Iraqis don't give US access to al Qaeda leader

Washington Post:

U.S. military officials said Friday that the Iraqi government has not allowed them to interrogate a detainee the Iraqis contend is the leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Iraqi officials have identified the suspect, who was taken into custody April 23, as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. Some U.S. intelligence officials view Baghdadi as a fictional figure created by non-Iraqi Arab leaders of the insurgent group to give it an Iraqi identity.

"We have not had any access to him," Maj. Gen. David G. Perkins, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said Friday. "We are in discussions with the Iraqis to determine how we can confirm or deny who he is."

Iraqis have hailed the arrest, which they say was carried out with no assistance from U.S. troops, as a testament to their readiness to take control of security as the U.S. military starts withdrawing from urban areas. Civilian and U.S. military deaths have spiked as U.S. troops have begun closing inner-city outposts to meet a June 30 deadline Iraqi officials set as part of a bilateral agreement.

...

However, a wave of suicide and car bombings over the past few weeks has sharply increased civilian deaths. At least 371 Iraqis and 80 Iranian pilgrims were killed violently in April, according to a tally by the Associated Press. The civilian death toll has increased every month this year.

...

Perkins said the recent bombings, most of which have targeted Shiites, were an effort by al-Qaeda in Iraq to foment sectarian violence.

"The purpose is to generate ethno-sectarian violence, because ethno-sectarian violence is what generally escalates into an out-of-control situation," Perkins said. "The more chaos they generate here in Iraq, the better it is for them because they sort of thrive in a chaotic environment."

...

I have discussed al Qaeda's chaos strategy before. I think Perkins gets it about right, although I think the violence may be a Sunni response to the governments going back on a deal with the Sunni militias that had been helping to subdue the violence. The violence increased shortly after the government quit paying some militia leaders.

The government's isolation of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is interesting. Some may question whether they really have the guy since they have made the claim so many times before. Perhaps the government fears the US might challenge their claims about who the guy is. There is also the possibility that the Iraqis do not want to be restrained in their interrogation of the guy by Obama's new approach. They may want to get as much out of him as possible before letting teh US see him.