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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html Military
Plays Up Role of Zarqawi Jordanian Painted
As Foreign Threat To
The The documents
state that the For the past two
years, Some senior
intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by
the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television
broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist.
Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly
bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual
numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer
in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues
on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort
Leavenworth, Kan., last summer. In a transcript
of the meeting, "The
long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former
regime types and their friends," said Harvey, who did not return phone
calls seeking comment on his remarks. There has been a
running argument among specialists in Recently there
have been unconfirmed reports of a possible rift between Zarqawi and the parent
al-Qaeda organization that may have resulted in his being demoted or cut loose.
Last week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that it was unclear what
was happening between Zarqawi and al-Qaeda. "It may be that he's not being
fired at all, but that he is being focused on the military side of the al-Qaeda
effort and he's being asked to leave more of a political side possibly to
others, because of some disagreements within al-Qaeda," he said. The military's
propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled
over into the 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 Leaks to
reporters from Filkins, reached
by e-mail, said that he was not told at the time that there was a psychological
operations campaign aimed at Zarqawi, but said he assumed that the military was
releasing the letter "because it had decided it was in its best interest
to have it publicized." No special conditions were placed upon him in
being briefed on its contents, he said. He said he was skeptical about the
document's authenticity then, and remains so now, and so at the time tried to
confirm its authenticity with officials outside the "There was
no attempt to manipulate the press," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the Another briefing
slide states that after U.S. military
policy is not to aim psychological operations at Americans, said Army Col.
James A. Treadwell, who commanded the "When we
provided stuff, it was all in Arabic," and aimed at the Iraqi and Arab
media, said another military officer familiar with the program, who spoke on
background because he is not supposed to speak to reporters. But this officer
said that the Zarqawi campaign "probably raised his profile in the
American press's view." With satellite
television, e-mail and the Internet, it is impossible to prevent some carryover
from propaganda campaigns overseas into the The Zarqawi
program was not related to another effort, led by the Lincoln Group, a It is difficult
to determine how much has been spent on the Zarqawi campaign, which began two
years ago and is believed to be ongoing. U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq in 2004
cost $24 million, but that included extensive building of offices and
residences for troops involved, as well as radio broadcasts and distribution of
thousands of leaflets with Zarqawi's face on them, said the officer speaking on
background. The Zarqawi
campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents.
"Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one One internal
briefing, produced by the Kimmitt is now
the senior planner on the staff of the Central Command that directs operations
in In 2003 and 2004,
he coordinated public affairs, information operations and psychological
operations in Kimmitt said,
"There was clearly an information campaign to raise the public awareness
of who Zarqawi was, primarily for the Iraqi audience but also with the
international audience." A goal of the
campaign was to drive a wedge into the insurgency by emphasizing Zarqawi's
terrorist acts and foreign origin, said officers familiar with the program. "Through
aggressive Strategic Communications, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi now represents:
Terrorism in Iraq/Foreign Fighters in Iraq/Suffering of Iraqi People (Infrastructure
Attacks)/Denial of Iraqi Aspirations," the same briefing asserts. Officials said
one indication that the campaign worked is that over the past several months,
there have been reports that Iraqi tribal insurgents have attacked Zarqawi
loyalists, especially in the culturally conservative *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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