Despite fighting in the CIA-backed war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, [al-Zarqawi] does not adhere to the ideology of al-Qaeda, a view shared by the CIA. Indeed, his name does not figure on its list of the 22 most wanted Islamic terrorists and he has never been mentioned in the list of senior al-Qaeda men in bin Laden's entourage in Afghanistan.
[Guardian - 2/2/03: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,887439,00.
html]



When you hear Zarqawi mentioned in the news just have a think about the following...

A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was killed some time ago in U.S. bombing and a letter outlining plans for fomenting sectarian war is a forgery, a statement allegedly from an insurgent group west of the capital said.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq "during the American bombing there," according to a statement circulated in Fallujah this week and signed by the "Leadership of the Allahu Akbar Mujahedeen."
The statement did not say when al-Zarqawi was supposedly killed, but U.S. jets bombed strongholds of the extremist Ansar al-Islam in the north last April as Saddam Hussein’s regime was collapsing.


It said al-Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing because of his artificial leg. [MSNBC 3/4/04: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4446084/ ]

Arab commentator Abd al-Bari Atwan says it is quite possible that al-Zarqawi is now dead.

He told Aljazeera.net: "There is no real proof that he is alive. If he is supposedly moving around freely in Iraq, why haven't Iraqis spoken about him? He can't be that difficult to recognise with his wooden leg."
[Aljazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9EF53F67-7A94-49EE-AF
DF-7C8A323BDD2E.htm ]