The video released Tuesday, the first by al-Zarqawi that shows his face, features scenes of the black-garbed terrorist firing a gun and hunkered over a map plotting strategy. The Sunni Muslim extremist, 39, looks youthful and healthy in the springtime desert.
“It’s a departure from the past. There’s no strident anti-Shiite rhetoric and no beheadings,” said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director at the International Crisis Group, based in Amman, Jordan.
“He wants to be a ‘good’ insurgent in a more moderate sense — an Iraqi sense — to appeal to Iraqis,” Hiltermann said.
What a load of steaming, fresh horse manure.
ON THE NET...
Nothing like media star Zarqawi to salivate over. Perhaps the review won't be so glowing if or when he causes the death of someone they know or love via terrorism.