View source for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

==Debates over level of influence==
How much influence al-Zarqawi had in Iraq and after his death is disputed.

===Importance===
Writing in 2015, nine years after his death, an anonymous author in the ''[[New York Review of Books]]'' describes al-Zarqawi as having been responsible for "turning an insurgency against US troops" in Iraq "into a Shia–Sunni civil war".<ref name="mystery-NYRoB"/> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reporter [[Joby Warrick]] argues that al-Zarqawi was the founder of "the group that became [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|ISIS]]".<ref name="Cambanis-3-10-15">{{cite news|last1=Cambanis|first1=Thanassis|title=Book Review. 'Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS' by Joby Warrick|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2015/10/03/book-review-black-flags-the-rise-isis-joby-warrick/PkvOQIXpSqCssZ5tdqH5pJ/story.html|access-date=October 29, 2015|work=The Boston Globe|date=October 3, 2015|archive-date=October 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003163526/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2015/10/03/book-review-black-flags-the-rise-isis-joby-warrick/PkvOQIXpSqCssZ5tdqH5pJ/story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Among other things, Warrick believes al-Zarqawi expanded the already broad "parameters of violence" in Iraq and the Middle East.

<blockquote>He personally beheaded civilians on video; directed suicide bombs at targets that other jihadis considered off limits like the UN, NGOs, and Arab embassies; and struck Shia religious targets with the ultimately successfully goal of provoking a destabilizing Sunni–Shia civil war. Even Al Qaeda thought he was going too far ... but Zarqawi's methods proved to have enduring traction long after his death in 2006.<ref name="Cambanis-3-10-15"/></blockquote>

While the US "[[Iraq War troop surge of 2007|troop surge]]" and "[[Awakening movements in Iraq|Awakening]]" movement left his movement "all but dead" in 2009, it survived and metastasized into [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|ISIS]] according to author David Ignatius.<ref name="IGNATIUS-10-15">{{cite journal|last1=Ignatius|first1=David|title=How ISIS Spread in the Middle East|journal=The Atlantic|date=October 2015|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/how-isis-started-syria-iraq/412042/|access-date=October 29, 2015|archive-date=October 30, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030043330/http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/how-isis-started-syria-iraq/412042/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Doubts about his importance===
Some months before and after his killing, several sources claimed that Zarqawi was variously an American "Boogeyman" and product of its war propaganda, the product of faulty U.S. intelligence, a U.S. or Israeli agent, did not really exist, was unlikely to be an important insurgent leader because he had no real leadership capabilities, and/or did not behead Nicholas Berg.

According to the [[Commonwealth Institute]] his notoriety was the product of U.S. war propaganda designed to promote the image of a [[demon]]ic enemy figure to help justify continued U.S. military operations in Iraq,<ref name="comw">{{cite web |year=2004|title=The al-Zarqawi Assessment: Another Instance of 'Cooked' Intelligence? |work=The Commonwealth Institute |url=http://www.comw.org/pda/0410zarqawi.html |access-date=June 9, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060607000251/http://www.comw.org/pda/0410zarqawi.html|archive-date=June 7, 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref> perhaps with the tacit support of [[jihad]]i elements who wished to use him as a propaganda tool or as a distraction.<ref name="exile">{{cite web|author=Brecher, Gary|year=2005|title=Mister Big Unplugged No. 215|work=eXile|url=http://www.exile.ru/2005-June-03/war_nerd.html|access-date=June 9, 2006|archive-date=November 2, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102023911/http://www.exile.ru/2005-June-03/war_nerd.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In one report, conservative newspaper ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' described the claim that Zarqawi was the head of the "terrorist network" in Iraq as a "myth". This report cited an unnamed U.S. military intelligence source to the effect that the Zarqawi leadership "myth" was initially caused by faulty intelligence, but was later accepted because it suited U.S. government political goals.<ref>{{cite news|first=Adrian |last=Blomfield |title=How US fuelled myth of Zarqawi the mastermind |date=April 10, 2006 |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422042535/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F10%2F04%2Fwirq04.xml |archive-date=April 22, 2008 }}</ref> One [[Sunni]] insurgent leader claimed, "Zarqawi is an American, Israeli and Iranian agent who is trying to keep our country unstable so that the Sunnis will keep facing occupation."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/09/db0901.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307191430/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2006%2F06%2F09%2Fdb0901.xml |archive-date=March 7, 2008 |title=Abu Musab al-Zarqawi |date=June 9, 2006 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=June 20, 2006 |location=London |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{when|date=September 2014}}

On February 18, 2006, [[Shiite]] cleric [[Muqtada al-Sadr]] made similar charges:

