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Al-Zarqawi Killed
Aired June 08, 2006 - 13:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECY.: I think that every American ought to be delighted by the success we've achieved in the last 24 hours or so. But also, again, remember,, we've seen our ups and downs. We've still got a significant challenge ahead of us, but this is certainly great reason to be encouraged and a tremendous accomplishment by our troops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: So will al Zarqawi's followers try to avenge his death in the U.S.?
CNN's Deborah Feyerick working that part of the story in New York -- Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.
Well, that is the question right now, will al-Zarqawi's death trigger some sort of an action inside the United States? Local state and federal authorities have been meeting today to discuss the possible fallout. But as of now, sources are saying there's no new intelligence, no different intelligence that's come to light indicating that his death will activate these so-called sleeper cells, or even serve to trigger some form of an attack. There's been no increase in security levels in Washington D.C., Los Angeles or New York, where the city's police commissioner talked about the threat level.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: We have obviously listening posts, as the mayor said, in other parts of the world. We have them, I think, appropriately placed in this area. We work closely with federal agencies. We have no information that this will generate any sort of retaliatory act.
As the mayor said, we're at a higher alert level than the rest of the country. We've been this way since 9/11. I think we're doing everything that's appropriate to protect this city. And again, we have no specific information about any increased threat as a result of the demise of Zarqawi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Now last year, there was information that bin Laden was encouraging al Zarqawi to hit inside the U.S., but a terrorism expert tells CNN the general feeling has been al-Zarqawi never had any retaliatory capabilities inside America.
Of course, there's always the concern that second or third- generation immigrants who may have trained in al Qaeda camps, who do have access to the Internet, and who might be prone to extremism, could do something on their own.
But the bigger concern right now among many officials are strikes against U.S. forces on the ground in Iraq -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Deborah Feyerick, live from New York. Thanks so much.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi died the way he lived. From him home country of Jordan to Afghanistan and finally to Iraq. He relied on stunning acts of brutality to advance his goals.
CNN's Michael Holmes looks back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Abu Musab al- Zarqawi was the man behind the mask, the man who gained notoriety in Iraq by claiming credit for the brutal beheading of American Nick Berg in 2004.
ABU MONTASSER, JORDANIAN FRIEND OF AL-ZARQAWI: The guy who read the statement was Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The guy who cut his head was Abu Musab. But I couldn't believe it. It disgusted me.
HOLMES: Maybe it was less of a surprise two years later when al- Zarqawi took off the mask and finally appeared in his own video. By then, he was al Qaeda's man in Iraq and America's top target there.
Zarqawi's story actually began in neighboring Jordan in the working class city of Zarqa, the town that a young militant named Ahmad Fadeel al-Khalayleh would later use as an alias. A troubled youth, Zarqawi drank, a taboo in Islam. Then he found Allah and made his way to Afghanistan in 1989 to do jihad against the Soviets. It is not clear if he ever saw combat, but when he returned to Jordan years later, his aim was clear: overthrowing the government of King Hussein in favor of an Islamic state.
GEN. ALI SHUKRI, ADVISER TO JORDAN'S KING HUSSEIN: He started to plan attacks against visitors, tourists, coming into Jordan. He managed to create his own unit.
HOLMES: Soon, Zarqawi was in a Jordanian prison, where he emerged as a leader among mill militants. Freed in an amnesty, he once again went to Afghanistan, where he ran a training camp. He fled from there after the Taliban regime was toppled. In 2002, the Jordanians say he masterminded the assassination of an American diplomat in Amman. Then, just a few months later, Zarqawi's name was mentioned on the worldwide stage, for the first time associated with Iraq. COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STAT: Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden.
HOLMES: While the prewar ties between Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein have been disputed, the irony was that Zarqawi emerged in Iraq after the war, doing so in a very bloody fashion. His group claimed responsibility for a series of violent and deadly suicide attacks, beginning with an attack against the U.N., but mostly against Iraq's Shiite majority. Zarqawi sought Osama bin Laden's seal of approval, and he got it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Abu Musab al Zarqawi is the prince of al Qaeda in Iraq, so we ask all our organization's brethren to listen to him and obey him in his good deeds."
HOLMES: Zarqawi had eclipsed bin Laden as a man of action, even launching a deadly triple bombing attack against targets in his native Jordan.
In Iraq, Zarqawi was America's enemy number one. Even though there was a $25 million reward on his head, he was apparently captured and released at least once when the Americans failed to recognize him. When Zarqawi finally shed his mask, he taunted President Bush and proclaimed victory on behalf of the insurgency.
ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI, AL QAEDA LEADER (through translator): Every time the Mujahideen strike, it makes you lie more and more, claiming that everything is under control. But your lies are exposed to everyone, far and near.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What he didn't show you were the clips I showed.
HOLMES: The U.S., in turn, taunted him, showing outtakes of his videos, suggesting he was not exactly a superman of jihad, more a man who couldn't fire his weapon correctly. But, as one old Jordanian friend put it, Zarqawi had already made his mark.
ABU MONTASSER, JORDANIAN FRIEND OF AL-ZARQAWI (through translator): He definitely is going to go down in history. He went down -- took his mark in history and that's what he always wanted.
