U.S. Says Insurgent Leader It Couldn’t Find Never Was
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/world/middleeast/18cnd-baghdadi.html
Summary:
BAGHDAD, July 18 — For more than a year, the leader of one the most notorious insurgent groups in Iraq was said to be a mysterious Iraqi called Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.
...General Bergner told reporters that a senior Iraqi insurgent captured this month said that the elusive Mr. Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose declarations on audiotape were read by a man named Abu Abdullah al-Naima.
General Bergner said the ruse was devised by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born leader of the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Although the group is mostly Iraqi, much of its leadership is foreign, and Mr. Masri was reportedly trying to mask the outsiders’ dominant role.
...General Bergner said that Mr. Masri’s ploy was to invent Mr. Baghdadi, a figure whose very name was meant to establish an Iraqi pedigree, install him as the head of a front organization called the Islamic State of Iraq, and then arrange for Mr. Masri to swear allegiance to him.
Adding to the deception, he said, the deputy leader in Osama bin Laden’s group Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, publicly supported Mr. Baghdadi in a video and Internet statements.
The captured insurgent who was said to have alerted the Americans was identified as Khalid Abdul Fatah Daoud Mahmud al-Mashadani, who was said to have been detained by American forces in Mosul on July 4.
...About two and a half years ago, Mr. Mashadani joined Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, where he served as the Media Emir, or publicity director, the general said.
General Bergner said that Mr. Mashadani was also an intermediary between Mr. Masri in Iraq and Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri, whom the Bush administration says are remotely supporting and guiding Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
...An important part of the American strategy against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been to drive wedges between the group, other insurgent groups and the Sunni population, and General Bergner’s briefing continued that theme.
“Mashadani confirms that al-Masri and the foreign leaders with whom he surrounds himself, not Iraqis, made the operational decisions,” General Bergner said.
...Videos have been issued under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq that were said to show a bomb attack in Diyala on an American Bradley armored vehicle and an assault on an Iraqi military checkpoint.
In one recent statement, the Islamic State of Iraq made light of the American code name for its offensive in Baquba, Arrowhead Ripper, by saying that “the arrows have been returned to the enemy like boomerangs,” according to the SITE Institute, a United States group that monitors international terrorist groups.
...Mr. Riedel said the military needed to guard against the possibility that Mr. Mashadani might be trying to protect a real person by telling the Americans that Mr. Baghdadi was imaginary. The military insists that Mr. Mashadani provided his account because he resented the role played by foreign leaders in Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/world/middleeast/18cnd-baghdadi.html
Summary:
BAGHDAD, July 18 — For more than a year, the leader of one the most notorious insurgent groups in Iraq was said to be a mysterious Iraqi called Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.
...General Bergner told reporters that a senior Iraqi insurgent captured this month said that the elusive Mr. Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose declarations on audiotape were read by a man named Abu Abdullah al-Naima.
General Bergner said the ruse was devised by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born leader of the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Although the group is mostly Iraqi, much of its leadership is foreign, and Mr. Masri was reportedly trying to mask the outsiders’ dominant role.
...General Bergner said that Mr. Masri’s ploy was to invent Mr. Baghdadi, a figure whose very name was meant to establish an Iraqi pedigree, install him as the head of a front organization called the Islamic State of Iraq, and then arrange for Mr. Masri to swear allegiance to him.
Adding to the deception, he said, the deputy leader in Osama bin Laden’s group Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, publicly supported Mr. Baghdadi in a video and Internet statements.
The captured insurgent who was said to have alerted the Americans was identified as Khalid Abdul Fatah Daoud Mahmud al-Mashadani, who was said to have been detained by American forces in Mosul on July 4.
...About two and a half years ago, Mr. Mashadani joined Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, where he served as the Media Emir, or publicity director, the general said.
General Bergner said that Mr. Mashadani was also an intermediary between Mr. Masri in Iraq and Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri, whom the Bush administration says are remotely supporting and guiding Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
...An important part of the American strategy against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been to drive wedges between the group, other insurgent groups and the Sunni population, and General Bergner’s briefing continued that theme.
“Mashadani confirms that al-Masri and the foreign leaders with whom he surrounds himself, not Iraqis, made the operational decisions,” General Bergner said.
...Videos have been issued under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq that were said to show a bomb attack in Diyala on an American Bradley armored vehicle and an assault on an Iraqi military checkpoint.
In one recent statement, the Islamic State of Iraq made light of the American code name for its offensive in Baquba, Arrowhead Ripper, by saying that “the arrows have been returned to the enemy like boomerangs,” according to the SITE Institute, a United States group that monitors international terrorist groups.
...Mr. Riedel said the military needed to guard against the possibility that Mr. Mashadani might be trying to protect a real person by telling the Americans that Mr. Baghdadi was imaginary. The military insists that Mr. Mashadani provided his account because he resented the role played by foreign leaders in Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
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