Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, whose handover the Iraqi government requested of Fallujah residents, has topped a U.S. most-wanted list since the capture of Saddam Hussein, but proved elusive in spite of a $25 million bounty on his head and continuous air attacks.
Zarqawi’s Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group (reportedly changed recently its name to al-Qaeda Iraq) has brought, among other things, the reality of gruesome beheadings to Iraq, stirring worldwide shock and outrage. Tawhid wal Jihad has almost never released a hostage and is responsible for many bombing attacks in Iraq.
The U.S. has justified its daily attacks against Fallujah with the claim that it is targeting Zarqawi and his followers. However, the people of Fallujah have insisted that they have never seen the man or heard about him except through various media reports.
If we were to examine the delicate situation closely, nobody has actually seen Zarqawi since late 2001. Even his family members claim they know nothing of his whereabouts. Everything the world knows for the last few years has been from prisoner confessions and statements issued by various elements claiming to be Zarqawi. Come to think of it, neither the FBI, CIA nor the Defense Department have certified on the record, that any of these statements are likely from Zarqawi himself.
“Zarqawi” is suspected of direct involvement in the kidnapping and beheading of several foreigners in Iraq and even of wielding the knife himself. The Jordanian-born figure is accused of masterminding the Iraqi “insurgency”, which the interim government and American troops have vowed to crush in time for elections planned in January 2005. He also faces a death sentence at home, where Jordan's state security court condemned him and seven others to death in April for the 2002 killing of a U.S. official in the kingdom.
Zarqawi first came to prominence in the run-up to the Iraq war when in U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation before the UN Security Council, Zarqawi's presence in Iraq was portrayed as evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the al-Qaeda network. Powell told the UN that Zarqawi was an associate of Osama Bin Laden who had sought refuge in Iraq. However, proof of strong ties both ways - to Saddam on the one side and to al Qaeda on the other - proved quite difficult to substantiate.
So who exactly is Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and what do we really know about one of the world’s most feared men?
37-year-old Zarqawi, whose real name is Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, is a veteran of the Afghan war against Soviet occupation, a U.S.-backed conflict in the 1980s that drew many idealists from around the Islamic world.
He spent some eight years in prison in Jordan before being released under a royal amnesty in 1999. In late 2001, he was injured in combat and lost a leg after taking up arms against the U.S.-led forces which had launched a campaign to unseat the Taliban, who were harboring Al Qaeda and ruling Afghanistan.
He was born to a respectable but poor Jordanian family from the Bani Hassan tribe. His father, a retired army officer, was typical of the loyal men who served King Hussein of Jordan. However, like many young Arabs of his generation growing up in the 1980s, the young al-Zarqawi was bored and unemployed.
He was known as a trouble-maker who drank, was occasionally picked up by the police and appeared headed for a life of petty crime until he decided to volunteer to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
He arrived just as the Soviet army was withdrawing and ended up working as a journalist on an Islamic newspaper. Returning home in 1992, he was watched closely by the secret police which feared that former Mujahidin could threaten the regime. He was arrested for having weapons in his home and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
It was during his imprisonment that Zarqawi emerged as a tough leader who studied the Quran and the teachings of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a jailed Palestinian cleric. As aforementioned, in 1999, the Jordanian authorities ordered a general amnesty for prisoners and freed al-Zarqawi.
He fled the country before he could be arrested and went to Pakistan then Afghanistan, where he established a training camp. After the American-led invasion in 2001 he reportedly fled to northern Iraq where he established the Ansar al-Islam group. From this base, and with the connivance of the Iraqi authorities, he began what has become one of the bloodiest “terrorist campaigns” in history.
In October 2002, his group was blamed for assassinating an American diplomat in Amman. After the invasion of Iraq he was well-placed to lead the campaign against the U.S. occupation.
His most notorious action was to blow up the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003, killing the UN representative and forcing the organization to leave Iraq.
After all this has been said, can we state for a fact that Zarqawi really does exist or is it merely his image, or the image of someone else that has stepped in his shoes, that continues to spread horror among so many?
Perhaps the “real” Zarqawi is long dead, but, under the developing circumstances, an alternative one has been "created" by Iraqi resistance groups who seek to strongly terrorize the United States. Indeed, the West has come to fear Zarqawi and even place a heavy reward for anyone who will lead to his capture.
Another scenario may be that the “real” one is indeed long dead, but it is the U.S. intelligence and authorities that have "created" him to justify the war against Iraq, especially after no weapons of mass destruction have been found in the war-torn country.
It seems that there are many question marks tied to this man’s history and current stature. To make the situation even a bit more complicated, Zarqawi also has death threats hanging over him from local groups, one accusing him of "treachery" and allegiance to toppled leader Saddam Hussein, another ordering him and his supporters to leave Iraq immediately.
A U.S. official recently said that a new CIA assessment had found no conclusive proof that Saddam gave safe haven to Zarqawi before the launch of the U.S.-led war.
There are now also doubts about whether Zarqawi received medical attention at a Baghdad hospital in May 2002 as administration officials had asserted, according to Knight-Ridder newspapers which first revealed the CIA assessment.
In May, a high-level intelligence officer said that while Zarqawi does not drive the “insurgency”, his access to fighters and weapons are what make him “dangerous”. Col. Buck Connor, the senior commander in Ramadi said, "Zarqawi uses these groups. He arranges money for heavy weaponry, smuggles people. He arranges financing... It's more like a loose spider web."
The high-ranking U.S. officer said that the military was nowhere near catching Zarqawi. "He can move relatively free ... He is a guy who is very cautious. He's got his operational security."
Undoubtedly, Al-Zarqawi has established himself as the world's most wanted “terrorist mastermind”, in line with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. It looks as if Zarqawi is using increasingly sophisticated techniques to hurt his enemies and spread his message across the Arab world. But, what exactly is his message? What does he really wish to convey to the Arab people and to the entire world? Unlike Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who has just sent an explicit message to the American public, ahead of the U.S. presidential elections, Zarqawi has never spoken out about his exact causes or policies.
One thing, however, is quite obvious regarding Zarqawi’s policy towards his captives. “The treatment of the hostages is very carefully calibrated and you will notice that they receive very different treatment depending on which country they come from,” said one Iraqi official. “Americans are killed immediately, the French are negotiated for, Turks and Arabs are ransomed. Now we know the British are killed after they have been exploited to the maximum.”
Some may try to decode his policies from this pattern of behavior, but still, this can not signal a clear-cut indication of Zarqawi’s long-term goals.
If we were to judge, however, Zarqawi’s actions in terms of “international terrorism”, it is apparent that his achievements are “phenomenal”, given that until last year few people had ever heard of the former convict from the Jordanian town of Zarqa.
Since then hardly a week goes by without his group being blamed for a new “act of violence”, most of them directed against Iraqi policemen and politicians, members of the rival Shia Muslim sect and now Westerners. Several hundred people, mostly Iraqis, have been killed during his campaign.
While his “methods” have disgusted many, Arabs from around the Middle East have assembled to join his ranks and many privately praise his success in making Iraq ungovernable for the Americans.
Some circles have started to imply that with Osama bin Laden’s absence from the international “arena”, Zarqawi could become the new figurehead of the global Jihadist movement. It is hard to predict what the global situation will evolve into with regards to this aspect, especially in the aftermath of bin Laden’s recent appearance in a newly aired videotape, just days before the Bush-Kerry elections. However, one thing is clear, Zarqawi, whoever he may truly be, has emerged as one of the top leaders in the post-Saddam era, and is continuing to stir immense fear and panic in the hearts of many - both in Iraq and beyond.
