Grisly Path to Power In Iraq's Insurgency -WP

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Zarqawi and his group, Monotheism and Jihad, have become best known for helping to fuel the insurgency in Iraq. But according to European and Arab intelligence officials and counterterrorism specialists, he has never abandoned his primary goals: to topple the monarchy in his native Jordan and attack Jewish targets in Israel and around the world. As Zarqawi has become more prominent in recent years, he has expanded his original sphere of influence in the Middle East by forming cells in Europe.

Skeptics say that the U.S. government has transformed Zarqawi into a larger-than-life figure by exaggerating his capabilities and using him to personify the Iraqi resistance, which has many factions and appears to rely mainly on Iraqi fighters, not foreigners. But Zarqawi has also helped to enhance his own legend by embracing tactics that have generated enormous publicity.
............
"He's been centrally elevated to such a position that he seemingly has a hand in everything," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland. "Certainly he's a real figure, but he's a myth-laden figure, and it's difficult to discern where the lines are."

Zarqawi is often described as a one-legged Palestinian whose uncanny ability to avoid capture has led some people to doubt that he really exists. But according to Jordanian and European intelligence officials, he does exist and he has two legs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52564-2004Sep26.html

[fearnobush]

1. So then WHY? has Bu$h let him escape sooooo many times???

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Zarqawi one of our so called allies during the initial invasion of Iraq?

[Rose Siding]

4. I marvel every time they hang something on him

You'd THINK that letting him off the way Bush did would be a part of every one of the stories that mention him.

[Pax Argent]

2. Buildin' 'em up to knock 'em down

[Julien Sorel]

3. I can't take this seriously.

About half of it is simply quoting Colin Powell's dog and pony show in front of the U.N. when he argued for war; almost every word of that fiasco has proven false, but this reporter cites Powell as though he were the gospel?

This looks like one of those pieces reporters do when they have a story due, but nothing of value to say. It's kind of like the slop you threw together when you were an undergrad and had a paper due the next day for a class you didn't really like.