The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to overstate the threat to stability posed by the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

Some senior military intelligence officers believe the importance of the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been exaggerated, the newspaper reported, citing military documents and officers familiar with the program.

According to the article, Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq, told a U.S. Army meeting last summer: ``Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways.''

[...]

``Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response,'' a U.S. military briefing document from 2004 stated, the Post reported.

See:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10395950.htm

See also:
http://disruptive.org.uk/2005/03/01/terrorist_mastermind_4.html
http://disruptive.org.uk/2005/01/21/terrorist_mastermind_3.html
http://disruptive.org.uk/2004/12/29/terrorist_mastermind_2.html
http://disruptive.org.uk/2004/06/11/terrorist_mastermind.html.