Senior Qaeda figure in Iraq a myth: U.S. military

[CGowen]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior operative for al Qaeda in Iraq who was caught this month has told his U.S. military interrogators a prominent al Qaeda-led group is just a front and its leader fictitious, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.

Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner told a news conference that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, which was purportedly set up last year, did not exist.

The Islamic State of Iraq was established to try to put an Iraqi face on what is a foreign-driven network, Bergner said. The name Baghdadi means the person hails from the Iraqi capital.

....

"In his words, the Islamic State of Iraq is a front organization that masks the foreign influence and leadership within al Qaeda in Iraq in an attempt to put an Iraqi face on the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq," Bergner said.

...

"To make al-Baghdadi appear credible, al-Masri swore allegiance to al-Baghdadi and pledged to obey him, which is essentially pledging allegiance to himself since he knew Baghdadi was fictitious and a creation of his own," he said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1820065720070718?pageNumber=1

[Demeter]

1. The Land of 1001 Nights

It is a different culture. Too bad the uncultured led the world into this mess.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. LOL!

oh dear

[underpants]

6. I have to agree this is tragically sad

but this article serves as the "oh we did TOO report on it" ass covering.

[Virginia Dare]

3. Makes you wonder who and what else is fictitious doesn't it?...n/t

[CGowen]

7. I wonder where they hire the actors from?

"Voice recordings purporting to be from Baghdadi have appeared on the Internet, although Bergner said he had been played by an actor. He did not refer to any video clips."

[Recursion]

4. For those who don't speak Arabic...

...the name, roughly, means "the Servant of the People, who is from Baghdad". I don't know if any Iraqi ever thought it was a real name, though there may well be one real person who has taken it, or many or none.

[Recursion]

5. Though it's also a pun for

"the servant of the warlike one, who is from Baghdad", which probably has a lot of the resonance they want.

[CGowen]

9. Is it true that

"Ana raicha Al Qaeda" is colloquial for "I'm going to the toilet"?

[Recursion]

12. Not where I learned (Morocco)

Though the literal translation in English, "I'm heading back to base", could be a reasonable euphemism for taking a dump, so it wouldn't surprise me.

[HonorTheConstitution]

8. That is the enemy we are fighting?! OMG

But let's stay the course. We know the enemy and have the right strategy to win.

[libodem]

10. As far as I can tell the 'enemy'

is any Iraqi man. We are killing and imprisoning the Nationals for lack of any thing better to do, to justify being there. The attempt to put 'foreign' in the mix-up is Cheney's way of making it seem like the Telaban floated over from Afghanistan to cause some mischief. Saudi Arabia is the biggest supplier of foreign mischief makers but who cares about that?

[formercia]

11. Ali Baba?, No Ali Baba here...

dumb infidel.

[Peace Patriot]

13. They figure if we can have a fictitious president and vice president--people

claiming to represent the American people, but who, in truth, have no legitimacy whatsoever, and were never elected--they can have a fictitious "terrorist" group--people claiming to be Iraqis--to fight the fictitious American leaders on their fictitious mission of bringing "freedom" (death, destruction, torture, chaos) to Iraqis.

Makes perfect sense to me.

And, anyway, who is "foreign" (i.e., "foreign fighters") in a country of Shias, Sunnis and Kurds, and a thousand and one tribes, whose borders were created by the British Empire?

Well, one thing is clear: Americans are foreign. Really foreign.

--------------------

This crap about "al-Baghdadi" is no doubt meant to counter recent stories about Al Qaeda in Iraq--that the Al Qaeda in Iraq is homegrown. Where there was no Al Qaeda, the actions of our fictitious president and vice president, in invading Iraq, slaughtering half a million people and plunging the country into chaos, have created one. A jihad has sprung up, where none existed before. So they have to make some shit up--or troll the intel for bits they can build stories around--to lay the deception off on..."foreign fighters"...when the "mother of all lies" is actually emanating, not from Baghdad, but from Washington DC. We are the murk. We are the deceptive ones. The people of the thousand and one dark motives.

[ohio2007]

14. If the military says "It's a myth"...and we know the military puts out misinformation

?

then maybe they are sitting on some important people.


just sayin it's all a fog in war

[Igel]

15. Don't know if it's true, but if it is the early reports

after Zarqie died make sense.

They reported confusion--al-Masri (which is a nice pseudonym and hardly unique) was reported to be the new top guy; then al-Baghdadi (also a nom de guerre) came along and competed for the top prize. There was discussion as to whether there was a disinformation campaign to make sure that nobody outside the organization was quite sure as to who to go for.

Of course, since Mashhadani has said al-Baghdadi doesn't exist, that doesn't make it any clearer, now does it?