Zarqawi: The "Man who Never Was" is No More

[HamdenRice]

Let's get one thing clear up front: There never was a man whose given name was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who carried out terrorist activities or led terrorist organizations or factions in Iraq. Any person with a passing familiarity with Arab culture and language would immediately recognize that the name, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi cannot be anyone's given name. The words constitute two nicknames, or at best a nom de guerre.

"Abu" is used as a title of respect for a man who has had a son. Arab fathers are given nickames when their sons are born, such as Abu Musab -- "Musab's father." For example, the current Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, goes by the nickname, Abu Mazen -- Mazen's Dad. So Abu Musab simply means, "Musab's Dad."

In addition, "al Zarqawi" is not this person's family name. It refers to the fact that he is from the town of Zarqa in Jordan. Arabs add "i" to the end of a place to say a person is from there, the way we add "er" or "ian" to the end of a place name -- Zarqawi means the guy from Zarqa, just as "New Yorker" means a person from New York or "Bostonian" means a person from Boston.

So the sum total of the mainstream media's identification of this person is "Musab's Dad, the guy from Zarqa."

How many of the people even here on DU knew this? And how is it that anyone pointing out this indisputable fact is somehow supporting terrorists?

To say that Abu Musab al Zarqawi does not exist, and never existed, does not mean that there was no Jordanian "terrorist" (or "insurgent" or "foreign fighter" or whatever) who went by this nondescript name. But it shows just how lazy and stupid the main stream media is in picking up and using this information-less non-name. Can you imagine the domestic US media tracking the story of a serial killer on the run, and them identifying the suspect as "Bob's Dad, the guy from the Bronx," and being taken seriously?

The person who was killed yesterday may have been named, Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh, a member of the al-Khalayleh family of the Beni Hassan tribe. But then again, he may not have been. The al-Khalayleh name may also be a pseudonym. We just don't know for sure.

But what we do know is that on April 10, 2006, the Washington Post reported that al-Zarqawi was the subject matter of a US propoganda campaign in Iraq to exaggerate the importance of this person. In internal documents, Gen. Mark Kimmitt stated, "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date."

Again, this does not mean that there was no Jordanian terrorist active in Iraq, a person probably named al Khalayleh, but it does mean that we really don't know very much about what this person did, how influential he was or even who he was.

We also know that he has been reported killed, reported having his leg amputated, reported having not had his leg amputated, having cut off Nick Berg's head while shouting in a non-Jordanian accent, having barely escaped being arrested, having been incarcerated in Iraq but somehow not identified (maybe the US forces were looking for the non existent al Zarqawi rather than for al-Khalayleh).

I don't know what is true or not true about this person. But what I do know is that "he" (or should I say "it") lived not in the hard reality you and I live in, or even the hard reality that someone like Muqtada as-Sadr lives in, but in a fog of facts and lies and pseudo facts and information and non-information and disinformation -- so much so that the only thing I can say for sure is that he was not exactly whatever you or I thought he was, even if the person behind the mask was a very bad person, as the US government says he was.

[LaurenG]

1. I've been thinking we live in a world of holographs

I have no clue what is true. Except what my gut tells me.

[HamdenRice]

26. Zarqawi the hologram!

That's a good analogy. There clearly was a Jordanian foreign fighter, who has just been profiled, hopefully acurately, in the Atlantic as Nordic posted below.

But the overall image we have in the mainstream media is indeed a hologram -- the guy "named" al Zarqawi, who executed Nick Berg, who was bin Laden's "lieutenant", who had one leg, then had two legs, who was a mastermind -- all this is a cartoon, a hologram.

[Solly Mack]

2. Thank you

Much appreciated. Beautifully put...layers like an onion..nuances...matter.

[TomClash]

3. The Arab Emmanuel Goldstein

is dead.

So are 2,489 American soldiers, 113 British soldiers, a minimum of 40,000 Iraqi civilians and countless others.

WHY?

[LibertyorDeath]

4. Great post !

LOL

"identifying the suspect as "Bob's Dad, the guy from the Bronx," and being taken seriously?"


Recommend

[froshty1960]

6. I know

I love good analogies and this one ranks high on my list!

[LibertyorDeath]

12. Welcome to DU froshty !

:toast:

[Jim Warren]

5. Seeing through the matrix

Interesting use of the word 'caricature' in the quote below.

“Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will, made him more important than he really is,” (US) military intelligence officer Colonel Derek Harvey was quoted as saying.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/June/focusoniraq_June52.xml§ion=focusoniraq

[Ripley]

7. Why?

Are posters here being instructed to NOT DENY the "Official" story? There are a multitude of links listed about the outright lies the Military, Bush, Powell, etc. have given out in the last 3 years regarding this person. Why should we believe them now?

Another clear post .. Thanks for the info HR.

[peacebird]

8. who will bushco wave around as boogeyman now?

They basically let Osama get away in the early days of the war in Afghanistan. No suprise considering how close the bush family is with the bin Ladens but still.... Since georgie couldn't kill Uncle Banbar Bush's nephew he had to find a new boogeyman....

That new "fiend" was Saddam and his WMD. We pulled down a statue and claimed freedom was on the march! Mission Accomplished! But still the death counts grew, violence continued spiralling out of control. The WMD bit obviously fizzled, so bushco pulled Saddam out of his hidey-hole (which had no ladder for Saddam to get out of by himself - it appeared the man had been a captive for quite a while by the ratty hair. Saddam was too vain to let himself look like that) The glorious trial began... But bushco couldn't have Saddam speak because he might just mention being buddies with Uncle Ronnie and Papa Bush. Hell he might even remember Rummy shaking his hand and supplying him with all sorts of weaponry... Ooops. Saddam dies in captivity... Big suprise THAT was. Not.

And so since capturing Saddam didn't bring glorious peace and freedom and democracy across Iraq MORE boogeymen and fiends were needed. After all - the cluster f**k that is Iraq had to be SOMEONE'S FAULT.

So we were told about the horrors of Al Zarqawi and al Sadr.... but bad news kept coming. Fallujah. Haditha. Even worse news for bushc - his base needed more than his usual redmeat this time. Gay marriage bans and immigration weren't settling them down. They needed SHOCK-n-AWE and BLOOD. Down goes Zarqawi.

What next? Who shall rise to be the newest boogeyman?

[Jim Warren]

11. Another guy named "Abu"

Ummmm, an Egyptian maybe?

US military expects Egyptian militant to succeed Zarqawi
8 June 2006
BAGHDAD - The US military predicted on Thursday that slain Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi would be succeeded by an Egyptian born lieutenant known as Abu Al Masri.

US forces spokesman Major General William Caldwell said the military has been aware of Al Masri’s movements for some time and believe he first came to Iraq in 2002.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=focusoniraq&xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/June/focusoniraq_June53.xml

[DrDebug]

15. Yep and you'll love his picture

Watch out, because he has a mean hook!

P.S. From the description I think it's another dad from Egypt

[Jim Warren]

16. Arrgh matey!

[sunnystarr]

37. Oh ... that would be Masri's dad ... who knew! (nt)

[Karenina]

17. Al-Zawahiri!!!

They ditched him last year as Westerners got the names confused and didn't realize there were TWO TOP EVULDOOERS!!!

[Jigarotta]

27. for those who remember F Troop...

We're the Heckawi. (sp?)
meaning being lost.

[cosmicdot]

45. Abdullah al-Baghdadi

The new political leader of the coalition of insurgent groups - of
which Zarqawi is part - is Abdullah al-Baghdadi, Mr Azzam said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4872236.stm

catchy, innit?

Al Big Daddy sounding.

[DrDebug]

9. K&R

BTW: Did they find his wooden leg as well?

[LibertyorDeath]

10. He survived the 500lbs bomb intact

(Funny how that works.)

but leg didn't fair so well.

[Nordic65]

13. READ THIS - A true piece of what journalism is all about...

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200607/zarqawi?ca=9hloQUJamUfhaPsPg%2B9E5USZvqSqBDKyXpAE9U9Gsng%3D

[SpiralHawk]

18. Opening tidbit from The Atlantic

The Atlantic Monthly | July/August 2006

The Short, Violent Life of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

How a video-store clerk and small-time crook reinvented himself as America’s nemesis in Iraq

by Mary Anne Weaver

O n a cold and blustery evening in December 1989, Huthaifa Azzam, the teenage son of the legendary Jordanian-Palestinian mujahideen leader Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, went to the airport in Peshawar, Pakistan, to welcome a group of young men. All were new recruits, largely from Jordan, and they had come to fight in a fratricidal civil war in neighboring Afghanistan—an outgrowth of the CIA-financed jihad of the 1980s against the Soviet occupation there.

