War of Words
In a post nine days ago that attempted to fisk a Guardian column by Iraqi novelist Haifa Zangana, I mentioned that dozens of members of the al-Khalayleh clan of Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, had disowned him following the hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan. Yesterday, al-Qaeda responded by saying:
"Either the enemy of God [i.e. King Abdullah II of Jordan] forced you to take this step ... or you agreed and did it voluntarily. If the first case, then you have an excuse. In the latter case, then you can only make your excuses before God Almighty."
But if the intention behind this rebuke was to force al-Zarqawi’s clansmen to cower under the fear of God, or maybe under the fear of the master terrorist himself, the result has been quite the opposite: Today, in a full-page letter published in several Jordanian newspapers, 370 more members of al-Zarqawi’s clan have renounced all ties to him, pledging their loyalty to King Abdullah:
"We, the sons of the Bani Hassan tribe in all its branches in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan support and express solidarity with our cousins, the al-Khalayleh clan, and their decision to sever relations with the terrorist Ahmad Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. We condemn all terrorist actions carried out or claimed by this individual – actions which are alien to members of this tribe."
Meanwhile, US military officials have received confirmation that raids carried out in October killed Abu Ubaydah, a close confidant of al-Zarqawi who acted as his "executive secretary." I doubt Abu Ubaydah will be mourned very much by the Iraqi people, since according to al-Qaeda detainees, he "used intimidation and death threats" to force Iraqi civilians to support their terrorist activity. This adds credence to the argument I made in the earlier post mentioned above that it’s not the case that US tactics in Iraq are causing more Iraqis to join the insurgency, as Zangana claims, but rather that the far more brutal tactics of the insurgents are leading to a loss of support for the insurgency among the Iraqi people.
"Either the enemy of God [i.e. King Abdullah II of Jordan] forced you to take this step ... or you agreed and did it voluntarily. If the first case, then you have an excuse. In the latter case, then you can only make your excuses before God Almighty."
But if the intention behind this rebuke was to force al-Zarqawi’s clansmen to cower under the fear of God, or maybe under the fear of the master terrorist himself, the result has been quite the opposite: Today, in a full-page letter published in several Jordanian newspapers, 370 more members of al-Zarqawi’s clan have renounced all ties to him, pledging their loyalty to King Abdullah:
"We, the sons of the Bani Hassan tribe in all its branches in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan support and express solidarity with our cousins, the al-Khalayleh clan, and their decision to sever relations with the terrorist Ahmad Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. We condemn all terrorist actions carried out or claimed by this individual – actions which are alien to members of this tribe."
Meanwhile, US military officials have received confirmation that raids carried out in October killed Abu Ubaydah, a close confidant of al-Zarqawi who acted as his "executive secretary." I doubt Abu Ubaydah will be mourned very much by the Iraqi people, since according to al-Qaeda detainees, he "used intimidation and death threats" to force Iraqi civilians to support their terrorist activity. This adds credence to the argument I made in the earlier post mentioned above that it’s not the case that US tactics in Iraq are causing more Iraqis to join the insurgency, as Zangana claims, but rather that the far more brutal tactics of the insurgents are leading to a loss of support for the insurgency among the Iraqi people.
posted by Garth Rumina at 10:28 PM
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