The Invisible Sheikh?
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - Wikipedia
"In an interview with
The Daily Telegraph, contemporaries of al-Baghdadi describe him in his youth as being shy, unimpressive, a
religious scholar, and a man who
eschewed violence.
"For more than a decade, until 2004, he lived in a room attached to a small local
mosque in Tobchi, a poor neighbourhood on the western fringes of
Baghdad, inhabited by both
Shia and
Sunni Muslims.
[31]
"Ahmed al-Dabash, the leader of the
Islamic Army of Iraq and a contemporary of al-Baghdadi who fought against the
allied invasion in 2003, gave a description of al-Baghdadi that matched that of the Tobchi residents:
"'I was with Baghdadi at the Islamic University. We studied the same course, but he wasn't a friend. He was quiet, and retiring. He spent time alone ... I used to know all the leaders (of the insurgency) personally. Zarqawi (the former leader of al-Qaeda) was closer than a brother to me ... But I didn't know Baghdadi. He was insignificant. He used to lead prayer in a mosque near my area. No one really noticed him.
[31]'"
"'They [the US and Iraqi Governments] know physically who this guy is, but his backstory is just myth', said Patrick Skinner of the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm. 'He's managed this secret persona extremely well, and it's enhanced his group's prestige', said Patrick Johnston of the
RAND Corporation, adding, 'Young people are really attracted to that.'
[43]
"Being mostly unrecognized, even in his own organization, Baghdadi was known to be nicknamed at some time about 2015, as
'the invisible sheikh'.
[7]"