HOLMES: Zarqawi recognized he was a hunted man. "Eyes are everywhere," he wrote in a letter to bin Laden. Eyes that finally found Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: So can al Qaeda survive in Iraq without al Zarqawi? Just ahead, we're going to talk about that with a veteran of the Reagan Pentagon who calls al-Zarqawi the "Scarface of Fallujah."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the best known insurgent leader in Iraq. The question now, how important was he and what will the long-term impact be of his death?
Bing West was assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. He's the author of the book "No True Glory: A Front Line Account of the Battle of Fallujah." He's on the phone from Newport, Rhode.
Bing, great to have you with us. You say the significance here, it's like killing Adolf Hitler.
BING WEST, FMR. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE; Correct, Kyra. The -- basically, over the last year, the al Qaeda has actually taken over control of the insurgency from the mainline Sunnis. And one of the points that the new government has been trying to make to the Sunnis is basically saying, why are you fighting when now you have a defense minister whose Sunni, you have a parliament with Sunnis in it. Why are you out there with those extremists? And now, knocking off Zarqawi really helps this new government. Because Zarqawi really did become the face of the insurgency.
PHILLIPS: And the significance of the Jordanians getting involved. They are the ones that had this lieutenant that was close to Zarqawi. That's how the U.S. apparently got this intel. What does that tell us about the relationship with the Jordanians?
WEST: Well, what it really -- on a broader scale, what it really says is, look, here you have the Hashemites in Jordan, Sunnis under King Abdullah. And so this enables many people to go to the Sunni insurgents and say, look who killed Zarqawi. It was other Sunnis, so what the heck are you fighting for? So the fact that Jordanians, as Sunnis with their own intelligence, were after Zarqawi really begins to drive a wedge between the al Qaeda extremists in Iraq and what you can call the mainstream rejectionists, who, at this point, should be asking, why am I still fighting? So for Jordan to stand up like this really helps the anti-insurgent cause.
PHILLIPS: Iraqi ministers, you mentioned, now in place. Zarqawi's dead. Let's talk about how this can affect the insurgency. I mean, this was the face, as you said, of al Qaeda in Iraq. You've got the new ministers in place. You may see U.S. troops heading home as things develop. Sergeant, do you think the insurgency could begin to break up or realize, we have no leader, we really don't know how to take on this fight anymore?
WEST: Well, that's the argument that many people are going to be making, too. That is, not to the extremists. The extremists have to be hunted down and killed. They're not going to change. But to the average Sunni who joined the insurgency because he didn't want Americans in his cities or because he was angry at the Shiites getting power, all that's beginning to change. So this strengthens the hand of those who want to say to the average insurgent, for gosh sakes, why are you continuing this?
Because Zarqawi -- this fight, this fight -- many wars, you can see say, the moral is to the physical is four to one. In this fight, the moral is to the physical is about 10 to one. And this really is a serious blow to al Qaeda and they know it. And then the question is, will there be a follow on? And I think there will. I think that the city of Ramadi that's been out of control, I think if you watch Ramadi, the death now for al Qaeda will be sounding in Ramadi as well. So I don't think this is just one thing. I think this is the start of something that will continue on.
PHILLIPS: Bing West, appreciate your time today.
WEST: Right.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, missions like the one that took out al-Zarqawi call for pinpoint accuracy. How do military pilots prepare for the mission of a lifetime?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roll out. Probably set our whip (ph) up, and (INAUDIBLE) right there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And got it in your sights and then you drop the ordinance?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: I was lucky enough to fly on a few of those Navy and Air Force training flights. Later on LIVE FROM, we'll take you inside the cockpit and inside the mind of a fighter pilot. He'll tell us what those tense moments are like to drop a bomb.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, you would think the families of the many people al-Zarqawi killed could find some comfort in the fact that finally he's dead. Take the family of Nicholas Berg, a young American businessman who was beheaded in Iraq two years ago. It's believed the man wielding the sword was al-Zarqawi. Nick Berg's father is speaking out today. CNN's Carol Lin is here with what he had to say -- Carol.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Carol, CNN talked with Michael Berg, and he believes that al-Zarqawi's death is only going to bring more death. This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BERG, NICHOLAS BERG'S FATHER: To me, it's a sad day whenever any human being is killed. In Zarqawi's case, it's doubly sad because not only is he a human being whose parents will now go through what I went through, but he's also a political figure and as such his death will reignite the resistance in Iraq and it will also possibly reignite the resistance throughout the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Kyra, he says he finds no comfort in al-Zarqawi's death. Now, you might have noticed the buttons and the campaign poster behind him. He's actually running for Delaware's lone congressional seat on the Green Party ticket.
Now, earlier when CNN asked him about U.S. attempts to create a Democratic Iraq, Berg was pretty dismissive. He said "Democracy, come on. You can't really believe that's a democracy there when the people who are running the elections are holding guns. That's not democracy."
So, Kyra, this is a man who says he's going to run for the congressional seat because he wants to work to end the war with Iraq.
Carol Lin, thanks so much.
LIN: You bet.
PHILLIPS: And a note about CNN's prime-time lineup on this story. Michael Berg will be sharing his thoughts with Larry King tonight and taking your calls. That's at 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
Well, the big news from Iraq is the latest big victory for U.S. air power. In the next hour of LIVE FROM, we're going to talk strategy with Admiral Timothy Keating. He remembers well when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was on his hit list. An exclusive one-on-one with the commander of NORTHCOM/NORAD straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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