Terrorism: al-Zarqawi Said To Have New Command Structure

[ECH1969]

The organisation of al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian miltiant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has adopted a new command structure, according to Salafite sources quoted by the Arabic news portal Wifaq. The new line-up is said to include a sort of shadow government at the head of the organisation mandated to direct all the activities of the group.

Al-Zarqawi has been flanked by six 'ministers' and by a chief of staff who will coordinate all the operational brigades, the sources said. In a document entitled "The strategy of al-Qaeda in Iraq", the group outlines a new decentralised and flexible organisational structure.

In the new hierarchy al-Zarqawi's number two would be Abu Abdel Rahman al-Iraqi who also has the role of 'interior minister' and oversees the internal affairs of the organisation. He has also been tasked with overseeing the direct links between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Iraqi and other Arab volunteers who enrol in al-Qaeda.

The 'minister of defence' is Abu Asir, whose role is to infiltrate militants into the Iraqi security forces and army, as well as direct the suicide bomber brigade which al-Zarqawi considers central. A 'religious affairs' post has been given to Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Baghdadi, who issues fatwas and other religious edicts as well as overseeing the spiritual life of the group. The crucial role of 'information minister', overseeing Internet statements and working to attract recuits via the Internet, has been given to Abu Maysira al-Iraqi.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.269737886&par=

[theSaiGirl]

1. Al-Zarqawi = Emmanuel Goldstein

see: "1984" by George Orwell

[tatertop]

3. Zarqawi is the target of the two minutes hate

And I have finally learned to love Big Brother!

[uppityperson]

2. New and improved! More #3's than ever before!

sorry

[papau]

4. And a constant re- supply of number two's! And if broken up into 6

separate operations, we will get even more number 2's and 3's.

[meegbear]

5. Kinda fucking sad when we seem to more about al-Qaeda's operations ...

than our own government's.

[Lexingtonian]

6. Ooooh, time to fire up Operation Algiers, Part 2!

More organization charts of boxes with lines and funny Arabic names for Dubya to ponder and scratch out....

Actually, I think this development really, really, pisses off Rumsfeld, Rice, and Cheney. Because what it says is that Al Qaeda In Iraq is preparing to be a winning side in the impending Iraqi civil war, implying that it expects a forced American retreat.

[htuttle]

7. Have they hacked/bugged his copy of MS Org Chart or something?

They seem to always know all about his 'hierarchy', but little else.

Maybe they should hack his copy of MS Outlook instead next time...

[mom cat]

10. Convenient that this came out after #2 was captured! In earlier reports

today he was refered to as "previously unknown". I guess they had to do a rush job on creating an organizational chart.

[formercia]

8. After the War

do these guys get scholarships to Yale?

[CJCRANE]

9. "In the new hierarchy

al-Zarqawi's number two would be Abu Abdel Rahman al-Iraqi".

'al-Iraqi' just means 'the Iraqi'. That's a pretty dumb nickname considering they're in Iraq.

I can just see it now, al-Zarqawi to his #2 office-boy:

"Hey Abdul, go and get that guy, you know the one, the Iraqi guy...whasisname..".

[Igel]

11. If there's another

Abu Abdel Rahman, say al-Suri or al-Masri, just having "Abu Abdel Rahman" wouldn't be quite enough unless the context did the talking, now would it?

And context doesn't always talk loudly enough.

And just because there's an al-Suri (ok, as-Suri, but usually we transliterate) doesn't mean that he's a recent immigrant.

Unless we know more, we can poke fun, but we certainly have no grounds for making the bit o' fun into a serious criticism.

[yellowcanine]

12. Shit. Every time we capture his "second in command" he reorganizes.

The wily wascal.

[pinniped]

13. Wow, al-Qaeda in Iraq is a well organized company.

Are they going to offer common stock?

AQI or AIRQ

[megatherium]

17. I think that would be in an "aggressive growth fund." nt

[oblivious]

14. Was this taken from 'The Onion'?

[mike_c]

15. a whole new crop of "top llieutenants...."

eom

[Warren Stupidity]

16. Command structure includes infinite #2 positions

in order to satisfy media demands for regular capture-killings of #2 Zarqawi aide.

In other news the tooth fairy was spotted again.

[daleo]

18. This all reminds me a bit of Kremlinology

Another thing intelligence agents used to whittle away at during their spare hours. All sorts of stuff could be read into how people stood at the May Day parade, or who had the biggest hat.