Zarqawi's memory sticks

Christian Science Monitor:

American investigators are exploiting the intelligence bonanza found in the rural safe house north of Baghdad where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed last Wednesday.

Analysts say that the memory sticks, hard drives, and documents found there and at some 56 other sites raided after the Jordanian militant's death are likely to damage Mr. Zarqawi's networks. The US military describes the finds as a "treasure trove."

The new intelligence leads could uncover terrorist operations far afield from Iraq - particularly in Europe - as Zarqawi had begun to piece together a much wider network of militants, experts say.

"The US government will have a firm understanding of Zarqawi's network, not only in Iraq, but Zarqawi's global network," says Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore. "Zarqawi had penetrated at least 20 European countries, Canada, ... and even established cells in Southeast Asia."

Some say the scale of Zarqawi's operations - bolstered by recruits inspired by his battlefield exploits in Iraq - may have begun to rival the less visible Osama bin Laden.

"Zarqawi was building a global terror network parallel to Al Qaeda of bin Laden," says Mr. Gunaratna, who is also author of "Inside Al Qaeda." "The killing of Zarqawi is a huge victory - not so much against the Iraqi insurgency, because the insurgency will continue, [but] internationally.... And this network will suffer."

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"There is a pattern of senior associates of Al Qaeda, that they keep so much information, so much data - they like to have everything close to their chest, and have it with them," says Michael Radu, the co-chair of the Center on Terrorism at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

Zarqawi's network, especially in Europe, "is much more extensive than that of bin Laden or [Al Qaeda No. 2, Ayman] al-Zawahiri," says Mr. Radu. "I wouldn't be surprised if we see another wave of arrests in Europe. Then we will know if what was captured [in Iraq] and after was indeed important for [Zarqawi's] network."

Jordanian security officials estimate that Zarqawi recruited, trained, and sent back 300 militants, who are now awaiting orders in their home countries to strike, according to a report in Sunday's edition of The New York Times.

The US military in Baghdad is not further describing the contents or value of the Zarqawi material, says spokesman Maj. Douglas Powell, because "the intelligence is still being developed and we're not ready to address anything specific." Maj. Gen. William Caldwell says he is pushing to have some information quickly declassified.

US forces have "had a steady drum beat of operations against the Al Qaeda network here in Iraq since the Zarqawi operation," Gen. George Casey, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, told Fox News on Sunday. "We will continue to go after [Zarqawi's] network and disrupt it in what we feel is a very vulnerable period. And so we hope to take advantage of that."

Zarqawi's top followers will assume that US forces are exploiting the new leads, says Gunaratna. "Some key operatives will change their venue and their methods," he says. "They will know that Zarqawi's material has been compromised."

The ultimate value of the intelligence from "such a big event" as last week's raids "depends on how [Zarqawi's network is] organized. The goal is always to cut off the head," says a US official in Baghdad familiar with terrorism investigations.

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There is more. Exploitation of intelligence from finding Zarqawi continues in Iraq and probably elsewhere.