Thread by @AbuJamajem

1. Having read this biography of Abu Ali al-Anbari (available in PDF via @colebunzel's piece), I have to agree with @colebunzel – it doesn't support @hxhassan's revisionist contentions about Zarqawi's centrality to the Islamic State in his latest (theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…).

https://twitter.com/AbuJamajem/status/1070965403411759105

2. To illustrate some of @colebunzel's points: @hxhassan plays up the relationship between Anbari and Zarqawi, but the biography relates only limited early interactions between the two, and not on a timeline that suggests Anbari informed Zarqawi's strategic sectarianism.

3. Prior to Anbari's 2004 talks with Zarqawi on a merger between al-Tawhid wal-Jihad and Ansar and Anbari's ultimate pledge of allegiance to Zarqawi, this 2002 meeting (via an Ansar rep) is the only interaction between the two described in the biography.

4. This @hxhassan line seems to suggest they pledged to al-Qaeda together. In fact, Zarqawi had already pledged to al-Qaeda as talks to combine al-Tawhid wal-Jihad and Ansar were ongoing, after which "the Sheikh's [Anbari] keenness to complete this matter [the merger] increased."

5. This line suggests a history of knowing collaboration between Anbari and Zarqawi. The biography, on the other hand, indicates that Anbari only found out that the silencers he was producing were destined for Zarqawi (via an Ansar cutout) during the 2004 merger talks.

6. Anbari's son has no obvious incentive to downplay his father and Zarqawi's relationship, and yet he describes minimal contact between the two before the 2004 merger talks and his father's late 2004 migration from Ansar to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

7. Per that timeline, the idea that Zarqawi's February 2004 proposal for sectarian war (2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rls/3169…) originated with Anbari personally seems dubious, and is not positively supported by the biography.

For more, I re-recommend @colebunzel: jihadica.com/understating-z…

8. In correction, Cole notes that Zarqawi's message to al-Qaeda and blueprint for sectarian schism was written even earlier – January 2004 at the latest.