Al Qaeda sent Zarqawi to Iraq to fight US

Ray Robison:

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... new reporting from an important Pakistani journalistic source close to al Qaeda leadership confirms that Abu Mus’ab al Zarqawi was an al Qaeda operative sent by Usama bin Laden to Iraq to fight US forces.

He was definitely not in Iraq to fight against Saddam Hussein. This new revelation puts the Saddam regime and al Qaeda on the same side against Coalition forces in the initial invasion.

There is so far no specific information from this new source as to whether both parties orchestrated their activities. However, it dispels claims by war opponents that Zarqawi was not al Qaeda before the war and that he was in Iraq to fight Saddam.

As is widely known, Zarqawi was indeed moving between Iraq and Iran at this time but his links to al Qaeda and reasons for being in Iraq have been contested.

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Zarqawi’s mentor Barqawi was a Saddam sympathizer and al Qaeda affiliate who sent these Jordanian-Palestinians to Iraq to fight the Americans. Clearly these Jordanian-Palestinians were not in Iraq to impose their own brand of regime change on Saddam; they were there to kill US forces.

Now a man named Hamid Mir, who is an Executive Editor for Geo TV in Islamabad, Pakistan, writing for the popular India news website rediff.com, reveals his inside knowledge of the matter. Hamid is well-respected in Pakistan and is no Bush “neocon” conspirator. His writings subtly support al Qaeda.

While explaining how Usama bin Laden slipped away from US and British forces on several occasions he gave this account:

In April 2003, Osama surfaced again in Afghanistan after the US invasion of Iraq. He called a meeting in the Pech valley of the northeastern Afghan province Kunar and delivered a hard-hitting speech in which he announced his plans to resist America in Iraq. He said, 'Get Americans in Iraq before they get us in Afghanistan.'

He declared Saif ul Adil as in charge of organising the resistance in Iraq and also advised him to contact Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, who was hiding in Iran at that time.

Hamid’s narrative, which must rely for sourcing on his close association with al Qaeda and Taliban leadership, is as close as you can get to the inner circle without getting your head cut off. Perhaps unwittingly, his statements clearly indicate that Usama bin Laden directed one of his leaders to send Zarqawi to Iraq to fight Americans. Zarqawi, who had received treatment in Baghdad for a severed leg before this had to be known to Usama bin Laden as a man with Iraqi contacts for him to hand pick Zarqawi for such an assignment.

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Even If al Qaeda was not in Iraq before the war, there should be know doubt that the organization has chosen to give battle in Iraq. If we run away from that battle it would be a terrible mistake. but that is the mistake the Democrats have been insisting upon for months.