(snip)

[joeunderdog]

19. link? tia

[HamdenRice]

20. Great article -- thanks for the link

Probably rushed into epublishing as a result of the death of al Zarqawi. Here is an interesting quote:

“Even then—and even more so now—Zarqawi was not the main force in the insurgency,” the former Jordanian intelligence official, who has studied al-Zarqawi for a decade, told me. “To establish himself, he carried out the Muhammad Hakim operation, and the attack against the UN. Both of them gained a lot of support for him—with the tribes, with Saddam’s army and other remnants of his regime. They made Zarqawi the symbol of the resistance in Iraq, but not the leader. And he never has been.”

He continued, “The Americans have been patently stupid in all of this. They’ve blown Zarqawi so out of proportion that, of course, his prestige has grown. And as a result, sleeper cells from all over Europe are coming to join him now.” He paused for a moment, then said, “Your government is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

[Roland99]

30. What a GREAT article! Blows the lid off the WH Propaganda!!!

In December 1999, al-Zarqawi crossed the border into Afghanistan, and later that month he and bin Laden met at the Government Guest House in the southern city of Kandahar, the de facto capital of the ruling Taliban. As they sat facing each other across the receiving room, a former Israeli intelligence official told me, “it was loathing at first sight.”

According to several different accounts of the meeting, bin Laden distrusted and disliked al-Zarqawi immediately. He suspected that the group of Jordanian prisoners with whom al-Zarqawi had been granted amnesty earlier in the year had been infiltrated by Jordanian intelligence; something similar had occurred not long before with a Jordanian jihadist cell that had come to Afghanistan. Bin Laden also disliked al-Zarqawi’s swagger and the green tattoos on his left hand, which he reportedly considered un-Islamic. Al-Zarqawi came across to bin Laden as aggressively ambitious, abrasive, and overbearing. His hatred of Shiites also seemed to bin Laden to be potentially divisive—which, of course, it was. (Bin Laden’s mother, to whom he remains close, is a Shiite, from the Alawites of Syria.)

Al-Zarqawi would not recant, even in the presence of the legendary head of al-Qaeda. “Shiites should be executed,” he reportedly declared. He also took exception to bin Laden’s providing Arab fighters to the Taliban, the fundamentalist student militia that, although now in power, was still battling the Northern Alliance, which controlled some 10 percent of Afghanistan. Muslim killing Muslim was un-Islamic, al-Zarqawi is reported to have said.

...

At least five times, in 2000 and 2001, bin Laden called al-Zarqawi to come to Kandahar and pay bayat—take an oath of allegiance—to him. Each time, al-Zarqawi refused. Under no circumstances did he want to become involved in the battle between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. He also did not believe that either bin Laden or the Taliban was serious enough about jihad.

[Usrename]

40. Pulitzer material.

If only we had a real press.

[Jigarotta]

14. thanks, k&r. Hope there are more posts like this

in the next few days to actually start Thinking about this and settle the charges of crazy nutso CPer tinfoily freaks that would question anything the fucking lieing fucking media fuckers report to us.

[janx]

21. One of the best posts ever! I love language.

Did you know that during some of my college years, one of the best journalism schools in the country had NO foreign language requirement at all? I'm not sure if this is true today.

[SmokingJacket]

22. Thank you!

This is the post I wanted to write, but am not knowledgeable enough to do so.

:toast:

[dailykoff]

23. Great post.

And all this righteous thumbs-upping is way out of line. Are we that gullible?

[Blue Velvet]

24. "Bob's Dad, the guy from the Bronx"

Hilarious!

I actually think I might know him - is he related at all to Janet Doobydoo? :D

Seriously, though - great post. I was unaware of any of those translational details.

[Pastiche423]

25. In addition

wasn't his laptop discovered w/his medical info on it?

Or am I thinking of a different evil-doer?

[Jigarotta]

28. kick

[Raster]

29. Now this is the al-zarqawi post that belongs on the Greatest Page

:kick:

[SmokingJacket]

31. Kick! nt

[Clark2008]

32. I knew it as I'm Omramzey - Mother of Ramzey in

Arab culture...

My ex husband is Arabic.

But, you know, despite knowing this, it's not something I consciously thought about. Thanks for pointing it out. Your post is one of the best I've seen today. I'm recommending it.

