Zarqawi Is New Focus in Terror War
May 13, 2004 — -- U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that suspected terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi personally carried out the brutal videotaped beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg.
CIA officials say the poor audio quality of the speaker's voice on the tape made the match difficult, but that they are now all but certain that the voice is Zarqawi's.
The identity matters because it is the speaker who pulls out the knife and actually beheads the young American.
Before his appearance on the videotape, Zarqawi, a 37-year-old Palestinian born in Jordan, had claimed credit for more than two dozen attacks in Iraq, including the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in August 2003.
Many U.S. officials believe that Zarqawi is in many ways more dangerous than Osama bin Laden.
"The capture of Zarqawi should now have a higher priority than even that of Osama bin Laden," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said at a news conference today.
U.S. and European officials say Zarqawi ran an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan but now runs his own far-flung terror network.
"He's very much establishing himself as a rival to bin Laden," said Alexis Debat, a former French official who is now an ABCNEWS consultant. "This sends a very clear message to the Americans: 'I am your enemy.' And this puts him front and center in the war on terror."
Today in Berg's hometown of West Chester, Pa., family friends said knowing the identity of his killer did little to ease the pain.
Berg's father blamed his son's death on the Bush administration policy in Iraq.
"Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. The al Qaeda people are probably just as bad as they are, but this administration did this," said Michael Berg.
There's a $10 million reward for the capture of Zarqawi, and the search for him is now focused in Baghdad.
U.S. officials told ABCNEWS they believe Berg was killed in Baghdad last Saturday, within hours of the time his headless body was found hanging from a bridge less than a mile from U.S. headquarters.
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