The Hindu : International : Zarqawi — terrorist or Islamist crusader?

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Saturday, Sep 25, 2004

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International

Zarqawi — terrorist or Islamist crusader?

By Ewen MacAskill
and Rory McCarthy

LONDON/BAGHDAD, SEPT. 24. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the organisation responsible for the beheadings in Iraq, is regularly portrayed by the U.S. Government as a terrorist mastermind, responsible for activity in places as widespread as Hamburg, Chechnya, Madrid and Mombasa.

But while there is no doubt that Mr. Zarqawi has committed awful crimes, experts say that accusing him has become an easy fall-back for the authorities as they struggle to contain the insurgency. There is no unanimity on whether Mr. Zarqawi is a henchman of Osama bin Laden or a rival.

``There is a lot of speculative stuff which, as far as one can tell, is based on rumour,'' said Paul Wilkinson, director of the centre for the study of terrorism and political violence at St. Andrews University, Scotland. ``On the face of it, it does not look likely that, however fanatical and assiduous, a terrorist would be active in so many theatres.''

There is no need to exaggerate his activities. The attacks he has claimed in Iraq are enough to justify the $25 million the U.S. has offered for his capture, the same as the amount placed on Osama's main strategist, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Realistic appraisal

In an interview with the London-based Guardian newspaper in June, Lieutenant General Thomas Metz, the deputy U.S. commander in Iraq, offered a more realistic appraisal of Mr. Zarqawi than the one emanating from Washington. He said Mr. Zarqawi's group was small but focused on ``catastrophic kinds of events'', huge car bombings or important political assassinations.

Mr. Zarqawi's basic education and the writings attributed to him suggest he is not a strategist comparable to Mr. Zawahiri, the Egyptian urban terrorist who masterminds Al-Qaeda campaigns. Mr. Zarqawi is more a ruthless operational commander, putting strategy into action: a thug rather than a thinker. His aim, like Osama's, is to recreate a pan-Islamist caliphate across West Asia and beyond, headed by himself or a like-minded individual.

Gen. Metz said: ``I think he wants to remain independent of Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda but he is doing their business because his goals, I believe, are closely linked.''— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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