTLE. WE KNOW THAT THERE ARE ENOUGH...

<p>"By God, this is suffocation!" That's the quotation of the week — if not the new year. This exclamation, first reported in the New York Times, expresses the raw frustration of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terror-master believed to be operating in Iraq and long thoughtto have been a Saddam Hussein-harbored linktoal Qaeda.His frustration is the result of American successin Iraq.</p>

<p>The videotape captured in Kabul in late 2001 provided a candid insight into the enemy's world.</p> <p>Though too tedious for the networks, C-SPAN played Osama bin Laden's home movie unexpurgated. Filmed by a theo-fascist groupie, bin Laden greets a visitor. The holy boys sit on the hovel floor, chat and laugh about September 11, 2001. "God is great" is all-purpose slang, roughly equivalent to "that's cool."</p>

Text from Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi Letter 1. The foreign Mujahidin: Their numbers continue to be small, compared to the large nature of the expected battle. We know that there are enough good groups and jihad is continuing, despite the negative rumors. What is preventing us from making a general call to arms is the fact that the country of Iraq has no mountains in which to seek refuge, or forest in which to hide. Our presence is apparent and our movement is out in the open. Eyes are everywhere. The enemy is before us and the sea is behind us....

The terrorist courier with a CD-ROM containing a 17-page document and with other messages was Hassan Ghul, who confessed he was taking to Al Qaeda the Ansar document setting forth a strategy to start an Iraqi civil war, along with a plea for reinforcements. The Kurds turned him over to Americans for further interrogation, which is proving fruitful. The New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins in Baghdad, backed up by Douglas Jehl in Washington, broke the story exclusively (IHT, Feb. 10). Editors marked its significance by placing it on the front page above the fold. Although The Washington Post the...

<p>Al Qaeda is making little progress in its efforts to recruit Iraqis to wage a jihad against America, according to a letter seized from a courier for the terrorist organization in Iraq. U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that the 17-page letter was written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist linked to al Qaeda and believed to be operating in Iraq. Hidden in a CD, the letter was to be smuggled into Afghanistan and delivered to Osama bin Laden and members of his inner circle. It suggests that the group is not having much luck in fomenting violence against coalition forces, and that al Qaeda is not having success in recruiting new Iraqi supporters or driving the United States out of the country. In his letter, found Jan. 23 at an al Qaeda safehouse in Baghdad, Zarqawi wrote that, despite the casualties suffered in Iraq, "America, however, has no intention of leaving, no matter how many wounded or how bloody it becomes." The New York Times, which broke the story about the Zarqawi letter, noted that the writer laments that Iraqis are refusing to permit insurgent forces to use their homes as bases for operations or safehouses. The letter also acknowledges that American efforts to set up Iraqi security services have made it difficult for the insurgents to recruit allies among the Iraqi people. And Zarqawi appeared to acknowledge that the situation for the terrorist network in Iraq would deteriorate once Americans pull out of the country and are replaced by Iraqis "who are intimately linked to the people of this region." Zarqawi betrays a deep sense of frustration over the insurgents' bleak prospects of success, and suggests that it might be better to find a new home for recruiting jihadists. "We can pick up and leave and look for another land, just like what has happened in so many lands of jihad. Our enemy is growing stronger day after day, and its intelligence information increases," he says. "By God, this is suffocation!" There is still time for the Iraqi radicals to salvage the situation, Zarqawi writes, by staging attacks against the country's Shi'ite majority in the hope of fomenting Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence. But once the United States and the Coalition Provisional Authority transfer power to Iraqis in June, he complains, the jihadists will no longer have a pretext for killing Iraqis. The solution to the problem, Zarqawi writes, is to step up the violence right now. This strongly suggests that this week's car bomb attack near Baghdad, in which more than 50 people died, may be just the beginning of a new wave of terror by the jihadists against the Iraqi people — a desperation campaign to prevent coalition forces from devolving power to Iraqis. Zarqawi's letter suggests that, as June 30 gets nearer and the terrorists grow more desperate, we can expect a stepped-up campaign to kill and maim as many Iraqis as possible.</p>

Saying it illustrates a calculated effort by foreign terrorists to derail democracy in Iraq, coalition and Iraqi officials in Baghdad today released a 17-page letter intended for al Qaeda leaders that a courier was carrying when he was captured last month. Officials have described and characterized the letter in previous news briefings this week, but released a transcript in Arabic and a key-point English translation to reporters at today's briefing. Analysts have determined that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian believed to be behind various terrorist acts in Iraq, wrote the letter to seek help from al Qaeda's top leadership in...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2004 -- A 17-page letter seized in the capture of an al Qaeda courier last month reveals an enemy "terrified" that Iraq is on the road to freedom and self-government, a coalition military official said at a Baghdad news conference today. Analysts have concluded the letter was written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- a suspect in numerous terrorist bombings in Iraq and long believed to have al Qaeda ties – and was intended for the terror organization's top leadership, perhaps even for Osama bin Laden himself. The letter, coalition officials have said, seeks al Qaeda's help in...

