What Happens When Insurgent TV Goes Critical?

This you have to see and probably won't hear or see it any place else except on blogs.

In a recent article on the alleged abuse of an Iraqi at the NYT, a little paragraph stuck out.

Mr. Ani has other priorities, still exhausted from his detention and preoccupied with finding a permanent home. But he regularly turns his television to a new station called Al Zawra, transfixed by its running montage of videotaped attacks on American troops.

The station is owned by a Sunni, Meshaan al-Juburi, a former Iraqi politician who was indicted last year on charges of embezzling millions of American dollars; he denied the charges and returned to Syria, where he lived before the war. The station has become an information center for the Sunni insurgency and in the process has exasperated American and Iraqi forces. In an interview at his office here, Mr. Juburi said that he opposed Al Qaeda’s use of suicide bombers to kill Iraqi civilians but was soliciting support for Iraqis intent on killing American troops. When the image of a roadside bomb blowing up an American Humvee appears on the large flat screen on his office wall, his eyebrows rise and he urges his visitors to watch, “This is a good one.”

That was in the newspaper. But note the emphasized line about "opposed to Al Qaeda's use of suicide bombers". It is probably the most understated point in the entire article (which I'll discuss Wednesday). It is unclear when this interview with Juburi took place, but a recent post at Talisman's Gate indicates that all isn't well in Anbar:

I was wondering how the current spate of jihadist-on-jihadist strife is going to be revealed to the public at large, but I never contemplated that it will be done on a jihadist satellite station, Al-Zawra, and through the person of the slimy nutcase who owns it, Mishaan al-Jebouri.[snip]

But a few days ago, Al-Zawra began running some anti-Al-Qaeda messages in its news ticker, and the jihadists began to mumble and some even penned invectives against al-Jebouri.

Yesterday, however, Al-Jebouri gave a whole anti-Al-Qaeda speech and this drove the jihadists berserk: the premier jihadist organ had begun to badmouth the jihad!

Go over to Talisman's Gate and see the translation of Juburi's speech.

A few words from Juburi:

…Unfortunately, and I say this to all the Muslim audience and all those sympathizers with the Iraqi jihad, some members in the Al-Qaeda organization have begun assassination operations against heroic symbols of the resistance, unfortunately! Why? Because some groups in the Al-Qaeda organization or what they call today the Islamic State want us to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and its leader, or else you are supposed to sit aside and are barred from conducting any jihadist operation under any resistance banner apart from that of Al-Qaeda. I say to Sheikh Abu Omar: how can you force us to pledge allegiance to someone whose real name we don’t know?

That's not even the best parts. He goes on to name names of the people killed by Al Qaeda who were either associated with the insurgents or were these "notables". He also outlines other "crimes" by Al Qaeda, including murdering Juburi's emissary (gigantic no-no in the Muslim/Arab culture), murdering men, women and children regardless of their relationship to the insurgency or the "occupiers", and on and on.

Right on Jihad TV.

I think that the last sentence I highlighted, demanding Omar Baghdadi's real name, is a huge slap in the face Arab style. In Arab culture, family and tribe are everything. People marry within their own families and tribes to maintain that connection and protection. Who you are, your ability to lead, your blood lines and their relation to Mohammed can mean the difference between being a respected leader with the right to make religious pronouncements and a goat herder. It is directly related to your name.

In a few circumspect words, Juburi may have implied that Omar Baghdadi is a nameless, fatherless cur.

On Jihad TV.

Beamed into millions of homes in Iraq and around the Middle East.

Juburi is probably now a marked man by both Al Qaeda and the US. Hopefully, he can afford the kind of protection he needs.

Read the rest

Check out this news:

Violence flared on Monday in nearby parts of Iraq, leaving more than 20 people dead including 13 members of one family ambushed near Falluja on their way home from a funeral.

U.S. military officials had warned militants could strike in areas outside Baghdad while U.S. and Iraqi forces were focusing their efforts inside the capital.

In Monday's deadliest attack, suspected al Qaeda militants pulled the family of mourners from a minibus in daylight and gunned them down, including two young boys, after finding out they were from a Sunni tribe opposed to al Qaeda, police said.

The western city of Falluja is in the Sunni Arab insurgent bastion of Anbar province.

In Ramadi, capital of Anbar, two suicide bombers killed 11 people when they targeted the house of Sattar al-Buzayi, a tribal leader who has led a government-backed effort to fight al Qaeda.

One suicide car bomb hit the blast walls outside his house, then a bomber blew up his truck near the house, witnesses said.

To the north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber targeting the house of a local army chief killed five people, including a soldier, and wounded 10.

Juburi must have ticked off Al Qaeda and emboldened some Sunni leaders. Looks like AQ is trying to quickly run down all the rest of the potential Sunni dangers while at the same time killing Shia (scroll down the report).

This is round two of the very same idiocy that basically got Zarqawi killed. Al Masri or Baghdadi, whichever, was allegedly keeping his head down and not claiming attacks on Shia as well as supposed to not make the same stupid mistakes Zarqawi did: making war on the people that are supposed to be supporting you.

Over a year and a half ago, Zawahiri had warned Zarqawi to stop killing the shia with impunity because it was making them look bad AND he had chastised Zarqawi about his zealotry in insisting the "brethern" follow their exact brand of Wahhabism. He told Zarqawi that he was pushing people away and they needed everyone. He told Zarqawi, in gentle terms, that he was not educated enough to be demanding such allegiance.

Zarqawi didn't listen. In fact, that is probably what got him killed since he was indulging in the same activities as Baghdadi and his circle of protective locations was decreasing rapidly.

Sounds like Baghdadi is on the same road. It may be why al Masri was almost wounded and his top aid killed the other day. Juburi has turned the power of the insurgent media on Al Qaeda.

It's going to get very ugly.