Document Appears to Solicit Al Qaeda Help in Iraq
Feb. 9, 2004 — -- A 17-page document obtained by the United States provides an extraordinary window into the resistance against U.S. forces in Iraq. It outlines a plan for driving American forces from Iraq and issues an appeal to al Qaeda leadership for help in that rebellion.
Senior officials tell ABCNEWS the document was written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man the United States suspects of planning a number of devastating bombings in Iraq, including the one at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.
U.S. officials have been tracking Zarqawi for the last three years. They believe he fled the U.S. bombing of al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, then moved to Iran and finally Iraq.
Intelligence officials in Britain and France say Zarqawi had a hand in a thwarted plan to use the chemical poison ricin, produced by his followers in northern Iraq.
He is considered by the United States to be a "high value target." Sources tell ABCNEWS that Secretary of State Colin Powell today approved doubling the award for his capture to $10 million.
The document, which was on a CD, was found in the belongings of Hasan Ghul, who was captured on the Iran-Iraq border last month.
Officials believe Ghul, who they describe as an al Qaeda facilitator, was on his way to Afghanistan to deliver the CD to a senior al Qaeda leader whom they identified as Abdullah Khan.
The document is undated, but officials believe it was written a few months ago.
The document reads like an annual report. There is little flourish, just a cold assessment of what the writer believes is going well in Iraq and what is not.
It reads: "There is no doubt that our field of movement is shrinking and the grip around the throat of the mujahedeen has begun to tighten. With the spread of the army and police, our future is becoming frightening."
The writer says he is having a difficult time gathering forces. "Iraq has no mountains in which to seek refuge, or forest in which to hide."
And the writer concedes, "Our enemy is growing stronger day after day, and its intelligence information increases. By God, this is suffocation."
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