Al Qaeda's fraudlent Baghdadi

Michael Gordon:

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On Wednesday, a senior American military spokesman provided a new explanation for Mr. Baghdadi’s ability to escape attack: he never existed.

Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, the chief American military spokesman, told reporters that the elusive Mr. Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose audiotaped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima. General Bergner said the information came from an Iraqi insurgent captured this month.

According to this insurgent, General Bergner said, the ruse was devised by Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian born leader of the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, who was trying to mask the dominant role that foreigners play in that organization. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is primarily an Iraqi group but has foreign leadership and claims affiliation with Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

The ploy was to invent Mr. Baghdadi, a figure whose very name establishes his Iraqi pedigree, install him as the head of a front organization called the Islamic State of Iraq and then arrange for Mr. Masri to swear allegiance to him.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr. bin Laden’s deputy, has publicly claimed ties to the group, referring to Mr. Baghdadi in his video and internet statements.

The struggle between the American military and Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is political as well as military. And one purpose of the briefing today seemed to be to rattle the 90 percent of the group’s adherents who are believed to be Iraqi by suggesting that they doing the bidding of foreigners. An important element of the American strategy is to drive a wedge between Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, other Iraqi insurgent groups and the general Sunni population.

The evidence for the American assertions, General Bergner said at a news briefing, was provided by an Iraqi insurgent, Khalid Abdul Fatah Daud Mahmud al-Mashadani, who was reported captured by American forces in Mosul on July 4.

According to Gen. Bergner, Mr. Mashadani is the most senior Iraqi operative in Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. He got his start in the Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group before joining Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia more than two years ago and becoming the group’s “media emir” for all of Iraq.

General Bergner said Mr. Mashadani was also an intermediary between Mr. Masri in Iraq and Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahiri, who the Bush administration and United States military assert support and guide the Iraqi group.

“Mashadani confirms that al-Masri and the foreign leaders with whom he surrounds himself, not Iraqis, made the operational decisions” for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, General Bergner said.

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While the American military says that senior Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan provide guidance, general direction and support for the Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, military officials did not provide any examples of a specific raid or operation that was ordered by Pakistan-based Al Qaeda leaders.

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It is impossible for al Qaeda HQ in Pakistan to have command and control of its forces anywhere, because to even attempt it would result in the discovery of their location and ultimately their destruction. They have no choice but to give "autonomy" to the disparate groups with which they are aligned. What this story does do is poke a big hole in the NY Times Editorial Boards theory on the make up of the enemy in Iraq. Rationalizations will soon follow. I want to make clear that Michael Gordon, the reporter for this story is an outstanding NY Times reporter who reports the story straight up.