{{blockquote|I believe he is fictitious. He is a knife or a pistol in the hands of the occupier. I believe that all three – the occupation, the takfir (i.e. the practice of declaring other Muslims to be apostates) supporters, and the Saddam supporters – stem from the same source, because the takfir supporters and the Saddam supporters are a weapon in the hands of America and it pins its crimes on them.<ref name="memri">{{cite web|url=http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD110006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060224150552/http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD110006 |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 24, 2006 |title=SD110006 |publisher=MEMRI |access-date=July 18, 2010}}</ref>}}

On April 10, 2006, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reported that the U.S. military conducted a major propaganda offensive designed to exaggerate Zarqawi's role in the Iraqi insurgency.<ref name="zarqawi propaganda">{{cite news |first=Thomas |last=Ricks |title=Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi |date=April 9, 2006 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html |access-date=August 23, 2017 |archive-date=January 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108053350/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Gen. [[Mark Kimmitt]] says of the propaganda campaign that there "was no attempt to manipulate the press". In an internal briefing, Kimmitt is quoted as stating, "The Zarqawi PSYOP Program is the most successful information campaign to date." The main goal of the propaganda campaign seems to have been to exacerbate a rift between insurgent forces in Iraq, but intelligence experts worried that it had actually enhanced Zarqawi's influence.<ref name="zarqawi propaganda"/> Col. [[Derek Harvey]], who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], warned an Army meeting in 2004, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will – made him more important than he really is, in some ways."<ref name="zarqawi propaganda"/> While Pentagon spokespersons state unequivocally that PSYOPs may not be used to influence American citizens, there is little question that the information disseminated through the program has found its way into American media sources. ''The Washington Post'' also notes, "One briefing slide about U.S. 'strategic communications' in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. [[George W. Casey Jr.]], the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the 'home audience' as one of six major targets of the American side of the war."<ref name="zarqawi propaganda"/>

On July 4, 2006, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad [[Zalmay Khalilzad]], in an interview with the [[BBC]], said: "In terms of the level of violence, it (the death of al-Zarqawi) has not had any impact at this point... the level of violence is still quite high." But Khalilzad maintained his view that the killing had encouraged some insurgent groups to "reach out" and join government reconciliation talks; he believed that previously these groups were intimidated by Zarqawi's presence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Zarqawi death has 'little impact'|date=July 4, 2006|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5144520.stm|access-date=July 4, 2006|archive-date=July 6, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060706042511/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5144520.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

On June 8, 2006, on the BBC's ''[[Question Time (TV series)|Question Time]]'' program, the [[Respect Party]] MP [[George Galloway]] referred to al-Zarqawi as "a '[[Boogeyman]]', built up by the Americans to try and perpetrate the lie that the resistance in Iraq are by foreigners, and that the mass of the Iraqis are with the American and British occupation". [[Jeffrey Gettleman]] of ''The New York Times'' supported this saying "several people who knew Mr. Zarqawi well, including former cellmates, voiced doubts about his ability to be an insurgent leader, or the leader of anything."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/world/middleeast/09zarqawi.html?_r=2&oref=slogin |title=Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Lived a Brief, Shadowy Life Replete With Contradictions |work=The New York Times |author=Jeffrey Gettleman |date=June 9, 2006 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |archive-date=March 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318093551/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/world/middleeast/09zarqawi.html?_r=2&oref=slogin |url-status=live }}</ref> In the July/August 2006 issue of ''[[The Atlantic]]'', Mary Anne Weaver doubted that the figure who beheaded [[Nicholas Berg]] in the execution video was in fact al-Zarqawi.<ref name="Atlantic Monthly"/>

In a story detailing her captivity in Iraq, [[Jill Carroll]], a journalist for ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'', casts doubt on al-Zarqawi's alleged unimportance. She describes how one of her captors, who identified himself as Abdullah Rashid and leader of the [[Mujahideen Shura Council (Iraq)|Mujahideen Shura Council]] in Iraq, conveyed to her that:

<blockquote>The Americans were constantly saying that the mujahideen in Iraq were led by foreigners... So, the Iraqi insurgents went to Zarqawi and insisted that an Iraqi be put in charge. But as I saw in coming weeks, Zarqawi remained the insurgents' hero, and the most influential member of their council, whatever Nour/Rashid's position. And it seemed to me, based on snatches of conversations, that two cell leaders under him – Abu Rasha and Abu Ahmed [al-Kuwaiti] – might also be on the council. At various times, I heard my captors discussing changes in their plans because of directives from the council and Zarqawi.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.aparat.com/2006/0821/p01s01-woiq.html |title=Part 6 • Reciting Koranic verses |newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor |author=Jill Carroll |date=August 21, 2006|access-date=October 25, 2015}}{{dead link|date=February 2017}}</ref></blockquote>