Vol. 56, Issue 1 - Howard University School of Law

Cognitive Foreign Policyistan and migrated five hundred miles to Iraq; that an Iraqi hospitalamputated Zarqawi’s leg; and that Zarqawi had assembled a terroristnetwork across the country, developed a chemical weapons facility inKurdish-controlled northern Iraq, was supplying a terror cell withweapons in London, and planned terror attacks for London and Europe.225 These claims intensified after Secretary of State Powell’s February5, 2003 address to the United Nations. 226 Ironically, there wereno chemical weapons in Iraq, no attacks from weapons produced inZarqawi’s purported chemical facility, and no terror group inLondon. 227Nonetheless, Zarqawi became the quintessential link between al-Qaeda and Iraq. 228 During the first two years of the occupation,Zarqawi’s media persona morphed and bombings were typicallyblamed on him. 229 Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch asserted that 90% of suicidebombers in Iraq were recruited and trained by Zarqawi. 230 Bushcited: “Zarqawi’s the best evidence of connection to al-Qaeda affiliatesand al-Qaida. He’s the person who’s still killing. He’s the person,remember the e-mail exchange between al-Qaeda leadership and225. Bejesky, Intelligence, supra note 21, at 868-70.226. See How the Spooks Took Over the News, INDEPENDENT (Feb. 11, 2008), http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/how-the-spooks-took-over-the-news-780672.html(“Zarqawi was a footnote, not a headline, but the flow of stories about him . . . flooded theglobal media on 5 February 2003 . . . .”).227. Bejesky, Intelligence, supra note 21, at 871-72.228. Id. at 870; see also Full Transcript of the Debate Between the Vice Presidential Candidatesin Cleveland, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 5, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/05/politics/campaign/06dtext-full.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&position=(“We know [Zarqawi] was running aterrorist camp, training terrorists in Afghanistan prior to 9/11. . . . migrated to Baghdad. . . .oversaw the poisons facility up at Khurmal . . . . is responsible for most of the major car bombingsthat have killed or maimed thousands of people.”).229. Rumsfeld called Zarqawi the “leading terrorist in Iraq and one of three senior al-Qaedaleaders worldwide.” Karen DeYoung & Walter Pincus, Zarqawi Helped U.S. Argument That al-Qaeda Network was in Iraq, WASH. POST, June 10, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060901578.pf.html;see also U.S. DEP’T OF DEF., DODNEWS BRIEFING (2005), available at http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3209(contending that Zarqawi threatened the occupation); Peter Grier, Iraq’s binLaden? Zarqawi’s Rise, CHRISTIAN SCI. MONITOR (May 14, 2004), http://csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p03s01-usfp.html (noting that Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for various bombings).“U.S. intelligence officials believe that Ayman al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with links toOsama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, has orchestrated the vast majority of terror attacks [includingover thirty bombings].” Terror Strikes Blamed on al-Zarqawi in Iraq, MSNBC (May 4,2005), http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5437742/ns/world_news-hunt_for_al_qaida/t/terror-strikesblamed-al-zarqawi-iraq/;see also ‘Zarqawi’ Beheaded US Man in Iraq, BBC (May 13, 2004),http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3712421.stm (blaming Zarqawi for kidnappings andbeheadings).230. DeYoung & Pincus, supra note 229.2012] 39