09 Aug 2007: From time to time I have stated that Al-Qaeda IS in Iraq and that it is foreigner based. I have pointed out that in the Brookings Institute report, an Army Major stated ‘we can estimate that approximately 100% of suicide bombers are foreigners.’ I have pointed out that the original leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq was Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian that was living in Baghdad at the time of the invasion.
According to recently released US Intelligence, I (or rather that Army Major) may have been wrong about the suicide bombers, but frankly he could still be correct because there is another trend in Iraq. Zarqawi back in 2004 expressed his frustration with his Iraqi recruits. He said on the internet and in complaints to the Al-Qaeda leadership (i.e. Bin Ladin and al-Zawahari) that the Iraqis were cowards because they weren’t willing to blow themselves up.
Few of them made it to their destination or back from it if they did. You see, one of Zarqawi’s faithful would follow along in a second car, ostensibly to take the first guy back. Then as the VBIED approached the target or a convoy, he would use the remote control to blow up the recruit and the VBIED.
Such was the case when an Iraqi was delivering the gasoline tanker with VBIED to the Ministry of the Interior around the 04/05 timeframe (can’t remember the date and I don’t have the link). Somehow the “suicide” bomber survived and the Iraqi government put him on Television while in his hospital bed to demonstrate the atrocities of Al-Qaeda.
So perhaps the 10-20% of estimated Iraqi born suicide bombers fall into the above category. I reiterate, neither Iraqis nor Afghans are prone to this type of attack. They may do stupid stuff that will most likely lead to death, but to willingly commit kill themselves is against their morals. It also happens to be “Haram,” a cardinal sin in islam that will send you straight to hell, regardless of your jihadist status. Do not pass go, do not collect 70 virgins. Whether the Iraqis and Afghanis are just smarter or they know their Koran better than others, I don’t know, but I do know that they don’t like being suicide bombers.
Ok, now that we have that little bit of detail about my previous reports being different from the most recent releases of US Intelligence, let’s look at the other details.
A few other things about Zarqawi: Up until 2001, he was in Afghanistan maintaining relations with Al-Qaeda leaders including Zawahari and Bin Ladin with whom he met. He was an instructor at one of their camps there. In order to attain Al-Qaeda membership, he had to swear allegiance to OBL himself, something that doesn’t sit well with many radical islamists.
He was willing to help out teaching OBL’s students but wasn’t ready to swear to a man, even if the guy was establishing the “United Way" of terrorism. He held out for a few years, until he could attain the title of Commander of Iraqi Al-Qaeda (and of course make sure that AQ was the way of the future.) In turn, Bin Ladin himself publicly decreed that Zarqawi was the “Prince of Al-Qaeda in Iraq" and that all other terrorists should “obey” the man.
Zarqawi sent the team to Amman (Jordan) to blow up a wedding party and another team to Jordan to shoot a rocket at one of our Navy ships. En shallal (allah didn’t will the rocket to hit our ship. Good thing we trust the sights on our weapons rather than rely on the will of an uncaring god, huh?)
After we killed the Jordanian born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, he was replaced by an Egyptian, Abu Ayyub al-Masri. He too had spent time in Afghanistan instructing Al-Qaeda recruits in their ideology and had worked with the #2 in AQ, Zawahari for more than 2 decades.
In 2006, Al Qaeda tried to send the ideologist a little help. His new #2, Abd al-Hadi, was captured en route. As the former commander of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, one might consider it a demotion to be the new 2IC in Iraq. It could also be considered that AQ just puts that much emphasis on Iraq or that they see that Afghanistan is already lost to them or just that unimportant to them. (That’s another reason to consider demoting the guy.)
Other foreigners include:
The Syrian commander of AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) of Baghdad. (I’m betting he gets demoted soon too.)
The Saudi born AQI spiritual and legal advisor. (Does he do powers of attorney and funerals? We know he ain’t giving his boys instructions to follow the rules of engagement of the Geneva Convention. Does he perform last rites as the logistics guy buttons up the suicide vest?)
