What was Zarqawi doing before the Iraq War?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-10-11 11:06pm

Everyone knows this guy's name now. But who knew his name before the Iraq War? What was he doing back then? Was he significant? Or did he only come into existence as a major figure after the invasion?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-10-11 11:17pm

People were aware of his existence prior to the Iraq war - Colin Powell mentioned him in his speech to the UN - but he's definitely become a bigger figure in the aftermath of it. The fact is, we don't have a lot of good intelligence on him. He apparently went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets in the 1980s and got hooked up with al-Qaeda there. We know he was probably trying to stir up shit in Jordan throughout the late 1990s, and US intelligence suggests that he was in Iraq by 2002 and with Ansar al-Islam, but we don't know how reliable that intelligence was. He probably isn't even a genuine al-Qaeda man anymore.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-10-12 12:15am

He was pretty significant. He had his own little Egyptian terrorist organization, and had organized the hijackings of a couple of airliners, IIRC.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-10-12 12:57am

Supposedly he was trying to compete with Osama for recruits in Afghanistan, lost, and looked for greener fields elsewhere.

Everything else I've heard about him turns out to be bullshit -especially the bit about his legs.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-10-12 04:06am

Amazing how things get more well known when Westerners are targets instead, hmm?