iraq

All Things Considered: "Iraq Propaganda, from All Sides": July 12, 2004

Philip Reeves reports from Baghdad on insurgent propaganda. At the center of the report is commentary from Michael Ware of TIME on the tape, presumably from Zarquawi, handed over to him on July 4, 2004. The Iraq street is awash in inexpensive, roughly produced CDs and DVD's meant to rally support for the insurgency. For example, "God's Soldiers"—selling for fifty cents—shows American troops bursting into Iraqi homes, pictures from Abu Ghraib, and insurgents on the attack. They're crude, but effective.

However, the tape given to Michael Ware is professional in its production, virtually of broadcast quality. Ware says the tape shows the best view yet of insurgent operations. Unlike the DVD's aimed at Iraqi citizenry, Ware believes that this tape speaks directly to a global audience, intended to recruit both men and money to the cause. Ware narrates the tape as it plays in the background. Of his role as the middleman: "As journalists, we're always being used. But the quest is to find the truth."
[All Things Considered—RealAudio]

Faisal Bodi: "Decapitation: Execrable, But Effective" [Al Jazeera]: July 3, 2004

"Until the shooting death in June of US soldier Keith Maupin, the insurgents had made a point of beheading their captives and disseminating the grisly scenes over the internet. Most people would recoil at the mere thought, but experts say that is precisely the aim. In war, ascendancy in the horror stakes can be a major battlefield gain. 'It gives people an enormous feeling of their own power that they can threaten this fate to their opponents,' believes Professor Ian Robins, a London-based traumatic stress psychologist who specialises in treating war prisoners. While it serves as a morale booster for the perpetrators, it has the converse effect on their opponents. [...] The captive himself becomes a weapon for his captors, a tool for the transmission of horror to the rest of the enemy, effective in proportion to the level of his fear. [...] The act also gives insurgents another advantage. In an age where wars are fought as much on TV as on the battlefield, they no longer need actual victories. The battle, says Meyerson, can be 'won with a single dramatic visual impact'. [...] By turning his family into celebrity anti-war campaigners the beheading of Berg became a political gain for his killers. 'The acts are a sure way of making governments look incompetent by showing they are powerless to stop them despite the fact that they might pour billions of dollars into the campaign,' said Professor Robins. Nothing succeeds like success and so long as the acts continue to put pressure on enemy governments there is little incentive for the perpetrators to stop, according to Robins. 'Behaviour is maintained or increased by its consequences. This [beheadings] gets an enormous amount of attention and scrutiny and therefore it is highly likely it will continue.'"
[Al Jazeera]

Wanted Poster Targeting US Officials Circulates in Middle East: Late July, 2004

Leaflets in both English and Arabic were circulated in Iraq during late July with pictures of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, top US General in Iraq Ricardo Sanchez, and General Mark Kimmitt, military spokesperson in Iraq. [Click image to enlarge.]
[Via Northeast Intelligence Network]

Hour-long Tape Presumably From Zarqawi Obtained By Time Magazine: July 4, 2004

"Jihad leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist and the most wanted man in Iraq, this weekend released a telling window into his organization, Attawhid wal Jihad, or Unity and Jihad. In a slickly produced hour-long video Zarqawi lays bare the milieu of his suicide bombers, their safehouses, their rituals and their targeting guidelines. Given directly to TIME, the video is a bold, menacing statement of the group's intent and capability. The subtext of this disturbing tape is that for the U.S. this is likely to be a long, drawn out fight in Iraq against a committed, well-organized enemy. When the chairman of the U.S. appointed Iraqi Governing Council, Izzedine Salam, then the country's highest Iraqi official, was assassinated last month in a car bomb Zarqawi quickly claimed credit. Now he shows the act, in graphic footage shot from a parked car: A convoy of white SUVs disappears down a Baghdad street, followed a moment later by a ball of flame and explosion so intense the windscreen through which the cameraman films cracks before your eyes. [...] the cameraman does not flee. [Frame grab on theright.] Instead he holds his position and zooms in on the burning suicide vehicle and the flaming SUVs. Survivors can be seen moving from the vehicles and attempting to take cover. Each episode of this grim "Best Of" the militant group's attacks over the last year is accompanied by professional-style editing, graphics and camera work. Explanations are given of each operation, the names of the suicide bombers, and the targeting justification. [...] More fascinating than the unprecedented action footage of the suicide attacks are the long glimpses into the culture and mindset of the fighters."
[Time] [ABC News]