Al Qaeda Leader Captured in Iraq?

Maybe, maybe not -- no confirmation from the US military yet.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group, has been captured, Iraqi state television said on Thursday.

The insurgent group is one of a handful of Sunni Arab extremist groups blamed for suicide bombings and other attacks in the northern city of Mosul and other parts of Iraq. …

Al-Iraqiya television said Baghdadi was believed to have been captured in eastern Baghdad. Security experts have previously speculated that Baghdadi was a character invented by some extremist groups rather than a real person.

I've never wholly understood that speculation -- if I understand it right, some suspect Al Qaeda invented a leader with a fictional backstory with an Iraqi-ish name in order to make it appear that their largely foreign forces were led by a native Iraqi.

Even if that's the case -- and it's very plausible it is -- how does it follow from that that not only is al-Baghdadi's "background" a fiction, but his very existence is? Wouldn't it be more likely that Al Qaeda would give a real person a fictitious background than actually just make up a phantom of a person?

I can see reasons for attempting the latter -- you can never catch someone who doesn't exist, for example, and thus Al Qaeda's phantasmal leader would never himself be defeated.

But it seems unlikely to me; sort of a comic-book or mystery thriller conceit. There must be some leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Even if his bio departs from the supposed bio of al-Baghdadi, that person is al-Baghdadi, more or less. It seems a lot more plausible that he's an Egyptian, for example, who was simply dubbed "al-Baghdadi" rather than an entirely fictional contrivance of Al Qaeda's PR department.

If this gets confirmed, we'll soon know. I have some sense it will get confirmed -- Iraq's army is better now, and they are less in need of the short-lived morale boost provided by claims that a leader as been captured (only to retract that claim within a day or two). They're just more professional now. Maybe this is just another false "al-Baghdadi captured" report, but I'm betting they got their man this time.

And, of course, all credit for this should go to President Prissypants, who so cheered our troops recently.

posted by Ace at 01:10 PM

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