Making Sense of the Zarqawi Tape

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

By Martha MacCallum, Fox News

April 25, 2006

Transcript

Martha: A rare video, from the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, coming as Iraqi leaders are struggling to form a new cabinet. For more on this I’m joined by former Indiana congressman, Tim Roemer, who sat on the House Intelligence Committee and was a member of course, of the 9/11 Commission. Congressman good to have you with us this afternoon.

Tim Roemer: Thanks Martha.

Martha: I want to start with your reaction to this report that Bret Baier was just giving us. This new tape that has surfaced, they don’t know exactly when it was made: Zarqawi speaking out in a fairly rare video appearance.

Tim Roemer: Well you’re right, rare in that it’s been probably two years since we last saw him with the brutal beheading of Mr. Berg. It’s been two days since the bin Laden tape was aired. And while we don’t know, we don’t have confirmation about this being Zarqawi yet, I think there might be some interesting things to say Martha. One is, bin Laden and Zawahiri have released more tapes, audio and video tapes in the last four years than the rock group, U2 has released. They are getting comfortable putting these out to communicate with that jihadists, to get morale boosted, to try to get more people up to speed on what they want to do and how they want to achieve it and it may tell us some new areas by which – how al-Qaeda is organizing structurally in a post-9/11 world.

Martha: It’s interesting they have over the years at times been sort of in the same camp and at other times been sort of competitors in the world of terrorism. So bin Laden releases a tape, days later we see this tape from Zarqawi: what if anything do you think might tell us about their relationship, how they see themselves ranked in the world, and also the bombings that we saw yesterday in Egypt and how that might tie in?

Tim Roemer: Well, they’re certainly talking about the latest developments in the world Martha. Bin Laden and his tape on Sunday is talking about issues that he wants to communicate with and potentially inflame about the Muslim world; the Danish cartoons and what they mean, Hamas and the election there and governments trying to take money away from them, Darfur and Sudan. He is trying to get support from the Muslim and alienate them from the western world. Today, this is Zarqawi, he is talking about the formation of a new government. The same thing President Bush was talking about today.

Martha: And it does beg the question whether or not they’re feeling pressure from that. The president pointing out that this is a significant development on a very rocky road to stability in Iraq. What do you think about that, because we’ve heard Zarqawi say, if they lose this battle in Iraq, they’ve lost a lot?

Tim Roemer: Well I think that if they lose the battle, they’ve lost a tremendous amount, just as it’s important for the United States government to win this battle. I think the president talking about the formation of a unity government of a new leader here, is an important step. But it has taking a long time though, Martha. December 15th is when we had the elections and we’re almost in May. We cannot continue to take that long and secondly this is not just a military struggle for us in Iraq. It is a political struggle, it’s a security struggle, it’s an economic struggle. It’s three-dimensional chess, not just playing on the military dimension all the time.

Martha: Alright, as the administration points out it can take a long time to form a democracy as it did in our own country, so we’ll stand and watch. So, Congressman Tim Roemer good to talk to you as always. Thank you.

Tim Roemer: Thank you Martha.

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