Jordanian Researcher: Terrorist Leader Al-Zarqawi May be Using Women Martyrs to Goad Muslim Men

Newsweek ^ | December 12 2005

[jmc1969]

Until recently, many analysts in American government agencies saw the threat of women suicide bombers as a largely theoretical problem. Their best judgment was that "Al Qaeda Central" -- the close-knit organization around Osama bin Laden and ideologue Ayman Al-Zawahiri -- would resist any effort to use women as homicidal martyrs.

What changed? The simplest answer is that Al Qaeda's core organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its avant-garde in Iraq need more recruits. Jordanian researcher Hassan Abu Hanieh, who knew Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi personally, says the terrorist leader is goading Muslim men.

Before the attacks by women began, a Web site often linked to Zarqawi posted a message signed by him. "Are there no men, so that we have to recruit women?" he asked at the conclusion. "Isn't it a shame for the sons of my own nation that our sisters ask to conduct martyrdom operations while men are preoccupied with life?" Of course, Zarqawi is also meeting a demand -- by women. "The recourse to women doesn't happen at the start," says Haizam Amirah Fernandez, a Madrid-based analyst.

"It comes when the battle escalates to all sectors of society. It happens after men become activists in guerrilla groups, fight and die, perhaps in suicide attacks. Then the widows or family members seek vengeance, or want to give their life in the same cause."

[Dog]

Stick a fork in the bastard... he's done.

[Dog]

What does this tell us....he is now trying to recruit men by shaming them with women suicide bombers.

[tkathy]

Why doesn't this disgusting subhuman go and martyr himself?

[Southack]

"What does this tell us....he is now trying to recruit men by shaming them with women suicide bombers."

Only 23 suicide bombings in Iraq in November.

...And final elections for a Democratic Iraq are a mere 11 days away (yet another humiliating loss for Al Qaeda).

Frankly, we are blessed with idiotic enemies...had Al Qaeda pursued a democratic path to win elections instead of their current military strategy, we'd be facing the very real possibility of our own democratic system being used to elect a massive, oil-rich mujahedeen nation.

Isntead, they've killed so many of their men off that now they are reduced to sending off their women as suicide bombers in an effort that will have no military significance.

Idiots.

(thankfully)

[sono]

If martyred jihadis are promised 72 virgins, what do women martyrs receive? Just curious ...

[jmc1969]

The Shia are strongly anti al-Qaeda, most Shia are going to vote for whoever their religious parties want them to vote for. The same is true of the Sunnis.

Zarqawi knows he only exists in Iraq as a weapon for the use of angry Sunnis who want all the power in Iraq.

If a civil war doesn't break out in Iraq Zarqawi knows he is finished. If it does, then al-Qaeda in Iraq will have a long term base in Iraq, its that simple.

[sono]

Only 23 suicide bombings in Iraq in November.

You just can't find experienced suicide bombers anymore ...

[Dog]

I have noticed a shift again in AQI's tactics...they are mounting ambushes and IED attacks on US and Iraqi troops again. Hitting the soft targets(civilians) weren't paying the dividends Zarqawi assumed they would.

[jmc1969]

What happened is that he realized it wasn't pushing Iraq closer to civil war and that it was just pissing everyone (even Sunnis) off at him to blow up Shia mosques.

[Cap Huff]

Obviously the analysts don't agree on the significance. To me it seems likely that the move is not a sign of strength. In just a quick look at the article it would appear that at least a couple of the analysts are trying to paint this as an escalation, suggesting that it is a sign of strength. Escalation and turning up the heat are not always the same thing.

[Walkingfeather]

Their laundry.

[Capriole]

If martyred jihadis are promised 72 virgins, what do women martyrs receive? Just curious ...

Because the male jihadi gets 72 women, she only has to sleep with the smelly so-and-so once every 72 nights. So it all works out.

[Southack]

"I have noticed a shift again in AQI's tactics...they are mounting ambushes and IED attacks on US and Iraqi troops again. Hitting the soft targets(civilians) weren't paying the dividends Zarqawi assumed they would."

It's more a weakness than just a conscious shift of tactics...these new attacks are defensive in nature...against Iraqi and U.S. troops that have secured so much of Iraq that we are clearing out remaining zones of resistance now.

Which is to say, the terrorists are hitting U.S. and Iraqi Army troops now because they have to, as those armed forces are coming into Al Qaeda territory (read: areas around safe houses) on the offensive (military and intel).

It's not like Zarqawi just woke up one morning and said "Hey, we may not be getting that civil war after all...better switch tactics from blowing up mosques and schools to hitting troops."

It's more like, "Cripes! Somebody stop those troops before they knock out another cell/safe house!"

[munin]

Or perhaps they are running out of virgins in heaven,
with 72 pr. heaven might be running low ha?