US may be playing up Zarqawi's role in Iraq (WP)

[tocqueville]

42 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military is exaggerating the role of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, possibly to help tie the war to the group blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks, a US newspaper reported.

Citing internal military documents and unnamed officers, the Post said Zarqawi's profile had been raised in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance.

The documents state that the US propaganda campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners, the report said.

US authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists, The Post said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060410/pl_afp/usiraqunrestzarqawi

[dmkinsey]

1. Golly

Who would've ever conceived of something like this? :sarcasm:

[creeksneakers2]

2. Proof the Bushies concocted a lie about the causes

of terrorist attacks in Iraq and the insurgency itself. Up to this day, the White House has claimed that Al Qaeda is behind the civil war in Iraq. The White House maintains that Zarqawi communicated with Al Qaeda and they hatched a plot to cause a civil war by attacking Shi'ites and making it look like Sunni's did it, or attacking Sunnis and making it look like Shi'ites did it. For proof, the White House said they had "captured a letter" between Zarqawi and the Al Qaeda leadership about the plot.

We now have proof that the story about the "Al Qaeda/Zarqawi plot" is a total fabrication.

The Post story doesn't actually say that, but it does say:

"That slide, created by Casey's subordinates, does not specifically state that U.S. citizens were being targeted by the effort, but other sections of the briefings indicate that there were direct military efforts to use the U.S. media to affect views of the war. One slide in the same briefing, for example, noted that a "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page on Feb. 9, 2004."

What the Post says here about the New York Times article isn't quite true. The Post says the Times article was about Zarqawi "boasting of suicide attack."

A simple $3.50 to the Times archive brings up the article, which actually says:

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: INTELLIGENCE; U.S. Says Files Seek Qaeda Aid In Iraq Conflict


Article
By DEXTER FILKINS; DOUGLAS JEHL CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON FOR THIS ARTICLE.
Published: February 9, 2004

"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 8 - American officials here have obtained a detailed proposal that they conclude was written by an operative in Iraq to senior leaders of Al Qaeda, asking for help to wage a ''sectarian war'' in Iraq in the next months.
The Americans say they believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has long been under scrutiny by the United States for suspected ties to Al Qaeda, wrote the undated 17-page document. Mr. Zarqawi is believed to be operating here in Iraq.


(snip)

The memo says extremists are failing to enlist support inside the country, and have been unable to scare the Americans into leaving. It even laments Iraq's lack of mountains in which to take refuge.

Yet mounting an attack on Iraq's Shiite majority could rescue the movement, according to the document. The aim, the document contends, is to prompt a counterattack against the Arab Sunni minority.

Such a ''sectarian war'' will rally the Sunni Arabs to the religious extremists, the document argues. It says a war against the Shiites must start soon -- at ''zero hour'' -- before the Americans hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis. That is scheduled for the end of June."

End Times story

The story in the Times refers to the same document Bush bases his claims on that the civil war in Iraq is caused by Al Qaeda. Its all a total fabrication. This is the proof!