We Can Stop Looking For al-Baghdadi

Seems that terrorist Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Internet-based movement "Islamic State of Iraq" is a fictional character. I always thought that the name had to be made up, or an alias ... but a totally fictional character? They got me ... along with the many world intelligence agencies and some Iraqis that actually died in his service.

US military forces captured Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also known as Abu Shahid in Mosul on July 4th. Abu Shahid is the senior Iraqi leader in al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), and this guy has been talking his head off. Seems that Abu Ayyub al-Masri made up this fictional character to put an Iraqi face on AQI since the majority of the organization were foreign fighters (al-Masri himself is Egyptian). An actor was hired to do the voice of al-Baghdadi on the website. When al-Masri replaced Ayman al-Zawahiri after he was killed by coalition forces in 2005, al-Masri swore allegience to al-Baghdadi.

Lost in all this is that a senior AQI leader was captured. Abu Shahid acted as a go-between for Osama bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahri and al Masri. The surge is working.

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