JORDAN
AL ZARQAWI
September 2003
13 minutes
2.12 COLIN POWELL -a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
2.24 - DUTCH TV intro Al-Zarqawi
2.32 - COLIN POWELL - From Iraq Zarqawi directs his network in the Middle East and beyond.
2.48 VO
He is known as the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, thought to be responsible for many of the terrorist attacks. The Americans have put a 25 million dollar price on his head. By now he's become a myth and just as elusive as Bin Laden himself. Who is this Al Zarqawi? Where lie his roots, and what shaped him to become the most infamous opponent of the Americans.
3.16 VO
To get more insight we travel to Jordan, birthplace of the 38 year old Abu Musab Al Zarqawi...
Together with our correspondent Mustafa Oukbih and local producer Mohammed Abu Omar we try to sketch a picture of the man behind the myth.
MUSTAFA
3.23
-Let's make an appointment. As soon as possible.
-Are you at home?
3.29
-I'll call you back.
3.34
-Let me propose a strategy.
3.38
-First we go to his native village, to Zarqa.
3.45
-We try to contact people who know him personally.
3.54
-People from the neighbourhood.
3.54
-It will not be easy to film there.
ABU OMAR
3.59
-Everybody who lives there know each other, they're family.
4.05
-Filming will be difficult.
-Let's take a local guy around.
4.12
-He should stay with us all the time.
4.15 VO
Local contact and driver Bilal takes us northeast, away from the capital Amman.
BILAL
4.21
-This is the road to Zarqa.
4.26
-The place of birth of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
4.31 VO
Al Zarqawi isn't his real name of the accused terrorist.
The authorities merely named him after his hometown, Zarka.
BILAL
4.42
-His family still lives there.
4.46
-His father is deceased, but his wife and children reside there.
4.53
-Their district is called Kassarat.
MUSTAFA
-May we film there?
BILAL
-I don't know.
5.07 VO
We stop at a supermarket in the neighbourhood and try to talk to local residents about their famous neighbour.
LOCALS
5.15
-We should say something, so that people get some idea about him.
-This is quite difficult for us, so we better say nothing.
5.26 VO
They're careful and afraid of the Jordanian secret service.
MUSTAFA
5.30
-Do people talk about Al-Zarqawi?
LOCAL
5.34
-He is from this area, so it is normal they talk about him.
MUSTAFA
5.40
-What do they say?
LOCAL
-They sympathise with him.
5.45
-First, because he is a neighbour, a brother
and second because all those accusation are made up by the Americans.
MUSTAFA
5.57
-Thank you.
LOCAL
-You are most welcome in Jordan.
5.58 VO
It's clear. The inhabitants don't see it as a taint but an honour that the infamous Al Zarqawi lives in their neighbourhood. A drugstore owner two blocks away knows Al Zarqawi from childhood.
DRUGSTORE OWNER
6.15
-He is an ordinary person.
-An average inhabitant of Zarqa.
6.21
-There is nothing special about him
-Except that he is a believer.
6.27
-Who took on the Jihad.
6.31
-With us, Muslims, the Jihad is a duty for everyone.
6.37
-Maybe Afghanistan was a suitable place for holy combat.
6.42 VO
Just like his father who fought in the fist Intifadah against the occupation of Palestine, Zarqawi sought his own battle. We drive past his old home but nobody wants to talk.
We make contact with a reporter who interviewed Zarqawi twice and is an expert on various Muslim extremist groups in Jordan.
OMAR
7.04
-I will call you and keep in touch.
7.07
-The interview will not last longer than half an hour.
7.11
-If you can spare the time, please help us out.
7.16
An appointment is made for the end of the afternoon. We return to Amman and contemplate on the next step.
MUSTAFA
7.24
-I think it is vital we talk to someone from his family.
7.30
-Maybe with his brother in law.
-He may be the only one who will talk.
OMAR
7.37
-You will find anyone else in the family who is willing.
7.42 VO
Contact sought with the brother in law of Zarqawi. Meanwhile Mohammed calls Yusef Al Rababa. He was in the same Jordanian prison as Zarqawi for years and can tell us about that period of Zarqawi's life.
OMAR
7.49
-Hello there, how are you, Jusuf?
-This is Mohamed Abu Omar.
7.56
-How are you doing?
7.59
-We are producing a report for the Dutch television.
8.04
-It is about Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
8.10
-About his life experience.
-You met him in prison and know a lot about him.
8.16 VO
Yusef Al Rababa knows about the Jordanian secret service only too well, and wants time to think before he agrees with an interview. We can only wait.
At the end of the afternoon we're in luck...(phone)
OMAR
8.29
-Hello, thank you so much.
-We'll be waiting.