In the town of Kalar, about a hundred miles northeast of Baghdad, Kurdish villagers recently reported suspicious activity to the pesh merga. That Kurdish militia has for years been waging a bloody battle with Ansar al-Islam, the terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and supported by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. It captured a courier carrying a message that demolishes the repeated claim of Bush critics that there was never a "clear link" between Saddam and Osama bin Laden. The terrorist courier with a CD-ROM containing a 17-page document and other messages was Hassan Ghul, who confessed he was...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A letter seized from an al-Qaida courier shows Osama bin Laden has made little headway in recruiting Iraqis for a holy war against America, raising questions about the Bush administration's contention that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror. The 17-page letter, cited as a key piece of intelligence that offered a rare window into foreign terrorist operations in Iraq, appealed to al-Qaida leaders to help spark a civil war between Iraq's two main Muslim sects in an effort to "tear the country apart," U.S. officials said Monday. One senior U.S. officer, Brig. Gen....

The Enlarging al Qaeda Front Can Bush meet the challenge? If President Bush had had in hand the now-famous letter to the al Qaeda leaders urging civil war in Iraq, would that have helped him in his encounter with Tim Russert on Meet the Press? Or for that matter, in his encounter with John Kerry later on this year in the presidential debates? The 17-page letter, presumed authentic, urges the al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan to act through its operatives in Iraq, directing them to mobilize Shiite hostilities with the end of bringing on a civil war. There was an...

A 17-page letter seized in the capture of an al Qaeda courier last month reveals an enemy "terrified" that Iraq is on the road to freedom and self-government, a coalition military official said at a Baghdad news conference today. Analysts have concluded the letter was written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- a suspect in numerous terrorist bombings in Iraq and long believed to have al Qaeda ties – and was intended for the terror organization's top leadership, perhaps even for Osama bin Laden himself. The letter, coalition officials have said, seeks al Qaeda's help in instigating ethnic violence to derail...

<p>Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq are failing to entice Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims into a bloody civil war and are discouraged by America's resolve to stick it out in Baghdad, U.S. officials said yesterday.</p> <p>"The Iraqi people have demonstrated time after time that they are unwilling to participate in any of these activities by and large," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director for coalition operations in Iraq. "They are looking forward to a free, united and sovereign Iraq."</p>

HERE'S HOW CNN IS SPINNING the Zarqawi memo: (Headline:) Iraqis want al-Quaida to drive U.S. out ...

HERE'S HOW CNN IS SPINNING the Zarqawi memo mentioned below. Of course, the memo is actually written by a non-Iraqi, about plans to stir up a sectarian war because Iraqis don't want Al Qaeda to drive the U.S. out. This is an absolutely unforgivable example of either (1) spinning the war into a bogus "quagmire" or (2) sheer inability to report the news accurately even when the "reporting" merely consists of accurately summarizing a story in a headline. (Thanks to the commenter at QandO who provided the link. I've saved screenshots in case it goes away.)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A militant Islamist linked to the al Qaeda network has plotted a series of attacks in Iraq aimed at provoking sectarian violence and a civil war, the U.S.-led occupation authority said Monday. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said U.S. forces had seized a letter outlining the plan which they attribute to Abu Musab Zarqawi, whom Washington suspects in the killing of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002 and of links to Ansar al-Islam, a militant group operating in Iraq. "We believe the document is credible and we take the threat seriously,"...

AL QAEDA 'PLANS NEW WAR' Al Qaeda wants to provoke a religious war in Iraq to further destabilise the country, according to a seized document. The leaders of the terror group plan to drag the Shi'ite majority into a conflict with the minority Sunnis, to radicalise the Sunni clan. Once pushed towards the extremists, the Sunnis - the religion affiliated with Saddam Hussein - could be persuaded to take up arms against occupying US and British troops. The 17-page document urging "sectarian war" is believed to have been written by al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian. In it,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 8 — American officials here have obtained a detailed proposal that they conclude was written by an operative in Iraq to senior leaders of Al Qaeda, asking for help to wage a "sectarian war" in Iraq in the next months. The Americans say they believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has long been under scrutiny by the United States for suspected ties to Al Qaeda, wrote the undated 17-page document. Mr. Zarqawi is believed to be operating here in Iraq. The document was made available to The New York Times on Sunday, with an accompanying...

Powell says al-Qaeda memo gives "credence" to US claims WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said that a memo believed to have been written by an Al-Qaeda operative in Iraq (news - web sites) gives "some credence" to US pre-war claims about Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s links with the group. US officials believe the undated 17-page document was written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian suspected by Washington of ties to Al-Qaeda. The memo details plans to spark communal violence between the country's Sunni and Shiite Muslims. "It certainly lends, I...

US officials in Iraq say they have uncovered what they believe is a plot by a militant linked to al-Qaeda to foment sectarian violence there. The Americans seized a memo thought to be from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a suspected Jordanian militant. The message laments the failure to expel US troops from Iraq - but suggests igniting the Shia-Sunni conflict could rescue the resistance. Iraq's majority Shias were persecuted under Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. Backlash US officials say the message was contained on a computer disk confiscated during a raid on a Baghdad house in mid-January. That coincides with the arrest...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An anti-American operative in Iraq appealed for help from al-Qaida leaders to help spark a sectarian war between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in an effort to ``tear the country apart,'' U.S. officials said Monday.</p> <p>The officials confirmed a report Monday in The New York Times about the alleged plan, which was outlined in a 17-page letter that U.S. forces confiscated from an al-Qaida suspect in Iraq.</p>