"Seized Letter Outlines Al Qaeda Goals in Iraq"
By Susan B. Glasser and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
"Al Qaeda's top deputy urged the leader of his Iraq branch in July to
prepare for the inevitable U.S. withdrawal by carrying out political as
well as military actions, and he lectured him that he risked being
shunned by an Islamic world angered over his gruesome and not
"palatable" killings of fellow Muslims, according to an intercepted
letter released yesterday by the U.S. government.
The 6,000-word letter from Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant, Ayman
Zawahiri, to Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi amounts to a
detailed portrait of al Qaeda's long-term goals in Iraq and the Middle
East, and includes a striking critique of how Zarqawi has gone about
waging his war against not only U.S. troops but also Iraqi civilians.
The letter was posted yesterday on the Web site of Director of National
Intelligence John D. Negroponte --
http://www.dni.gov -- after senior
intelligence officials released excerpts of it last week.
Invoking the specter of the United States abruptly abandoning Iraq as it
did to Vietnam, Zawahiri counseled immediate political action: "We must
take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead
of the enemy imposing one on us."
The missive also suggests the degree to which al Qaeda's leadership
remains eager to assert its prerogatives with Zarqawi, who has become
the increasingly public face of the movement when Zawahiri and bin Laden
are in hiding.
Although the letter does not contain a direct reference to Zarqawi until
a cryptic greeting to him at the end, a senior intelligence official who
briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity said "it's absolutely
certain" it was meant for Zarqawi, declining to elaborate on how U.S.
officials made that conclusion.
The letter was dated July 9, but the official would not say whether it
had been sent. "We obtained it in the course of counterterrorism
operations in Iraq," he said.
Throughout, Zawahiri -- the Egyptian doctor who fused his own Islamic
movement with bin Laden's al Qaeda in the late 1990s and is believed to
operate now as the group's top commander -- comes across as a strategist
trying to rein in a guerrilla operating at odds with the movement's
political goals.
The official said that in its repeated criticism of Zarqawi, the letter
also amounts to a reproof from "an al Qaeda elder to an occasionally
hotheaded field commander." ******
"He comes down like a ton of bricks on what has happened tactically,"
the official said. ******
"This is not a rant. It is more chilling in a sense because it's so
well-argued, clean and calm," the official added. "There's a high
political content. Zawahiri calls for political action equivalent to
military action."
Zarqawi has been high on the list of most wanted insurgents since last
year after he pledged allegiance to bin Laden, but in recent months U.S.
military commanders have given even greater urgency to disrupting his
network of foreign fighters and Iraqi supporters.
The network is still thought to constitute only a fraction of the Iraqi
insurgency in numbers, but it is credited with carrying out a
disproportionately large share of the violence, as a result of suicide
bombings often aimed at Shiite civilians to foment sectarian strife.
But Zawahiri urged Zarqawi in the letter to change that formula and
refocus on politics.
When the United States leaves, al Qaeda must be ready to claim as much
territory politically in the inevitable void that will arise, he writes.
Zawahiri called that stage the setting up of an "emirate," in as much of
Sunni-dominated Iraq as possible, to be followed by the longer-term goal
of a "caliphate," reuniting the historical Islamic empire centered in
modern-day Egypt, Lebanon and Israel. ******
Zawahiri also questions Zarqawi's targeting of Iraqi Shiites, telling
him bluntly that the "majority of Muslims don't comprehend this" and
wondering whether such targeting is a "wise decision" given the need to
wage war against the United States and the current Iraqi government.
And even if Shiite leaders should be targeted, Zawahiri asks, "why were
there attacks on ordinary Shia?"
He also told Zarqawi that fellow Muslims "will never find palatable" the
televised scenes of hostage beheadings that have earned Zarqawi the
sobriquet "sheik of the slaughterers." among like-minded fighters.
In the media battle "for the hearts and minds" of the Islamic world,
Zawahiri said, such tactics will not work.
Zawahiri has spoken before about the broad plans of the al Qaeda
movement.
In a book smuggled out of Afghanistan in December 2001, Zawahiri said
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks "would be nothing more than disturbing acts"
if they "do not serve the ultimate goal of establishing the Muslim
nation in the heart of the Islamic world." In the 2001 volume, he said
the first goal should be to strike Americans and Jews "in our Muslim
countries."
In the new letter, Zawahiri said the Muslim masses "do not rally except
against an outside occupying enemy, especially if the enemy is firstly
Jewish and secondly American."
In an unusual reverse, the letter asks Zarqawi to send money to al
Qaeda, saying many of its "lines have been cut off," and that "we'll be
very grateful to you" for financial help.
"Staff writer Bradley Graham contributed to this report."
-----------------------------------------------
DSH
FAQ
Profile
Private Messages
Log in
