Just Say It: Zarqawi Was Created by the U.S.

Re: Reputed Terrorist Al-Zarqawi Still Shrouded in U.S.-Fed Myth, Mystery, a news report by Chris Shumway

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Dear Editors:

I congratulate Mr. Shumway on his article but cannot understand the reticence at arriving at the most obvious conclusion of this excellent analysis: The Al-Zarqawi myth was exploded (no pun intended) into our consciousness by American intelligence with the unquestioning help of a most compliant or complicit press.

A cunning and dangerous nemesis was spawned full-grown from the bowels of the Pentagon like Athena from the mind of Zeus. The problem is that the idiots in charge of black ops at the Pentagon are no Zeus. Their creation was given a curriculum vitae with flaws that a modicum of reasoning would detect.

The ruse of making up a persona is nothing original. It has been used for deception many times before and examples abound. In WW2, the British used this stratagem successfully to plant nonexistent operations in German minds or doubts about real ones they thought were compromised, but they were more sophisticated than the mediocre operatives of today. In Iraq, having a Zarqawi can be a multifaceted asset for an occupation force.

Two dividends are obvious. The first is to sow as much discord as possible between various religious and ethnic groups so that the natives can concentrate their fury against one another instead of the occupier, who can then relax in the role of peacemaker or even arbitrator -- a classic case of the divide-and-conquer approach used throughout the centuries.

Yet again the press seems to accept like total morons the thesis advanced by the US that it is the insurgents who want a fratricidal war in Iraq.

The second bonus in having a Zarqawi persona is the fact that it will attract many discontented, young, naïve anti-American militants in Iraq and the surrounding region so they can be controlled and dealt with. This is a plus not only for the Americans but also the unpopular regimes of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt who would rather have their potential revolutionaries flock to Iraq, searching for their holy grail in the form of the Zarqawi legend, to be identified and delivered to the Americans rather than remaining dangerous and anonymous at home.

--Stanley Laham, Ph.D.
Davie, Florida

Shumway Responds

Thanks for reading TNS, Dr. Laham, and thanks for your letter.

Although the article in question -- which is a hard news report based on numerous secondary sources rather than an "analysis" per se -- points out the many discrepencies and inconsistencies in the information about Al-Zarqawi leaked by US government sources, I did not feel that it would be appropriate or responsible to conclude in writing that the Al-Zarqawi myth (or even Al-Zarqawi himself) is the "creation" of the American intelligence community or other secret forces.

Why? Two reasons basically:

First, In TNS reports on Iraq, our goal is to compile critical, verifiable information from a variety of sources, especially ordinary Iraqi citizens -- information that is often buried deep within mainstream media reports, or missing completely from them. We try to avoid analysis and commentary (lots of other sites do that), opting instead to provide hard facts and the context within which those facts can be better understood. We trust our readers to treat all reporting with skepticism and to draw their own conclusions.

With the Al-Zarqawi reporting, the mainstream media, as you observe in your letter, has consistently repeated whatever military and intelligence sources (who are rarely identified in the stories, which doesn't help us evaluate their credibility) tell them, even though it often contradicts previously leaked information or seems incredibly illogical (such as: Al-Zarqawi was an ally of Saddam and Al-Qaeda).

In my report, I was basically trying to provide a bit of a corrective to mainstream media. In a sense, I would hope readers came away asking: How can any American government source say with much confidence what Al-Zarqawi is planning when they don't even know anyone who's seen him in person in four years? Unlike Osama bin Laden, who came from a privileged, highly public family, very little is known about Al-Zarqawi's background.

Which leads to my second reason: I'm not about to conclude much of anything about Al-Zarqawi because I find it damn near impossible to get a straight story about the guy. Very little of the information floating around seems to add up, as my report suggests. In my view, there is no obvious conclusion to be reached.

The most responsible reporting, I think, has been done by people who have covered Islamic fundamentalist activities for years, and they tend to think that Al-Zarqawi is but one player in the global fundamentalist movement -- a thug and opportunist who's using Iraq as a platform because its the most unstable country in the region.

Does it appear that the U.S. is building him up to be more than he is, using him as a convenient villain? Sure seems like it, and the mainstream media -- being close to the establishment and knowing the effectiveness of fear-mongering -- is eager to report what officials say. But without more substantial, verifiable information, I can't say much more about Al-Zarqawi or the U.S. black ops folks. It would all be speculation, which, on this story, I'll leave to others.

--Chris Shumway
Associate Editor