A Tunisian that runs the AQI version of Reception Battalion for other foreigners arriving for the ‘jihad.’ (“Here’s your cot and your suicide vest. Your tour of duty will be 1 week and we’ll get working on that DA 4187 requesting your 70 virgin bonus. And oh yeah, you get paid in cash at the end of your first month in country. None of my men ever received a late payment!” Why does the pay guy always have a funny accent? A Tunisian certainly would have a weird accent in Arabic.)
We’ve also killed the Turkish born AQI senior facilitator. (Is this just a fancy way of saying the logisitics officer? What does a “senior facilitator” do? I mean, I know they like to use flowery speech, but come on, call a REMF a REMF! “Hi there, I’m your facilitator. Here’s your suicide vest. I’m too important to go blow myself up. I’m a senior facilitator and if you call me a REMF once more, I’m gonna give you a defective detonator.”)
Oh, but they aren’t all foreigners. We also captured the senior Iraqi AQI leader, Khalid Abdul Fattah Da’ud Mahmoud al-Mashademi! During the untortured interrogation that probably included the quotes of the Koran demonstrating suicide is Haram, he made some interesting statements.
He confirmed that AQI foreigners are doing their best to blend in with the Iraqis and continue the perception that they are Iraqi fighters. It seems they’ve noticed that “certain politicians” use the ‘civil war’ argument to persuade American voters that we should retreat from the place they wish to set up their new Caliphate.
AQI made up a name, Omar al-Baghdadi, to persuade Iraqi’s they had a native born leader. (Sorta goes along with the t-shirt we sell at the PX: “Who’s yer Bagh-Daddy?” I wonder if they listen to AFN radio and got their inspiration there.)
Mashdemi also confirmed that Ayyub (the Egyptian born AQI commander) and other foreigners were calling the shots in Iraq for AQI. He confirmed Ayyub, has pledged “baya’at” or loyalty to OBL himself. (Guess that means that OBL was still alive when he joined AQ.)
US intelligence concluded: (and this is in agreement with what I’ve been telling you) that AQ and AQI are attempting to continue sectarian violence by attacking Shi’a’s in hope of retaliatory strikes to gain Sunni recruits. (Hey, I’ve tried to explain to you their twisted logic. “Yeah, private, I want you to go down to the mosque and blow yourself up so that the Shi’a will get upset and send someone down here and blow a bunch of us up. That way your brothers will get mad and come down here for their own suicide vests. We’ll give you a recruiting bonus in your next check. Your mom is gonna be so proud of you.”)
That AQI intends to make Iraq their base of operations to continue their mission of establishing a pan-islamic Caliphate (my word and Zawahari’s AQ 2IC). AQ plans to use Iraq as a safe haven to plan and train for an attack on America as per Bin Ladin and as per Ayyub (AQI commander) in a November 2006 audio tape when the latter stated he would not rest until he attacked Washington DC itself.
So, how does this jive with the Brookings Institute? Their pie chart for nationalities of foreign fighters as of September 2005 show 600 Algerians, 550 Syrians, 500 Yemenis, 450 Sudanese, 400 Egyptians and 350 Saudis, as well as 150 of other countries.
How about the CNN reporters on the ground? Their Australian born reporter got on and railed about Bush stating the obvious, that everyone has known for a long time that Al Qaeda is in Iraq.
In other words, a CNN reporter, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the US Military, US Intelligence, the President, and myself, a combat veteran of both fronts are ALL telling you that Al-Qaeda is in Iraq and that they want to establish their Caliphate (islamic empire) there before launching attacks on other islamic nations and our own country.
Perhaps, we should send some of those politicians in Washington calling for retreat to go talk with Ayyub or Zawahari. They could stand in the street with a sign expressing their desire for a meeting. I’m sure some young terrorist would be happy to oblige and take them down to the International Terrorist Headquarters, give them a cup of tea and cookies and discuss the methods of attaining World Peace. Since those politicians are claiming there is no such thing as AQI and we can just talk this out, I’m sure they’ll be treated real nice: no Burkhas, no orange jumpsuits and no dull knives.
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To find out about the Al-Qaeda camps in Nasiriyah and Fallujah, before the invasion in 2003:
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