[Nabia2004]

33. Kick - a must read - nt

[Ms. Clio]

43. ditto

plus another R

[mhatrw]

34. Yep.

WaPo - Zarqawi is a US Military PSYOP: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html

The NY Times Played Along: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002314713

Zarqawi - Bush's Man For All Seasons: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ15Ak02.html

UPI (Moonie Times) - How the US Created the Zarqawi Myth: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:2QuiYcfLZV0J:www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php%3FStoryID%3D20051110-014753-2561r+Claim:+U.S.+Created+al-Zarqawi+Myth&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

CIA Agent Says US Allowed Zarqawi to Escape: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-allowed-zarqawi-to-escape/2006/04/30/1146335608444.html

How the US fuelled myth of Zarqawi the mastermind: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml

Reputed Terrorist Al-Zarqawi Still Shrouded in U.S.-Fed Myth, Mystery: http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1546

Zarqawi - Everywhere & Nowhere: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GG07Ak02.html

A collection of pix of our happily finally actually dead parrot: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2327738&mesg_id=2328504

A collection of previous links saying Zarqawi was dead, seriously injured or captured: http://www.conjur.com/blog/2005/11/20/zarqawis-dead-again-3rd-times-a-charm-eh

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2006/04/10/GR2006041000097.html



Just saying ...

[autorank]

35. Your best post, period! As a reward, allow me to offer you...

Tony Snow, Messenger of Death


I walked into my family room and found my mother in law, a British subject, watching the
Tony Snow press briefing. There he was in all his glory, gesticulating, jumping, throwing
his whole body into the Dead Man Z press conference...and all of this taking place in
front of a large picture of Dead Man Z. I became enraged at the 1984 vibe and began a
minor rant. My dear mother in law, a survivor of the Battle of Britain (never left London
until the end of the war)looked back at me with mild disapproval and said, "Dear, what's
surprising about any of this."

Here is the real bifurcated story. For those without sun glasses ("They Live") you will only
see the top headline. The enlightened ones (those who wear shades when they use the internet),
will know immediately what today was about.

Terrorist Zarquawi Shot Like a Dog
----------------------------------------
Bush Approval Rating at New Low - 25%*

That's what the histrionics of Tony Snow were about. That's what the story is about.
That's what six years of NONSTOP LYING gets you...people stop believing anything you say.

I agree with HamdenRice in this most remarkable of posts, an epistemological adventure
leading to the truth ... that there is little truth to be known.

*Please note, we will never know when it really hits 25% because, after all, it's Tony's
network and Tony-like networks who do the polling and get the message out.

[mistertrickster]

36. His fictional life was so valuable to BushCo, I'm surprised they killed

him off.

We've been fed so much crap and disinformation and lies about this war, I don't know what to believe anymore--British commandos dressed as "insurgents" with car bombs. When the Iraqis arrest them, the Brits drive a tank through the prison wall and get them out.

So much for Iraqi sovereignty.

Anyway, at least BushCo. can't blame everything bad that happens in Iraq on "Musab's Dad" anymore.

Wonder who it'll be now?

(editted for spelling)

[LibDemAlways]

38. Great post.

If the next scary terrorist coming down the pike is "Abu Al Masri" (see post #11), the pentagon is getting even lazier. They didn't even give the guy a first name. Wouldn't that just translate to "Dad from Masri." Absurd.

[LibDemAlways]

39. kick. 39 Votes for Greatest Page....

This one deserves to be there.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

41. Kick n/t

[ooglymoogly]

42. this would be hilarious if it weren't so damn maniacal

kick and nom

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. Who gives a toss? We all knew who we meant by 'Cary Grant'

even though it wasn't his birth name. We know who we mean by "Pope Benedict" too. Obsessing over the exact origin of the man's name is pointless.

[HamdenRice]

46. Cary Grant was an Actor; the Pope is, um, the Pope

Abu Musab al Zarqawi was a terrorist and a "wanted" man. Wanted men are tracked down through something called their "identity".

Having 130,000 US troops looking for someone labelled "Abu Musab al Zarqawi" when there are no identity documents or passports for such a person is probably not an efficient use of military resources.

Please explain how this relates to actors or the Pope?

Also when the mainstream media does tele bios of people like Cary Grant or the Pope, they always say something like, "Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in ..." They never mentioned that with al Zarqawi, which shows at the least tremendous laziness.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. I don't think he was wandering around areas showing identity documents

in either his original or adopted name. I brought up actors and the Pope because you seem to think that the fact that the name he was commonly known by wasn't that he was born with was somehow relevant to media reports, as if referring to someone by an adopted name makes the story incorrect. I still can't understand why you think it is.

As for the mainstream media doing bios of him:

It was a far cry from Zarqawi's youth as a petty criminal in Jordan, remembered by those who knew him by his real name - Ahmad Fadil al-Khalayleh - as a simple, quick-tempered and barely literate gangster.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5058262.stm