Portrait of a Shadow

But there are signs that the extremists are adapting. "We've heard that they're trying to rebrand themselves by using other names," says the American official, "and we see evidence that they're trying to recapture some status." The group has mostly shifted its focus back to fighting the Americans, instead of attacking Iraqi targets such as government offices and Shiite mosques (although at least 60 people were killed in bombings last week during the Shiite holiday of Arbaeen). Abu Ahmed heard much the same thing recently when he visited an acquaintance outside Baghdad who has not renounced the insurgency. "Al Qaeda came back here," Abu Ahmed says the man told him. "There is an agreement that we will not interfere with them if they do not interfere with us." Abu Ahmed says the group has made similar peace deals with Sons of Iraq commanders in parts of Baghdad, promising to refrain from violence in their neighborhoods in exchange for safe quarter.

And Al Qaeda remains a threat despite its drastically reduced circumstances. Abu Ahmed says the group maintains car-bomb factories in some places and arms caches in others. "Even if the areas they have are few, terrorism does not need a country," he quotes another insurgent acquaintance as saying. "You only need a hundred meters to conduct a terrorism operation." Abu Lina (the nom de guerre of another active insurgent) says the group's leaders are lying low while they focus on gaining new members among impressionable young Iraqis: "They spend their time talking, recruiting, convincing."

There's no shortage of willing listeners. Many Sunnis retain at least vestiges of the nationalist fervor that fueled the insurgency. Abu Ahmed says he occasionally has arguments with his wife about his decision to work with the Americans. She still blames the U.S.-led military occupation for the suffering their country has endured since the war began. Some of Abu Ahmed's old acquaintances have temporarily quit the insurgency, only to melt back into the cycle of violence as seamlessly as they left it. "A lot of them are like chameleons," he says. He's also seen entire groups of former insurgents sell their fighting skills "like goods in a market" to the highest bidder, like the hired guns who once made Haifa Street one of the most dangerous in Baghdad.

Abu Ahmed says he only hopes to save as many lives as he has to take. He likes working with the Americans. "They are very respectful and understanding," he says. "They're very smart." He was impressed that they worked on public holidays. At first, he admits, he was even a little intimidated by their abilities and their curiosity about Iraqi tradition, culture and history. "Whatever I tell them, whether it's small or not, they analyze it because they know they'll need it for another time." He remains proud of the work he did in fighting the occupation. He's no less proud of what he's doing now. "Every phase of life has its own logic," he says. "Every fruit ripens at its own pace."

© 2009