NEWSWEEK: Al Qaeda Envoy Met With Iraq Insurgency Head Zarqawi in 2003

[allemand]

and Told Osama Bin Laden: 'He Deserves Our Support'
Sunday April 3, 11:18 am ET

- Bin Laden Urged Zarqawi, Through Envoy, to Widen War Against America: 'We Have to Expand Our Attacks on the Enemy Outside Iraq'

NEW YORK, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian- born terrorism chief who heads the Iraq insurgency, considered himself to be the obvious choice for Al Qaeda's top man in Iraq and in late 2003 was livid at the news that Osama bin Laden had chosen Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, a top-ranking Al Qaeda member, for the job. Special Correspondent Sami Yousafzai and South Asia Correspondent Ron Moreau report that Zarqawi told al-Iraqi, "I'm already here! So why is the sheik sending someone else?"

But after further meetings between Zarqawi and al-Iraqi, Zarqawi proclaimed his loyalty to bin Laden, and bin Laden praised Zarqawi's exploits. Proud of his work, al-Iraqi says, "I'm the person who broke the silence and solved the difficulties between Zarqawi and the Al Qaeda leadership."

Yousafzai and Moreau report that in the late summer of 2003, bin Laden had sent two of his most trusted men (one of whom was al-Iraqi) to assess the Iraqi resistance and carve out a leading role for Al Qaeda. "The resistance happened faster than we expected, and differently, so we were not prepared to assist and direct it," al-Iraqi told a senior Taliban official. The Taliban man, who uses the name Zabihullah, told al-Iraqi's story to Newsweek. The account, many of the details of which have been borne out by interviews with other well-informed jihadis, appears in the April 11 issue (on newsstands Monday, April 4). U.S. intelligence sources, while refusing to discuss many of the story's specifics, have confirmed that its fundamentals are accurate.

(...)

Donations to Al Qaeda's coffers had dried up as bin Laden's top men were killed or captured. Now private money is once again flooding in, report Yousafzai and Moreau. And al-Iraqi says that bin Laden himself is looking more confident and relaxed, noting that when he visited the Qaeda leader in November, al-Iraqi noticed fewer checkpoints than previously. "The sheik has a new mentality and is more healthy," al-Iraqi told Zabihullah.

More:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050403/nysu031.html?.v=1

Terror Broker
Bin Laden needed a role in the Iraqi insurgency, and Zarqawi needed outside support. How a deadly deal was made.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7369892/site/newsweek/

[acmavm]

1. Sheesh. With PR people like these guys have, you'd think someone

would be able to find these guys:

<snip>

And al-Iraqi says that bin Laden himself is looking more confident and relaxed, noting that when he visited the Qaeda leader in November, al-Iraqi noticed fewer checkpoints than previously. "The sheik has a new mentality and is more healthy," al-Iraqi told Zabihullah.

<snip>

Maybe they can get bin Laden to do the cover of GQ later this summer.

[Career Prole]

8. He has a film in the works

for release in October of 2006, or so.

[Lori Price CLG]

2. and al CIA-duh has likely met with Bush dozens of times... n/t

[NNN0LHI]

3. And idiots in America just eat this shit up n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Like al Qaeda, Zarqawi's Ansar al-Islam has been a strategic asset

of the US.

It operated in Iraq's northern "no-fly" zone, which was a virtual US-UK protectorate, and was regarded as a tactical counterweight to Saddam.

The founder of Ansar al-Islam is Mullah Krekar. He lives in Norway, and the United States has not sought his extradition.

What's more:

Ansar al-Islam leader threatens to document his links to US

DUBAI, Feb 1 2003 (AFP) - The suspected leader of a Kurdish Islamic extremist group threatened in an interview published Saturday to produce evidence of his contacts with Washington prior to the September 11 suicide hijackings.

"I have in my possession irrefutable evidence against the Americans and I am prepared to supply it ... if (the United States) tries to implicate me in an affair linked to terrorism," Mullah Krekar, who is believed to front Ansar al-Islam, told Al-Hayat newspaper.

He dismissed as "fabrications" reports linking his group to Al-Qaeda, saying they were designed to justify a strike against Iraq.

"I had a meeting with a CIA representative and someone from the American army in the town of Sulaymaniya (Iraqi Kurdistan) at the end of 2000. They asked us to collaborate with them ... but we refused to do so," he said.
www.lightscion.com/krekar.htm

And here:

"The Mullah claims he had a secret meeting with the CIA and US military personnel in Iraqi Kurdistan last year. Could this explain why US intelligence agencies were reportedly so concerned about Powell raising Ansar al-Islam as one of the key connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda?"

video interview available here:
http://www.insightnewstv.com/d80 /

[meganmonkey]

5. Just what we need to bomb the sh*t out of

whatever city we decide 'Zarqawi' is in now.

Geez, he is a such a convenient foe, what with all of the testimony that he doesn't even exist... :eyes:

[KittyWampus]

6. You Mean The Dead, Resurrected, One Legged-Guy?

Hersch said Zaraqawi is a composite figure.

[asjr]

7. Any news we get from "U.S. Intelligence"

has an outhouse smell about it.

[bullimiami]

9. really. as soon as i see this crap i suspect its just propaganda

fabrication, lies.

what a shame that i have to wonder if the media is reporting facts.

[MrPrax]

10. LOL...too much

Newsweek has managed to capture more 'plot' intrigues than an episode of Desperate Housewives...

Zarqawi told al-Iraqi, "I'm already here! So why is the sheik sending someone else?" !!!...Meow!!

Did Newsweek manage to get their take on the Jen and Brad breakup?

[thebigidea]

11. whoah - since when did he "head the Iraq insurgency?"

did he run that by every other group and individual fighting the occupation? did they draw straws?

or is this just a case of simplification, to give a face to a faceless enemy surrounding us?

what a bunch of bullshit.

[leesa]

12. Of course, OBL likely died of natural causes in 12/01

These guys have more active lives after they are dead than when they are alive.

[daleo]

13. Dead men tell no tales.

And they don't mind when you just make up stories about them. You can't get much more cooperative than that.