I'm not one to chomp at the conspiracy theory bit, but there just might be something to this one.
Abu Musab al-Zargawi's widow says her late husband's al-Qaida organization sold him out to the United States in exchange for an American promise to ease off on its worldwide hunt for Osama bin Laden.
What disturbs me is not so much the content of this allegation - that there may be some sort of high-level agreement allowing Osama bin Laden to remain on the lam. What irks to me is the fact that it sounds somewhat plausible. I don't want to believe it, and I can say that at the moment, I don't. I am intrigued at the possibility though.
Considering Zarqawi was a more 'immediate' and more 'visible' threat and had been metamorphosed into the face of the insurgency in Iraq while bin Laden had remained more or less off the world stage of late, Zarqawi naturally would make the better short-term target. His death would, rightfully, be hailed as a success in the war. It would also logically be concluded to have a great propaganda benefit at home here in the U.S. and abroad.
Still, one has to consider that Osama was essentially (and supposedly is still) the central target of the war on terror. The figurehead. As such, there must be some mitigating reason, some missing factor compelling the U.S. to spare bin Laden and land Zarqawi if this conspiracy theory is to make any sense.
I would introduce the finding of Iraqi government and ministry officials' phone numbers saved in the memory of Zarqawi's cell phone as a tantalizing glimpse of what could very well be this missing factor. Perhaps there is much more to this angle than the media has been playing up?
Suppose, for the sake of argument, Zarqawi was more 'involved' with these 'government officials' than we would think? Or vice versa?
The possibilities here are nearly endless, and almost all are quite unsavory. I'm not necessarily convinced, but there's definitely something unsettling about the way the pieces fit together.
technorati tags:Bin+Laden, Zarqawi, Iraq, Al+Qaeda, terrorist, conspiracy, terror, Abu+Musab+Al+Zarqawi, Islam
