Captured AQI Leader: Osama Bin Laden’s Inner Circle Wields Considerable Influence Over al-Qaeda In Iraq
Al Qaeda was determined to hide the fact that they were an invading foreign gang looking to conquer as much of Iraq as possible. So they hid this fact by hiring an Iraqi actor to portray their leader, a mythical Iraqi named Omar Baghdadi, in order to fool the locals into believing that AQI was a populist Iraqi reaction to an American invader.
Portraying Americans as invaders not liberators has also been a key to All Qaeda’s propaganda campaign.
Terrorist leader exposed as ‘myth’
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
BAGHDAD — Over the past year, Iraqis heard several audio recordings by a mysterious terrorist leader named Omar al-Baghdadi singing the praises of the organization al-Qaeda in Iraq and urging his followers to attack U.S. troops.
The whole thing was a sham, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Al-Baghdadi was actually a fictional character dreamed up by al-Qaeda in Iraq to bolster its local credibility because the group is largely run by non-Iraqis. The voice heard in the recordings belonged to an Iraqi actor, the military said.
The character was “a creation of al-Qaeda in Iraq leadership to help put an Iraqi face on … their efforts here,” Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner told reporters.
The revelation occurred after the capture in Mosul on July 4 of the top al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. He confessed that al-Baghdadi was a “myth” concocted by the group’s Egyptian-born leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Al-Mashhadani also told interrogators that Osama bin Laden’s inner circle still wields considerable influence over al-Qaeda in Iraq.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Baghdad | Sunni | Osama bin Laden | Masri | Mashhadani | Baghdadi | Bergner
The leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq was largely born elsewhere in the Middle East, although many rank-and-file members are Iraqis.
A terrorist umbrella group called the Islamic State of Iraq, created in 2006 and which includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, invented al-Baghdadi in an effort to “market itself” to Iraqis, Bergner said.
The invented character’s last name means “of Baghdad,” while the name Omar strongly suggests Sunni origin — the sect from which al-Qaeda derives most of its support. The voice attributed to al-Baghdadi in recordings posted on the Internet belongs to a local actor named Abu Abdullah al-Naima, Bergner said.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has recently suffered a decline in public support in Anbar province and other areas. President Bush still calls the group the main threat to Iraq’s security.
Baghdad resident Ali al-Lami said the al-Baghdadi scam “would be a big insult to some Sunnis who still believe in al-Qaeda, because al-Qaeda deceived them.”
Contributing: Zaid Sabah
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I don’t hear any Muslim outrage about that pic. Do you?
Why not? Is it OK for Muslims to commit a massacre? Is it in their religious book Das Koran?
THIS is what should be done to every insurgent that we capture. THIS is what THEY understand. Kill the head of the snake and the body will die. Send more of them to that seaside resort in Cuba, and these cretins will keep on keeping on.
All of these murdering child-molestors have used up their “life card”. Kill them.
July 19th, 2007 at 8:44 amThis story kind of shocked the shit out of me. It was a clever plan on their part and even influenced other Iraqis to join in who otherwise wouldnt have. Maybe the DemoRats in congress will now see and even believe the huge influence of AQ in Iraq, This has definitely become the central front in the WOT whether they will admit it or not
July 19th, 2007 at 11:48 amthat is the only way a dummycrat would fight a war,, if the enemy is on its knees,blindfolded, and in the back of the head,, the guy with the pistol looks like john kerry killing that kid in viet nam,, and then getting the silver star,, now they court martial MARINES…
July 19th, 2007 at 1:37 pmWow. I can almost see a bone-chilling parallel, right here at home, in the US Congress….
July 19th, 2007 at 2:33 pm