In a follow up to last week?s WAR Report analysis on the arrests of high-level actors in the ongoing insurgency in Iraq , and particularly, a key aide to the al-Qaeda -associated field commander of a terrorist and mujahideen network in Iraq, Abu Mussab al Zarqawi , , Agence France-Presse has reported that the Iraqi government has claimed that counter-terrorism forces in Iraq have almost totally dismantled Zarqawi?s known coterie of lieutenants. In related news, Time Magazine reported that intelligence indicates that Zarqawi has contemplated conducting attacks against the US homeland.

Further, in an update to last week?s WAR analysis on the strategic and command relationship between Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden (WAR Report), the rolling up of Zarqawi?s leadership coterie and the presumed closing in of counter-terrorism forces on Zarqawi, bin Laden?s reported request that Zarqawi re-orient his strategic focus on conducting attacks against the US homeland; the disclosure of intelligence that Zarqawi had plotted attacks against the US homeland; and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley?s recent comments on CNN that Zarqawi has moved into a closer association with al-Qaeda?s strategic operations all coalesce to suggest that Zarqawi may be poised to pivot his terrorist network?s strategic orientation and operations from its traditional focus on Iraq and the Middle East theatre to more global operations with a particular focus on the US.