The Heir Unapparent - US Intell Is Once Again Getting It Wrong

The Heir Unapparent
By Loretta Napoleoni Page 1 of 1

Posted June 21, 2006

In naming a successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, U.S. intelligence is once again getting it wrong. Is it an honest mistake, or a deliberate manipulation of the facts?

In the run-up to the war in Iraq, the United States government needed to prove a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Their link was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a marginal jihadist who, thanks in large part to the U.S. misinformation machine, became one of the world’s deadliest terrorists. Ironically, Zarqawi’s death has given rise to a new round of propaganda, this time over his successor. U.S. military leaders, under pressure to demonstrate both that they know the identity of Zarqawi’s heir and that the link between the insurgency and al Qaeda remains strong, are once again skillfully spinning the facts.

According to Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a top U.S. military commander in Iraq, al Qaeda’s new emir in Iraq is an Egyptian named Abu Ayyub al Masri, who in the 1980s was a follower of Ayman al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s No. 2. Caldwell’s claim took terrorism experts, as well as former members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, by surprise. Montasser el-Zayat, for instance, who was imprisoned with Zawahiri from 1981 to 1984 for the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, says that Masri does not even appear on Egypt’s list of wanted jihadists. Not even his nom de guerre, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir (“the immigrant”), rings any bells, Zayat says. Yet Caldwell claimed he is among the founding members of al Qaeda. Is false information again at the root of U.S. intelligence? It appears so.

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It is anyone’s guess why the U.S. military is telling the tales they are telling in Iraq today. Perhaps the misinformation is some sort of attempt to confuse the insurgents. That said, anyone vaguely familiar with Iraq’s jihadists wouldn’t take these reports seriously. If U.S. military intelligence had a better history of success in Iraq, it would probably inspire more confidence. Either way, one of the first principles any soldier learns is “know your enemy.” Unfortunately, the stories the U.S. military are spinning in Iraq don’t suggest they know very much at all.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3518