Talk:Islamic State of Iraq

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In the news you usually hear this is an "al-Qaeda front group". Is there any evidence that this group takes direct orders from al-Qaeda? Sambae 22:24, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Since when did AQ have a command structure able to pass orders to cells? AQ is "opt-in" terrorism; it has no command structure (else it would be gone by now). The closest thing to an AQ "order" was the letter from az-Zawahri to az-Zarqawi asking him not so nicely to stop killing moderate Sunnis for the time being. AQ is not an organization; it is an ideological "platform" or "base" (qāʕida). The "orders" that are by the movement's poster boys like OBL and Zawahri come in the form of sermons and their function is to elaborate upon the ideological foundation uniting the cells. Operational control is >98% at the discretion of each individual cell.

Note that calling the ISI an "al-Qaeda front group" is entirely wrong if taken literally (AQI is only one major constituent part of the ISI). But the implications of that statement are right on target: the ISI is the closest thing in existence to how the question of governance would be approached under the AQ ideology. Were it an actual and not a "shadow" government, it would be an AQ "model state". Dysmorodrepanis 20:15, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting sentence

"The Islamic State of Iraq and its allies possessed de facto control over the Anbar and Diyala governates forming the majority of its local governments by September, 2006. [1][2][3] [4]"

All four of these sources do not even state The Islamic State of Iraq and two of them are webblogs that do not contain any subject matter relevant to this topic. After additional rresearch, I could not find a source that supports the statement of de facto control.--DrRisk13 13:06, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

• I also think that this sentence is potentially misleading. The phrase 'de facto' is admittedly tentative, but it nonetheless implies that ISI has some sort of regulated, overarching control; which I'm not sure is the case at all (there are security forces in those provinces after all, and I'm sure they have more of a presence that ISI does!) Barflyuk 04:26, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "War"

Can anyone whose Arabic is better than mine check on the original source for the "cabinet" list? Is it "war" (harb or whatever it is in the Iraqi dialect) or jihad? This would be an important difference. Dysmorodrepanis 20:22, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Commander of the Believers

I don't think "Abu Abdullah Rashid" and Abu 3Umar al-Baghdadi are the same person at all, like this Wikipedia page suggests they are. That first alias should really be deleted from there. Earlier in 2007, the Crusader and puppet forces killed "Abu Abdullah Rashid," and for a couple of hours they mistakenly believed him to be the leader of ISI. That's where the confusion comes from, but he is not him.

Take that to Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi. Claims by Coalition/IMI about the death of Islamist personnel are fairly often bogus, and when they're not, it usually tankes 24 hours or less until this is apparent, if you known at what to look. Dysmorodrepanis 11:24, 9 June 2007 (UTC)