The Threat of al Zarqawi
GORANI: Welcome back to this YOUR WORLD TODAY special, "Terror in Jordan." We are outside the Radisson Hotel, the site of the bomb explosion that killed the most people a little less than 24 hours ago here in the Jordanian capital. Earlier my colleague Brent Sadler surveyed the damage inside the Radisson Hotel with the Radisson Hotel manager. Here's the report he filed.</s>BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's just walk along here and see how far we can get, because the area is now a lot clearer than it was. I know Jordanian security is still very much in control.</s>BASSAN BANNA, RADISSON HOTEL: We are -- I mean we don't want to -- because it's a crime scene, I don't know if we can go in further or not.</s>SADLER: No, I don't think we'll go in. They won't allow us. But maybe we can just get to the edge here.</s>BANNA: That's the maximum edge. I can see all our stuff, from managers to everybody, engineering is clearing up. We want to make it happen, you know? We want to make sure that things go by and we're not going to let this happen.</s>SADLER: In that area there, have you been inside?</s>BANNA: I've been inside. It's been cleared. Most of the people who were inside managed to go out safely. We checked under the rubble and there was no people left anymore, I mean since last night.</s>SADLER: But that area over there, behind the soldier, that is where the most casualties and lots of life suffered.</s>BANNA: Actually, on the left side, because this is the wall between the bar and the ballroom. So most of the casualties happened in the right side of the ballroom, where the suicide bomber blew himself up.</s>GORANI: A wedding reception disrupted by such a bloody and lethal attack. I'll be joined live by Brent Sadler toward the end of this special program, and we'll talk about what's next for Jordan as it digests this wave of violence. Back to you, Michael.</s>HOLMES: All right, Hala, thanks very much for reporting there. Well, as we've mentioned, terror master mind and the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He is the one claiming responsibility for these attacks in Jordan. While he spreads his terror to his home country, he continues to target civilians in Iraq, as well. In a moment, we're going to have a conversation about Zarqawi's breach in the region. But first, let's go to Baghdad. Aneesh Raman is there with the latest on the violence there. We have been focusing so much, Aneesh, on the tragic events in Jordan. But a lot of tragedy continuing in Baghdad.</s>ANEESH RAMAN, CNN BAGHDAD CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Michael. Good afternoon. At least three suicide attacks ripping through Iraq today, the deadliest taking place around 9:30 a.m. this morning, at a restaurant in central Baghdad. A suicide bomber walked into the restaurant that was filled with traffic from morning. People were going in to have breakfast. He then blew himself up. At least 34 people are confirmed dead, 25 others wounded. You see the pictures there of the aftermath. This restaurant was right on Abu Nawas Street, a main commercial thoroughfare that run through the Iraqi capital. Now, the U.S. military has said that this attack bears all the hallmarks, yet again, of al Qaeda in Iraq. A spectacular attack with someone walking in as a suicide bomber. Today Major General Rick Lynch held a press conference -- he's a coalition spokesperson -- and spoke to the continued capabilities of Abu Musab al Zarqawi.</s>MAJOR GENERAL RICK LYNCH, U.S. ARMY: He still has the capability of recruiting suicide bombers, training those suicide bombers and giving them ammunitions. And that's what happened in Baghdad today and that's what happened in Jordan yesterday. And that will continue.</s>RAMAN: Now there are any number of elements, Michael, that make up Iraq's insurgency. al Qaeda in Iraq, though, is clearly the most known. They carry out the biggest attacks. They are the ones often behind the suicide bombings, the likes of which we saw this morning -- Michael.</s>HOLMES: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad. Aneesh, thanks -- Zain.</s>VERJEE: Michael, to discuss the impact Zarqawi's having on the global war on terror, we are joined now by Loretta Napoleoni. She joins us from New York. She's contributing writer for the magazine "Foreign Policy" and author of "Insurgent Iraq." From London, Sajjan Gohel, a terrorism expert with the Asia-Pacific Foundation. And Zaki Chehab joins us from Washington. He's the political editor of the "Al Hayat" newspaper and the author of "Inside the Resistance." Loretta Napoleoni, to you first. What kind of global reach does Abu Musab al Zarqawi have beyond Iraq?</s>LORETTA NAPOLEONI, WRITER, "FOREIGN POLICY" MAGAZINE: Well, at the moment, he has quite a large global reach. Before the beginning of the Iraq war, and even before Colin Powell actually presented him in February 2003 as the link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, he had no global reach at all. It was a very, very small time jihadist.</s>VERJEE: Zaki Chehab, you've not met Abu Musab al Zarqawi personally,, but you have spoken and you have interviewed several militants that work with him. What did they tell you? What was their ideology?