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Length: 3:20
LARA LOGAN: The election has dominated Iraqi TV,
glossy campaign ads offering a better future. But
today this shocking internet video released by al
Qaeda showed a very different image of Iraq. Masked
gunmen executing police recruits in broad daylight,
mafia-style. One man tries to escape but is pursued
and brutally shot before the gunmen returns to make
sure the others are dead.
MICHAEL WARE: This has all the hallmarks of, on its
face, a legitimate Zarqawi insurgent video.
LOGAN: What's their intent, do you think, when they
release a video like that?
WARE: Firstly, it's to strike terror. But it also
serves many other purposes, among them, as
recruitment aids. This is an inspirational video.
LOGAN: Michael Ware is the only Western journalist in
regular contact with insurgents, and in three years,
they've given him hundreds of videos. That's how he
can tell this video, showing two Iraqi women
hostages, is more likely the work of groups seeking
to exploit the current chaos in Iraq than members of
an organized terrorist group. The women are seen here
pleading for their lives moments before being
executed.
WARE: This is essentially a snuff video, on one
level, but by the same token this also works to
intimidate or to establish a sense of power amongst
those who have perpetrated this, for whatever reason.
LOGAN: Ware talks to different insurgent groups, from
the religious extremists of al Qaeda to Iraqi
nationalist fighters. He persuaded one of the leaders
to do something insurgents rarely do: an on-camera
interview.
WARE: This is a relatively senior commander and
top-level strategist for one of the largest if not
the most dominant Baathist insurgent organizations.
LOGAN: He is also a former top-ranking military
officer in Saddam Hussein's army, but says he is not
fighting to return Saddam to power.
INSURGENT (translator VO): Saddam is a man whose time
is gone. But the country who gave birth to him will
give birth to others like him, hundreds of thousands.
LOGAN: He revealed their strategy: to fight with both
bullets and ballots.
INSURGENT (translator VO): As a resistance, we hope
to participate in this political process.
LOGAN: He says he and his men will be voting on
election day but they will not lay down their arms.
INSURGENT (translator VO): The resistance will finish
when the occupation is finished. After that, the
weapons will be dropped.
LOGAN: Ironically, this insurgent commander is
exactly the type of military leader that the US once
turned away but is now reaching out to, hoping to
lure them back into the Iraqi army that's desperately
short of experienced leaders.