Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - The Dead Voice of "al Qaeda" in Iraq

Despite fighting in the CIA-backed war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, [al-Zarqawi] does not adhere to the ideology of al-Qaeda, a view shared by the CIA. Indeed, his name does not figure on its list of the 22 most wanted Islamic terrorists and he has never been mentioned in the list of senior al-Qaeda men in bin Laden's entourage in Afghanistan. [Guardian - 2/2/03]

A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was killed some time ago in U.S. bombing and a letter outlining plans for fomenting sectarian war is a forgery, a statement allegedly from an insurgent group west of the capital said.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq "during the American bombing there," according to a statement circulated in Fallujah this week and signed by the "Leadership of the Allahu Akbar Mujahedeen."

The statement did not say when al-Zarqawi was supposedly killed, but U.S. jets bombed strongholds of the extremist Ansar al-Islam in the north last April as Saddam Hussein's regime was collapsing.

Arab commentator Abd al-Bari Atwan says it is quite possible that al-Zarqawi is now dead.

He told Aljazeera.net: "There is no real proof that he is alive. If he is supposedly moving around freely in Iraq, why haven't Iraqis spoken about him? He can't be that difficult to recognise with his wooden leg." [Aljazeera]

"The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." -- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, in an internal 2004 memo praising the propaganda campaign to hype the threat of Iraq's "terrorist mastermind" Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

I'm frankly amazed this Washington Post story from Monday hasn't gotten more play.

What it exposes is that Bush administration never stopped lying to the American people about the threats faced in Iraq. Just as it did with WMD before the war, the administration hyped the threat posed by Zarqawi during the occupation -- this time to make it seem as though Iraq were a vital part of the battle with Al Qaeda. [Rolling Stone 4/11/06]