Abu Azzam al-Iraqi: In His Own Words
By Evan Kohlmann
Given the controversy that has erupted--and in an attempt to shed more light on the precise role of Abu Azzam al-Iraqi within Al-Qaida's Committee in Iraq--I am now making available a transcript of comments that Abu Azzam made during an Al-Qaida video recording released in December 2004. Ironically, the hooded Abu Azzam was featured in the video discussing the life and death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's former top deputy in Iraq, Jordanian Abu Anas al-Shami (a.k.a. Omar Yousef Jumah), who was killed in a U.S. airstrike near Abu Ghraib prison on September 16, 2004. Certainly, given the context of Abu Azzam's remarks and his mere presence on the film, he was an important Al-Qaida commander with an established pedigree and a direct relationship with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. However, Abu Azzam is described in the video merely as an Al-Qaida "commander" and veteran of the year-long battle for Fallujah in 2004. At least as of December 2004, he is ascribed no specific importance in Zarqawi's chain-of-command--other than that Zarqawi preferred that he remain in a non-combat role.
In the future, if the Pentagon and White House want to avoid this silly numbers controversy, they should take the sage advice of my colleague Doug Farah and simply steer clear of misleading and irrelevant hierarchical representations of non-hierarchical terrorist groups. I admit that I'm a bit baffled as to why it has taken them this long to recognize that for themselves.
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