It may be that capturing Zarqawi's computer was even more important than capturing him. It could turn out that we get more information out of it than we would have gotten out of him, even if he allowed himself to be taken alive.
Dan Darling at Winds of Change discusses some of what we know about the laptop:
We've actually had it for a little while now and I'm awaiting more information, but this was a major coup. Here are a few things about Zarqawi that you probably didn't know:
He's a Windows man. He also uses something called PGP for e-mails, which I was told is some kind of e-mail encryption method.
The info on the computer was very helpful towards us capturing a number of his lieutenants.
I've heard there's a fair amount of porn. Now that could be disinformation, but given all the drugs, beer bottles, and the like that were found among the Pious Mujahideen(tm) in Fallujah I'm certainly not going to dismiss it off-hand.
There's information on his medical condition, so we may finally get an answer on the issue of how many legs he has and what not.
There is at least some record of the correspondence between him and bin Laden. Basically, bin Laden gives him a broad outline as far as strategy is concerned and Zarqawi is in charge of implementing the tactical aspects of his plan together with his lieutenants and allies, such as the Baathists.
There's some record of Zarqawi's interaction with Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, a senior al-Qaeda leader who I gather replaced Hassan Ghul as Zarqawi's al-Qaeda liaison after the latter individual's capture in January 2004.
There are recent pictures of Zarqawi and it seems...that he is indeed a master of disguise.
Bill Roggio at the Fourth Rail adds this:
According to Mr. Darling, Zarqawi is using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption, which apparently can be cracked (with much effort) by the super-secretive National Security Agency and may provide detailed information on Zarqawi's communications with al Qaeda. Pornographic images also have been recovered on the laptop. Zarqawi may be using this images for steganography, the method of encoding messages within images, but the choice of photographs is telling none the less. It seems Zarqawi isn't the devout Muslim he makes himself out to be. Dan also reports that the laptop contains photos of Zarqawi, financial information, details of his arrangements with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, both inside and outside of Iraq, and details on his health conditions. All of this information will be useful in tracing al Qaeda's network in Iraq and elsewhere, and Zarqawi's extensive network within Europe.
The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent report on the captured laptop, and confirms several of Dan's findings. The status of Zarqawi's health is of particular interest; "Among other things, it may indicate that Zarqawi is in worse physical condition than previously believed and taking painkillers as he recovers from a wound to his stomach."
If there is information on the computer about al Qaida operations elsewhere around the globe, it may be that terrorists and their sympathizers have been quietly rolled up or eliminated over the last few months and major terror threats diminished. If so, those operations will yield even more intelligence on the global terror network. Al Qaida can still do us great harm, but the way things are going, a lot of Muslims must be thinking that it's better to be on our side than on theirs.
