In rebuffing calls to bring troops home from Iraq, President Bush on Thursday employed a stark and ominous defence. “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq,” he said, “were the ones who attacked us in America on September 11, and that’s why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home.”It is an argument Bush has been making in the past few months, as the challenges to the continuation of the war have grown. On Thursday alone, he referred at least 30 times to al-Qaeda or its presence in Iraq.But his references to al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and his assertions that it is the same group that attacked the US in 2001, have greatly oversimplified the nature of the insurgency in Iraq and its relationship with the Qaeda leadership. There is no question that the group is one of the most dangerous in Iraq. But Bush’s critics argue that he has overstated the Qaeda connection in an attempt to exploit the same kinds of post-Sept. 11 emotions that helped him win support for the invasion in the first place.Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia did not exist before the September 11 attacks. The Sunni group thrived as a magnet for recruiting and a force for violence largely because of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, which brought an American occupying force of more than 100,000 troops to the heart of the Middle East, and led to a Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. The American military and American intelligence agencies characterise al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia as a ruthless, mostly foreign-led group that is responsible for a disproportionately large share of the suicide car bomb attacks that have stoked sectarian violence. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American commander in Iraq, said in an interview that he considered the group to be “the principal short-term threat to Iraq”.But while American intelligence agencies have pointed to links between leaders of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the top leadership of the broader Qaeda group, the militant group is in many respects an Iraqi phenomenon. They believe the membership of the group is overwhelmingly Iraqi. Its financing is derived largely indigenously from kidnappings and other criminal activities. And many of its most ardent foes are close at home, namely the Shiite militias and the Iranians who are deemed to support them.“The president wants to play on al-Qaeda because he thinks Americans understand the threat al-Qaeda poses,” said Bruce Riedel, an expert at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and a former CIA official. “But I don’t think he demonstrates that fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq precludes al-Qaeda from attacking America here tomorrow. Al-Qaeda, both in Iraq and globally, thrives on the American occupation.”Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who became the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, came to Iraq in 2002 when Saddam Hussein was still in power, but there is no evidence that Hussein’s government provided support for Zarqawi and his followers. Zarqawi did have support from senior Qaeda leaders, American intelligence agencies believe, and his organisation grew in the chaos of post-Hussein Iraq. Price on Osama’s head doubled to $50 mWashington: The US Senate on Friday doubled the bounty on the head of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, offering $50 million for his capture or death. The vote followed a flurry of reports that the group behind the September 11 attacks in 2001 had rebuilt much of its capacity to train and plot terror strikes and was again trying to sneak operatives into the United States. The bill, boosting the price on Bin Laden’s head under the US State Department Rewards for Justice Programme, passed by an 87-1 vote. It directs Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “to authorise a reward of $50 million for the capture or death or information leading to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden.”