8.32 VO
It's the brother in law of Zarqawi, he's in the neighbourhood and willing to visit for an interview.
He met Zarqawi in the 80's in Afghanistan when they both joined the battle against the Russian. Earlier he was locked up for 40 days because he did an interview with an Arabic newspaper, yet he's willing to talk to us about Zarqawi.
BROTHER IN LAW OF ZARQAWI, SALAH AL HAMI
8.52
-He is sensitive, caring, gentle, emotional, compassionate, merciful.
9.01
-If something touches him, he weeps quickly.
9.04
-Emotionally he is very simple.
-But he is also strong-willed and convinced of his views.
9.12
-His character has two sides.
9.16
-His emotional side is positive.
9.20
-But facing aggression against him or his people he get's mad.
9.25
-He has those two sides that maintain a balance.
-He is level-headed.
9.31
-He is not at all what people want you to believe.
9.36 VO
The brother in law and Zarqawi found each other in the Jihad, the holy war. But before that, in his puberty, Al Zarqawi was more dedicated to liquor than faith.
But former co-convict Yusef Al Rababa lets us know he's willing to receive us.
In 1996 Yusef was a political prisoner and Al Zarqawi was held for plotting attacks on Jewish targets.
OMAR
10.01
-Please wait outside, I'll be there.
10.06
-Hang on.
-Can you see the car?
10.10
-Yes, the white one.
10.13 VO
Yusef saw Zarqawi as a simple thinker who divided the world into believers the non-believers.
YUSEF AL RABABA
10.27
-That opinion, that you have to be with or against us is too basic.
-It's for simplistic minds.
10.33
-Those who don't want to exercise their brains and ignore discussions chooses this way.
10.40
-Those people in prison has one-track minds
10.46
-For them there were only two kinds of people:
-believers and non-believers.
10.51
-I think that in Afghanistan he was quite different.
10.55
-But in prison he was tortured frequently.
10.59
-That treatment by the Jordanian Secret Service
made him very firm in his hatred for the police.
11.09
-Injustice made him a fanatic.
11.16 VO
Brother in law Salah Al Hami and Yusef draw out the lifeline of Zarqawi.
How a normal boy from Zarqa became one of the most wanted men in Iraq.
The next line in a family of warriors.
SALAH AL HAMI
11.33
-From early age he possessed the qualities for the Jihad.
11.38
-Masculinity, willingness to sacrifice, and strength marked him in youth.
11.46 VO
But in puberty Zarqawi strayed from that path.
He drank a lot and got tattoos.
In a drunken mood swing he wounded his cousin.
This event took him to this neighbourhood mosque, and back to the path of the Jihad.
12.02 VO
He left for Afghanistan in the mid-80s and joins the Mujahedin who fight the Russians.
There he's trained as a soldier. And was strengthened by the horrors of war.
After the war he wants to continue the battle in the form of attacks against unbelievers.
But before he can act he's caught by the Jordanian secret services, interrogated, tortured and thrown in prison.
YUSEF
12.34
-Upon his return from Afghanistan he wanted to come to terms.
12.39
-But instead he went to jail and that made the difference.
12.44
-Especially the way he was interrogated.
12.50
-Cruelty makes people aggressive and fills them with hatred.
12.55
-His true personality become clearer and clearer.
2ND SPEAKER
12.58
-He started to learn the Koran by heart and developed a broader vision.
SALAH
13.06
-He gets knowledge of the ancient Arabic culture.
13.10 VO
Zarqawi is convinced he's directly acting in Allah's command.
SALAH
13.18
-Once he had a dream.
13.22
-In 1992 he dreamed of a sword that descended from heaven and came to him.
13.30
-On that sword it was written: Jihad.
13.34
-And also: for Abu Musab.
13.37
-And the Koran verse:
Thy Lord has not forsaken thee.
13.42
-And also:
Do not despair or mourn.
You will be victorious if you truly believe.
13.49 VO
After his jail time he sought a new battle, and found it in Iraq. There he set up his own terrorist organisation, the Al Tawihd Wa Al Jihad.
(bang)
He spread death and destruction here, for example, at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, last year.
Or here with the execution of American Nick Berg.
On the video the man proclaims to be Al Zarqawi himself before beheading the man with a knife.
14.11
-Allah is great.
MUSTAFA
14.21
-Did you recognize his voice?
SALAH
14.26
-Ask him to stop filming.
14.37
-It's difficult to answer.
14.40
-It's possible they tampered with the recording.
14.45
-It can also be genuine.
-I don't know and don't want to make a mistake.
14.49
-But it is truly his voice.
14.54
We drive down to Al Zarqawi's old home again.
There, in the doorpost, stands his son.
Will he also be driven to follow in his fathers footsteps?
