Noah Shachtman
Security

Qaeda Leader: Fake

For more than a year, the leader of one of the most notorious insurgent groups in Iraq was said to be a mysterious Iraqi named Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi. As the titular head of the Islamic State in Iraq, an organization publicly backed by Al Qaeda, Mr. Baghdadi issued a steady stream of incendiary pronouncements. Despite […]

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*For more than a year, the leader of one of the most notorious insurgent groups in Iraq was said to be a mysterious Iraqi named
Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi. *

As the titular head of the Islamic State in Iraq, an organization publicly backed by Al Qaeda,
Mr. Baghdadi issued a steady stream of incendiary pronouncements.
Despite claims by Iraqi officials that he had been killed in May, Mr.
Baghdadi appeared to have persevered unscathed.

*On Wednesday, a senior American military spokesman provided a new explanation for Mr. Baghdadi’s ability to escape attack: he never existed. *

Baghdadi has long been thought of as an alias for someone else. Today, the New York Times reports, "Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, the chief American military spokesman, told reporters that the elusive Mr. Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose audiotaped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima."