Purported Al-Qaeda Letter Cites Tough Struggle in Iraq, AP Says
June 15 (Bloomberg) -- A letter purportedly written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist linked to al-Qaeda, says his struggle in Iraq is getting harder because the U.S.-led coalition is tightening its grip, the Associated Press said.
``The space of movement is starting to get smaller,'' AP cited the letter as saying. ``The grip is starting to be tightened on the holy warriors' necks and, with the spread of soldiers and police, the future is becoming frightening.''
The nine-page unsigned statement, posted yesterday on Islamic Web sites, is entitled ``The Text of al-Zarqawi's message to Osama bin Laden about holy war in Iraq'' and hasn't been authenticated, AP said. Fighters in Iraq will intensify their attacks against police and soldiers who are the ``eye, ear and hand'' of the U.S.-led coalition, it cited the letter as saying.
U.S. military officials have said Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is orchestrating attacks from inside Iraq. The military command said he may be involved in the killing last month of Izzedine Salim, the leader of Iraq's interim Governing Council. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said he probably killed Nick Berg, a 26-year- old American who was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq last month.
The Zarqawi letter referenced by CNN, Rueters, AP, and virtuall ever other news media out is the original four month letter that was intercepted by the US military in Iraq in February. I have compared the Arabic word for word and they are identical. The posting was made on the Islah.tv message board yesterday deliberately to embarrass the western media.
The FBIS translation was posted on the Iraqi Coalition website on February 12 at http://www.iraqcoalition.org/transcripts/20040212_zarqawi_full.html and by the US State Department at www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/31694.htm
If you review the "new" Zarqawi communication, you'll see that it is identical.
The dead giveaway in the "new" Zarqawi letter is this statement:
"We hope that this matter, I mean the zero hour, will [come] four months or so before the promised government is formed. "
The new government is formed; the transfer of authority is two weeks from now.
The news media outlets were notified of their error this morning; I would assume that they will be correcting it sometime today.