Al-Zarqawi stays elusive by targeting informants

WASHINGTON — Despite the recent arrest of one of his suicide bombers in Jordan and some top aides in Iraq, insurgency mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has eluded capture, U.S. authorities say, because his network has a much better intelligence-gathering operation than they do.

Al-Zarqawi's organization has been particularly successful because it has repeatedly targeted Iraqi civilians who tried to aid the American effort to capture him, frightening off other potential informants, according to U.S. officials.

"There is a huge network of intelligence operatives over there who are watching our every move. And they are watching every time we recruit an Iraqi to come back and inform to us about where he has been and what he has seen," said one U.S. Justice Department counter-terrorism official. "And every time we have been able to do that, the person has ended up dead."

Officials from several U.S. agencies said Washington has dramatically intensified its effort to catch al-Zarqawi over the past year as his al-Qaeda in Iraq network has launched increasingly deadly and audacious attacks against civilian and military targets.

U.S. authorities say they have captured several of al-Zarqawi's top aides and claim to have nearly seized the 39-year-old Jordanian himself on at least three occasions. But al-Zarqawi — despite a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head — has outwitted his would-be captors.

Along the way, he has gained worldwide notoriety, support and funding for his jihad against the United States and its allies and begun to strike targets outside Iraq, including the recent deadly attacks on three hotels in Amman, Jordan, that killed 58 people.

U.S. officials from four agencies involved in the hunt for al-Zarqawi said their failure is not for lack of effort.

There are at least two top-secret, multi-agency commando teams assigned solely to track al-Zarqawi and mobilize quickly to pursue him into the most unstable areas of Iraq, where he is believed to be hiding, according to several U.S. officials familiar with the units. One of them is called Task Force 626, which was established last year by the Pentagon.

There are also dozens of special-forces commandos and military intelligence-gatherers looking for him. The CIA has deployed dozens of case officers and analysts, the FBI has flown in special agents and bomb experts, and forensic money-trackers from the Treasury Department are trying to monitor the flow of illicit funds into and out of Iraq as a way of cornering al-Zarqawi and his top aides, those officials said in interviews.

Eavesdropping satellites, unmanned drones and even 50-year-old U-2 spy planes are gathering intelligence on the insurgency, some of them specifically watching for al-Zarqawi, U.S. officials confirmed in interviews.

U.S. forces are also trying to set up sister agencies within the still-embryonic Iraqi government. But many of the U.S. officials complained that the Baghdad government has failed to shore up its own functioning intelligence agency. They said it has been unable to establish even an informal network of local informants who could help tighten the net around al-Zarqawi, as a joint U.S.-Iraqi intelligence effort did around Saddam Hussein and his inner circle of Baath party members.

The Iraqis are trying, the U.S. officials stressed. But building such an intelligence capacity can take years and vast sums of training and money, they said.

Making the task more difficult, many former Iraqi military and intelligence officials experienced in such matters are either actively supporting al-Zarqawi or refusing to get involved. And al-Zarqawi's network is a harder target than Saddam's deposed regime, in part because it is made up mostly of foreign fighters and Iraqi civilians, rather than Baghdad government officials who were long known to U.S. authorities.

Al-Zarqawi's group was originally thought to be comprised mainly of non-Iraqis, but over the past year, its successful string of attacks has helped him recruit many Iraqis as well as more foreigners. He is believed to command perhaps 1,000 fighters, and a much larger group of sympathizers.

U.S. officials said they hoped to glean more about al-Zarqawi's operations from Sajida Rishawi, a 35-year-old woman from the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, who has confessed to trying to blow up one of the Amman hotels, along with her husband and two other Iraqi men.

Jordanian officials have said that Rishawi's brother was a senior al-Zarqawi lieutenant who was killed in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, although it is unclear whether she herself had any direct contact with the insurgent leader.

Even though Rishawi and some senior al-Zarqawi aides have been captured, the U.S. officials said his network has remained extremely disciplined and security-conscious. Al-Zarqawi has been able to disappear for long stretches at a time, even immediately following his near-capture.

"We are talking about a man who is operating in an area that is extremely primitive, in a very clandestine manner and with a huge network of people that do his communications for him and surround him and protect him," said the Justice Department counter-terrorism official.

Some U.S. military commanders have spoken optimistically about a noose gradually tightening around al-Zarqawi in the wake of raids in the last year that have captured or killed a number of people that American commanders identify as his top lieutenants.

"We truly believe that Zarqawi's days are limited," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, deputy chief of staff on the multinational force in Iraq.

U.S. operatives swarmed one restaurant where al-Zarqawi allegedly had been seen dining, and a hospital where he was believed to be seeking treatment, but came up empty-handed.

In February, al-Zarqawi jumped out of the back of a truck at a U.S. checkpoint near Ramadi before U.S. troops were able to search the vehicle, several U.S. officials said. On several other occasions since then, officials say, the U.S. military has raided al-Zarqawi safe houses and found evidence that he had been there recently.

U.S. officials cite intelligence reports that he has traveled to Jordan, Syria and Iran to bolster his ranks and raise money.

But electronic surveillance has made it increasingly difficult for al-Zarqawi to communicate with his network of supporters, and U.S. authorities say last November's military offensive in Fallujah took away his main base of operations.

U.S. officials complain, however, that they are losing the battle to establish desperately needed on-the-ground intelligence, in part due to al-Zarqawi's campaign of violence against those working against him.

"There's no upside for helping the Americans," one U.S. counter-terrorism official said. "They'll go after your family. Actionable intelligence is a challenge in any country, but particularly so in Iraq."

Times staff writer John Daniszewski in Baghdad contributed to this report.