Interesting
Baghdad -- Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi Governing Council officials today released the text of an intercepted letter written by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist with al-Quaeda affiliations, to al-Quaeda officials. In the document, Zarqawi acknowledges that "time is running out" for the insurgents and terrorists as the transition to Iraqi soverignty draws nearer. The only solution, according to Zarqawi, is to force a civil war between Sunni and Shi'a. "So the solution, and God only knows, is that we need to bring the Shi'a into the battle because it is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidel and us." Reward for Info Leading to Zarqawi's Arrest Doubled to $10MBaghdad -- Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi Governing Council officials today released the text of an intercepted letter written by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist with al-Quaeda affiliations, to al-Quaeda officials. In the document, Zarqawi acknowledges that "time is running out" for the insurgents and terrorists as the transition to Iraqi soverignty draws nearer. The only solution, according to Zarqawi, is to force a civil war between Sunni and Shi'a. "So the solution, and God only knows, is that we need to bring the Shi'a into the battle because it is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidel and us." Reward for Info Leading to Zarqawi's Arrest Doubled to $10M
Well having read the full text there's quite a lot to digest if this letter is indeed legitimate.
First of all, to quote the last line from Starship Troopers "It's afraid!"; insurgents in Iraq and the Al Qaeda vanguard are rapidly losing the battle for Iraq and are slowly being suffocated of space as the domestic law-enforcement force grows in Iraq. There is an overall tone of anxiety to the letter.
However the letter does document what many have suspected to be the current terrorist tactic du-jour - what little of Al Qaeda that resides in Iraq now has one prime objective: to drag the Sunnis and the Shia into a secular civil war. They achieve this by car-bombing, suicide bombing and assassination targeting Shia leaders and common civilians. Inciting a civil war to that would kill thousands of muslims? Dude!! Awesome t4ct1cs!! but as Zarqawi puts it "the religion of god is worth more than lives". Ah, fundamentalist Islam is such a beautiful thing.
So what's the bottom line digest of this transcript? What's Al Qaeda's man-on-the-ground's opinion?
a) America's never going to leave.
b) If an Iraqi government is elected less than 4 months after the terrorist campaign begins in earnest Al Qaeda's screwed.
c) In a stable Iraq insurgents will lose the war of attrition they are waging faster than they already are managing to.
He even concedes that it'd be a worthwhile option to just pack up and leave and find a different battleground.
The US on it's own isn't what's laying the smackdown on Al Qaeda in Iraq - brilliantly it's the Iraqi people themselves: the fear which Zarqawi constantly alludes to is the control and security blanket implemented by Iraq's domestic security forces. As long as the Iraqi people choose to strive to continue rebuilding their nation Al Qaeda is 'pwned'.
I love the internet
Oh yeah and why does the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority have such a crappy-looking website?
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at February 15, 2004 02:58 PM