AL ZARQAWI
September 2003
13 minutes
2.12 COLIN POWELL -a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
2.24 - DUTCH TV intro Al-Zarqawi
2.32 - COLIN POWELL - From Iraq Zarqawi directs his network in the Middle East and beyond.
2.48 VO
He is known as the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, thought to be responsible for many of the terrorist attacks. The Americans have put a 25 million dollar price on his head. By now he's become a myth and just as elusive as Bin Laden himself. Who is this Al Zarqawi? Where lie his roots, and what shaped him to become the most infamous opponent of the Americans.
3.16 VO
To get more insight we travel to Jordan, birthplace of the 38 year old Abu Musab Al Zarqawi...
Together with our correspondent Mustafa Oukbih and local producer Mohammed Abu Omar we try to sketch a picture of the man behind the myth.
MUSTAFA
3.23
-Let's make an appointment. As soon as possible.
-Are you at home?
3.29
-I'll call you back.
3.34
-Let me propose a strategy.
3.38
-First we go to his native village, to Zarqa.
3.45
-We try to contact people who know him personally.
3.54
-People from the neighbourhood.
3.54
-It will not be easy to film there.
ABU OMAR
3.59
-Everybody who lives there know each other, they're family.
4.05
-Filming will be difficult.
-Let's take a local guy around.
4.12
-He should stay with us all the time.
4.15 VO
Local contact and driver Bilal takes us northeast, away from the capital Amman.
BILAL
4.21
-This is the road to Zarqa.
4.26
-The place of birth of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
4.31 VO
Al Zarqawi isn't his real name of the accused terrorist.
The authorities merely named him after his hometown, Zarka.
BILAL
4.42
-His family still lives there.
4.46
-His father is deceased, but his wife and children reside there.
4.53
-Their district is called Kassarat.
MUSTAFA
-May we film there?
BILAL
-I don't know.
5.07 VO
We stop at a supermarket in the neighbourhood and try to talk to local residents about their famous neighbour.
LOCALS
5.15
-We should say something, so that people get some idea about him.
-This is quite difficult for us, so we better say nothing.
5.26 VO
They're careful and afraid of the Jordanian secret service.
MUSTAFA
5.30
-Do people talk about Al-Zarqawi?
LOCAL
5.34
-He is from this area, so it is normal they talk about him.
MUSTAFA
5.40
-What do they say?
LOCAL
-They sympathise with him.
5.45
-First, because he is a neighbour, a brother
and second because all those accusation are made up by the Americans.
MUSTAFA
5.57
-Thank you.
LOCAL
-You are most welcome in Jordan.
5.58 VO
It's clear. The inhabitants don't see it as a taint but an honour that the infamous Al Zarqawi lives in their neighbourhood. A drugstore owner two blocks away knows Al Zarqawi from childhood.
DRUGSTORE OWNER
6.15
-He is an ordinary person.
-An average inhabitant of Zarqa.
6.21
-There is nothing special about him
-Except that he is a believer.
6.27
-Who took on the Jihad.
6.31
-With us, Muslims, the Jihad is a duty for everyone.
6.37
-Maybe Afghanistan was a suitable place for holy combat.
6.42 VO
Just like his father who fought in the fist Intifadah against the occupation of Palestine, Zarqawi sought his own battle. We drive past his old home but nobody wants to talk.
We make contact with a reporter who interviewed Zarqawi twice and is an expert on various Muslim extremist groups in Jordan.
OMAR
7.04
-I will call you and keep in touch.
7.07
-The interview will not last longer than half an hour.
7.11
-If you can spare the time, please help us out.
7.16
An appointment is made for the end of the afternoon. We return to Amman and contemplate on the next step.
MUSTAFA
7.24
-I think it is vital we talk to someone from his family.
7.30
-Maybe with his brother in law.
-He may be the only one who will talk.
OMAR
7.37
-You will find anyone else in the family who is willing.
7.42 VO
Contact sought with the brother in law of Zarqawi. Meanwhile Mohammed calls Yusef Al Rababa. He was in the same Jordanian prison as Zarqawi for years and can tell us about that period of Zarqawi's life.
OMAR
7.49
-Hello there, how are you, Jusuf?
-This is Mohamed Abu Omar.
7.56
-How are you doing?
7.59
-We are producing a report for the Dutch television.
8.04
-It is about Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
8.10
-About his life experience.
-You met him in prison and know a lot about him.
8.16 VO
Yusef Al Rababa knows about the Jordanian secret service only too well, and wants time to think before he agrees with an interview. We can only wait.
At the end of the afternoon we're in luck...(phone)
OMAR
8.29
-Hello, thank you so much.
-We'll be waiting.