</s>ZAKI CHEHAB, POLITICAL EDITOR, "AL-HAYAT-LBC": In fact, from his day one in Afghanistan, Zarqawi made it clear that it is his intention is to concentrate his activities in Jordan and occupied territories. That's why from day one, he opted to have his own training camps in Afghanistan separate from the camps of -- belongs bin Laden. And most of the people who worked with him at that time or joined his camp were either of Palestinian origin or Jordanians. From that day, it was clear that Zarqawi is concentrating on that part of the world. Definitively after the fall of Taliban regime and the ninth of September attacks, Zarqawi moved, you know, slowly, via the Iranian borders towards north of Iraq. But a few months later, his group starts gathering after they disperse into the Iranian territory as a result of the American and Iraqi attacks.</s>VERJEE: All right.</s>CHEHAB: So the intention of Zarqawi was just to make sure that he is active in this part of the world. Iraq, Jordan, at some stage, West Bank.</s>VERJEE: Sajjan Gohel, is Zarqawi directly linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, or does his al Qaeda in Iraq subscribe more to the ideology of al Qaeda? .</s>SAJJAN GOHEL, ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION: Well, this is very important issue, because as we've seen that al Qaeda the organization has now evolved into al Qaeda the ideology. It's a group of doctrines that Osama bin Laden has set out, anti-Western, anti-secular, overthrowing governments, recreating the caliphate. And what you're finding is that groups throughout the world have their own leadership, their own cell structure, their own financing. But they're bonded by those same goals. And al Zarqawi is an example of what Bin Laden wants to create: a decentralization, people to follow in his aftermath. And as we're seeing, he's doing it with devastating consequences.</s>VERJEE: Loretta Napoleoni, he is also trying to undermine or ignite sectarian differences in Iraq, right?</s>NAPOLEONI: Absolutely. This is very much part of his strategy, which started right at the beginning of his entry into the Iraqi insurgency in summer 2003. And from summer 2003 until November 2004, when he finally got recognized by Osama bin Laden, he actually had to aim correspondents with bin Laden, whereby he was explaining the reason why a sectarian war was essential to prevent a united front of Sunni and Shia, which will be nationally and secular against coalition forces. And so far, he has succeeded.</s>VERJEE: Zaki Chehab, he succeeded in killing ordinary civilians, Arabs, Muslims, Jordanians mostly in the attack yesterday. A wedding party. Don't attacks like this, targeting civilians and Arabs, alienate Abu Musab al Zarqawi from the wider Muslim and Arab community if he's trying to actually garner their support? What were the militants that you spoke to that work for him telling you about that?</s>CHEHAB: Definitely, they try to just have such attack, you know, which target civilians and the Sunnis, and the Sunni-populated area or Shia-populated area. Definitely the kind of statements Zarqawi have issued over the last two, three years was, you know, mainly concentrating on describing religious Shiite leadership as emphasis, because of their cooperation with the United States and coalition forces. Definitely the kind of intention Zarqawi's, like, to create a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites, which hopefully moderates on both sides have managed to avoid it. But the fact that such attack as the one that happened yesterday in Jordan, I am sure this one was maybe a big change is going to be in terms of popularity of Zarqawi, who have enjoyed until very recently some popularity in his hometown, in Al Zarqa, and maybe among other extreme elements in Jordan and in Iraq. Definitely, the kind of targets he chose yesterday will affect the tourism in Jordan at the end of day. And it will just put a large number of people out of jobs if Zarqawi continued such a policy.</s>VERJEE: Sajjan Gohel, is his organization a rival to Osama Bin Laden or an ally?</s>GOHEL: Well certainly as we've seen, that initially when Al Zarqawi had his terror camps in Afghanistan, they were based in Harat, which was separate from Osama bin Laden's, and they seemed to operate on different strands. But nevertheless, their tactics were very much the same. When Al Zarqawi moved to Iraq, he renamed his group from Altawi (ph) jihad to Al Qaeda in Iraq, and The Two Rivers. And as we are seeing, he's very much endearing to the Bin Laden goals. And of course they have exchanged a number of messages between Al Qaeda, which is probably now in Pakistan, and now between Al Zarqawi. And they have been talking about strategies recently, but which hasn't been confirmed to be genuine.</s>VERJEE: But they haven't all agreed?</s>GOHEL: That's right, Al Zarqawi was told by Ayman Al Zawahiri, the deputy of Al Qaeda, that it's not a good idea to target civilians, particularly Muslims. And with the recent attacks in Jordan, perhaps this is an indication that Al Zarqawi is going to do things his own way.</s>VERJEE: Sajjan Gohel, Loretta Napoleoni And Zaki Chehab, thank you so much. To Hala now -- Hala. Oh, we're take a short break right now. We'll be back in a moment.