Sunday, June 25, 2006

White House confused about Zarqawi's successor.

Take a look at the guy they thought was Al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq (link below). This fellow looks like he just ate a bale of Qat.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that the announcement of a successor for Zarqawi, from the U.S. military, came awfully quick. Are we now choosing the leaders of Al Qaeda as well as the leaders of the official government of Iraq?

Just wondering.

CNN.com - A question of identity - Jun 23, 2006:

"The case of Abu Ayyub al-Masri is a good place to start. No sooner had Abu Musab al-Zarqawi been killed than the U.S. military was saying that al-Masri was his replacement as the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Given that the military said it had recovered a 'treasure trove' of documents in sweeps after al-Zarqawi's death, it seemed a reasonable statement.

But then the confusion began. The statement from al Qaeda in Iraq announcing al-Zarqawi's death was signed by a different person, who mentioned yet another name as the insurgents' new leader.

Although al-Masri was supposedly an Egyptian, we couldn't find any former Egyptian jihadi who could identify him.
And then a statement appeared signed by 'Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer,' saying he was al-Zarqawi's successor and pledging to drive the Americans from Iraq.

One expert told me that Abu Ayyub al-Masri was al-Muhajer and that his real name was Yousef al-Durairi, an Egyptian who headed to Afghanistan and jihad in 1980. Another expert appeared on the Arabic-language channel Al Arabia to say that al-Muhajer was an alias for someone who might be Libyan."

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