8.32 VO
It's the brother in law of Zarqawi, he's in the neighbourhood and willing to visit for an interview.
He met Zarqawi in the 80's in Afghanistan when they both joined the battle against the Russian. Earlier he was locked up for 40 days because he did an interview with an Arabic newspaper, yet he's willing to talk to us about Zarqawi.
BROTHER IN LAW OF ZARQAWI, SALAH AL HAMI
8.52
-He is sensitive, caring, gentle, emotional, compassionate, merciful.
9.01
-If something touches him, he weeps quickly.
9.04
-Emotionally he is very simple.
-But he is also strong-willed and convinced of his views.
9.12
-His character has two sides.
9.16
-His emotional side is positive.
9.20
-But facing aggression against him or his people he get's mad.
9.25
-He has those two sides that maintain a balance.
-He is level-headed.
9.31
-He is not at all what people want you to believe.
9.36 VO
The brother in law and Zarqawi found each other in the Jihad, the holy war. But before that, in his puberty, Al Zarqawi was more dedicated to liquor than faith.
But former co-convict Yusef Al Rababa lets us know he's willing to receive us.
In 1996 Yusef was a political prisoner and Al Zarqawi was held for plotting attacks on Jewish targets.
OMAR
10.01
-Please wait outside, I'll be there.
10.06
-Hang on.
-Can you see the car?
10.10
-Yes, the white one.
10.13 VO
Yusef saw Zarqawi as a simple thinker who divided the world into believers the non-believers.
YUSEF AL RABABA
10.27
-That opinion, that you have to be with or against us is too basic.
-It's for simplistic minds.
10.33
-Those who don't want to exercise their brains and ignore discussions chooses this way.
10.40
-Those people in prison has one-track minds
10.46
-For them there were only two kinds of people:
-believers and non-believers.
10.51
-I think that in Afghanistan he was quite different.
10.55
-But in prison he was tortured frequently.
10.59
-That treatment by the Jordanian Secret Service
made him very firm in his hatred for the police.
11.09
-Injustice made him a fanatic.
11.16 VO
Brother in law Salah Al Hami and Yusef draw out the lifeline of Zarqawi.
How a normal boy from Zarqa became one of the most wanted men in Iraq.
The next line in a family of warriors.
SALAH AL HAMI
11.33
-From early age he possessed the qualities for the Jihad.
11.38
-Masculinity, willingness to sacrifice, and strength marked him in youth.
11.46 VO
But in puberty Zarqawi strayed from that path.
He drank a lot and got tattoos.
In a drunken mood swing he wounded his cousin.
This event took him to this neighbourhood mosque, and back to the path of the Jihad.
12.02 VO
He left for Afghanistan in the mid-80s and joins the Mujahedin who fight the Russians.
There he's trained as a soldier. And was strengthened by the horrors of war.
After the war he wants to continue the battle in the form of attacks against unbelievers.
But before he can act he's caught by the Jordanian secret services, interrogated, tortured and thrown in prison.
YUSEF
12.34
-Upon his return from Afghanistan he wanted to come to terms.
12.39
-But instead he went to jail and that made the difference.
12.44
-Especially the way he was interrogated.
12.50
-Cruelty makes people aggressive and fills them with hatred.
12.55
-His true personality become clearer and clearer.
2ND SPEAKER
12.58
-He started to learn the Koran by heart and developed a broader vision.
SALAH
13.06
-He gets knowledge of the ancient Arabic culture.
13.10 VO
Zarqawi is convinced he's directly acting in Allah's command.
SALAH
13.18
-Once he had a dream.
13.22
-In 1992 he dreamed of a sword that descended from heaven and came to him.
13.30
-On that sword it was written: Jihad.
13.34
-And also: for Abu Musab.
13.37
-And the Koran verse:
Thy Lord has not forsaken thee.
13.42
-And also:
Do not despair or mourn.
You will be victorious if you truly believe.
13.49 VO
After his jail time he sought a new battle, and found it in Iraq. There he set up his own terrorist organisation, the Al Tawihd Wa Al Jihad.
(bang)
He spread death and destruction here, for example, at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, last year.
Or here with the execution of American Nick Berg.
On the video the man proclaims to be Al Zarqawi himself before beheading the man with a knife.
14.11
-Allah is great.
MUSTAFA
14.21
-Did you recognize his voice?
SALAH
14.26
-Ask him to stop filming.
14.37
-It's difficult to answer.
14.40
-It's possible they tampered with the recording.
14.45
-It can also be genuine.
-I don't know and don't want to make a mistake.
14.49
-But it is truly his voice.
14.54
We drive down to Al Zarqawi's old home again.
There, in the doorpost, stands his son.
Will he also be driven to follow in his fathers footsteps?