WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. military is waging a propaganda campaign in Iraq to play up the influence of an al-Qaida leader, The Washington Post reported.
Citing military documents and officers familiar with the program, the newspaper said the campaign is intended to magnify the role of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Some military intelligence officials believe the campaign may have overstated Zarqawi's importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war in Iraq to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have carried out deadly bombing attacks, but Col. Derek Harvey -- who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and handled Iraq intelligence issues for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff -- told Army officers last summer that Zarqawi was "a very small part of the actual numbers" in the insurgency, the Post said.
The Post said Harvey told the officers: "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways.
"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends."
