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| Iraq |
| Insurgents Really After Iranians, U.S. Just Gets In the Way |
| 2007-07-14 |
| He wore a pale yellow dress shirt and black-rimmed glasses that lost their tint when he entered the dark lobby of a Baghdad hotel. He drank orange soda and refused a cigarette. His face was tense, but he spoke in a calm, open way about the satisfaction of killing Shiites with his own hands. To save you the trouble, this is a WaPo interview with the guy described above, who wants to kill all the Shiites, because they're "trash". The WaPo headline reads Sunni Insurgent Leader Paints Iran as 'Real Enemy'U.S. Strategy Described as Only Inflaming Iraqi Resistance Over the course of a 90-minute interview, a leader of an armed Sunni group in western Baghdad described his hatred for Iran and the current Iraqi government, while outlining the dimensions of an armed insurgency that extends well beyond al-Qaeda in Iraq, the organization that U.S. officials routinely identify as their central enemy. Abu Sarhan, as the 37-year-old insurgent wished to be known, said Iraq's Sunnis are deep into an entrenched and irresolvable civil war against Iranian-backed Shiites. He said the premise of the U.S. military's counterinsurgency strategy -- deploying thousands of soldiers in small outposts in violent neighborhoods -- only inflames the insurgency If U.S. forces release Sunni detainees, remove the concrete blast barriers that now cordon off several neighborhoods and improve services in areas neglected by the Shiite-led government, "the attacks will be reduced 95 percent within days," he said. He added that the Americans' insistence on striking Sunni areas "is generating an increasing resistance." A balding, wiry man who associates said had been an officer in the Fedayeen, the black-clad paramilitary force of the ousted government of Saddam Hussein, Abu Sarhan refused to give his real name. He said he was the "general coordinator" between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Omar Brigade, an insurgent group founded in July 2005 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by U.S. forces in June 2006. Zarqawi created the Omar Brigade to fight Shiite militias, particularly the Badr Organization, which is loyal to the country's largest Shiite political party, now known as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. In Amiriyah, the western Baghdad neighborhood where the Omar Brigade is active, the group is believed to have planted roadside bombs that have killed U.S. troops. Abu Sarhan said he had not personally taken part in those attacks. But he could not say the same for Shiite targets. "Since the beginning of the occupation until now, I have participated in killing many of the militia members, I say it frankly," he said. Asked how many, he looked down and paused for several seconds, his hands interlocked on the cafeteria table. "It's hard to count," he said. An associate of Abu Sarhan's vouched for his leadership credentials. And a college student in Amiriyah, who said he is not an insurgent but that he had met Abu Sarhan briefly about two weeks earlier, said the Sunni insurgent is considered the leader of the Omar Brigade. Abu Sarhan's views illustrate the deep animosity toward Shiites that fuels so much of the sectarian violence in Iraq. His comments also suggested a more restrained view of the United States, which he considers an occupier but one that should not leave immediately. "I personally don't have a hatred of the American people, and I respect American civilization," he said. "They have participated in the progress of all the nations of the world. They invented computers. Such people should be respected. But people who are crying over someone who died 1,400 years ago" -- referring to Shiites and their veneration of a leader killed in the 7th century -- "these should be eliminated, to clear the society of them, because they are simply trash." "The real enemy for the resistance is Iran and those working for Iran," he went on. "Because Iran has a feud which goes back thousands of years with the people of Iraq and the government of Iraq This is just page 1 of three, but you get the idea.... |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #7 This story is such BS. All AQ and Iran is trying to do is deflect some of that spot lite we have placed on their coordination of chaos in Iraq. The Radical Sunni and Radical Shia don't attack each other or even suicide bomb each others leadership, they kill each others moderates or fence sitters forcing those left into joining the others radical org. End result is not a war between the two Radical groups but just doing each others dirty work (killing moderates swaying fence sitters) while swelling the ranks out of fear. How many times have you heard of Sadr barley escaping a Suicide bomber from AQ or vice versa? Don't think they know were each other hang out? right, but you do somehow hear of AQ hitting Salvation Council or Political leaders or Sadr just killing random Sunni's not Radical Sunnis just your average market goer. As far as Iran goes I will believe they are at war with AQ the day we get the report about Iran turning over the near 1/2 of AQ top leadership including Bin Ladens son/heir to the US forces. Ohh AP somehow didn't think to mention that fact about Iran sheltering 1/2 of AQ top leadership in supposedly "house arrest". Yeah that sounds the actions of some real enemies right their risk the American military wrath over some group of guys that are your enemies. |
| Posted by: C-Low 2007-07-14 16:30 |
| #6 Agreed, 3dc. Al Qaeda uses the media as the key front in their war with the West. Placing this interview is as important to them as getting a couple of men into commercial jet pilot training. Abu Sarhan wouldn't have made it down the street alive if he'd done such an interview on his own, but after the Washington Post had negotiated with his management? The article says the man is connected: multiple sadistic murderer, officer in Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen... the reporter's translator, with whom his paper (or CNN) likely worked in the Saddam Hussein days, probably set it up. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-07-14 15:21 |
| #5 A real journalist just reports. My belief is that this jounalist is attempting to provide information that backs the idea that the US is causing unnecessary violence in Iraq by our presence. The actual idea that is conveyed by this article to any reader who has a combined SAT score above 850 is that we need to kill Abu Sarhan and all his friends post haste as a public service despite that he thought Dallas was a good show and thinks that Orange Julius is a tasty snack. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2007-07-14 12:30 |
| #4 I don't buy it. Is a set piece for WaPo by some source.... Anybody that was really head of the Omar Brigade would not live long bragging about it. Somebody would over hear him and tell somebody else who would end the story one way or another. It may be a test to see how gullible WaPo is. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-07-14 11:45 |
| #3 Typical chickenshit journalism. Must be nice to sit in a hotel having a smoke (obviously the reporter is a smoker) and listening to drivel from some guy who is your sworn enemy. This is what I call treason - giving the enemy hospitality without mentioning it to the military. But of course, this is par for the course with WaPo and NYT. Glad to see them both getting financial beatings. Couldn't happen to a nicer group of leaches. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-07-14 10:57 |
| #2 Taquia rules! |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-07-14 10:40 |
| #1 Hard to say which is sadder - that Abu believes this dreck, that the Wapo reporters and editors believe this dreck, or that the faithful wapo readers (including those inside the beltway) believe this dreck... |
| Posted by: Sheresing Big Foot5609 2007-07-14 09:57 |