Word: zarqawi
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...Bush explained the declassified threat in some detail at the Coast Guard Academy, saying that bin Laden had tapped Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to organize attacks on the U.S. from his base in Iraq. Bush has long maintained that the U.S. would be creating a massive staging area for al-Qaeda if it pulled out of Iraq prematurely. In his speech, Bush reported that bin Laden directed a senior aide, Hamza Rabia, to huddle with Zarqawi on al-Qaeda's other attack plans around the world that year...
...Iraq, meanwhile, where Zarqawi's poisonous legacy continues to plague all efforts to end the violence, Bush's revelation will most likely be received with little more than a shrug - as are most of the White House's claims linking Iraq to the global war on terror. From the Iraqi point of view, al-Qaeda came to their country as a direct consequence of the U.S.-led invasion. Any communication between bin Laden and Zarqawi about operations elsewhere are of no more than academic interest...
...most, some Iraqis may be tempted to speculate what might have been if Zarqawi had followed bin Laden's instructions and mounted more attacks abroad. Would it have distracted him from his murderous mission in Iraq, giving this country a breather...
...there was never any evidence that Zarqawi had any ambitions beyond Iraq's borders. The al-Qaeda bombings in Amman on Nov. 9, 2005, were an exception, but Iraqis attributed it to a personal grudge - Zarqawi was Jordanian, and had in his youth been jailed by the government. Even if Zarqawi was indeed planning other attacks outside Iraq, it certainly didn't slow down his deadly campaign of bombings across the country...
...anything, al-Qaeda has grown even more deadly since Zarqawi's death, and the rate of suicide attacks has escalated sharply in recent months in response to the U.S. military "surge" in Baghdad. In the latest attack, at least 20 people were killed in a suicide bombing attack on a cafe in Mandali, a small Kurdish town on the Iranian border...