Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 15

Thread: They Killed Zarqawi The Myth

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749

    They Killed Zarqawi The Myth

    Al-Qaida in Iraq's al-Zarqawi 'terminated'
    Terror group confirms death, vows to continue ‘holy war’

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13195017/

    (Gold9472: Let's not forget the report that his family had a funeral for him in Jordan a few years ago, on top of the fact that the Pentagon had a propaganda campaign to make him appear more "dangerous" than he really was. You can read about it here.)

    6/8/2006

    BAGHDAD, Iraq - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face.

    It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror. In a statement President Bush said U.S. forces "delivered justice."

    Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, al-Maliki said.

    Al-Qaida in Iraq confirmed al-Zarqawi's death and vowed to continue its "holy war," according to a statement posted on a Web site.

    "We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the mujahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," said the statement, signed by "Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi," identified as the deputy "emir" or leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

    "The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme."

    Loud applause broke out among the reporters and soldiers as al-Maliki, flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a news conference that “al-Zarqawi was eliminated.”

    But any hopes the Jordanian-born terror leader’s death would help stem the violence in Iraq were dimmed hours later when a car bomb exploded in a Baghdad market, killing 19 and wounding 65.

    The announcement about al-Zarqawi’s death came six days after he issued an audiotape on the Internet, railing against Shiites in Iraq and saying militias were raping women and killing Sunnis and the community must fight back.

    Help from Jordan
    Al-Maliki said the airstrike was the result of intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by residents in the area, and U.S. forces acted on the information. Casey said the hunt for al-Zarqawi began two weeks ago, and his body was identified by fingerprints and facial recognition.

    A Jordanian official said Jordan also provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking al-Zarqawi down. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have intelligence agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants.

    Some of the information came from Jordan’s sources inside Iraq and led the U.S. military to the area of Baqouba, the official said.

    Baqouba has in recent weeks seen a spike in sectarian violence, including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. It was also near the site of a sectarian atrocity last week in which masked gunmen killed 21 Shiites, including a dozen students, after separating out four Sunni Arabs.

    “Those who disrupt the course of life, like al-Zarqawi, will have a tragic end,” al-Maliki said. He also warned those who would follow the militant’s lead that “whenever there is a new al-Zarqawi, we will kill him.”

    “This is a message for all those who embrace violence, killing and destruction to stop and to (retreat) before it’s too late,” he said. “It is an open battle with all those who incite sectarianism.”

    'Huge success for Iraq'
    In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said al-Zarqawi’s death “was very good news because a blow against al-Qaida in Iraq was a blow against al-Qaida everywhere.” Khalilzad added that “the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a huge success for Iraq and the international war on terror.” He also gave a thumbs up and said it was a good day for America.

    Since his emergence following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Al-Zarqawi had become Iraq’s most wanted militant — as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he swore allegiance in 2004. The United States put a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi, the same as bin Laden.

    His fighters led a wave of kidnappings of foreigners, killing at least a dozen, including Arab diplomats and three Americans. Al-Zarqawi himself is believed to have wielded the knife in the beheadings of two of the Americans — Nicholas Berg and Eugene Armstrong — and earned himself the title of “the slaughtering sheik” among his supporters.

    He has also been a master Internet propagandist, spreading the call for Islamic extremists to join the “jihad” or holy war in Iraq. His group posted gruesome images of beheadings, speeches by al-Zarqawi and recruitment videos depicting the planning and execution of its most daring attacks.

    Mixed reaction in Iraq
    While leaders said the killing was a major victory, Iraqi citizens had mixed reactions.

    Thamir Abdulhussein, a college student in Baghdad, said he hopes the killing of al-Zarqawi will promote reconciliation between Iraq’s fractured ethnic and sectarian groups.

    “If it’s true al-Zarqawi was killed, that will be a big happiness for all the Iraqis,” he said. “He was behind all the killings of Sunni and Shiites. Iraqis should now move toward reconciliation. They should stop the violence.”

    Amir Muhammed Ali, a 45-year-old stock broker in Baghdad, was skeptical that al-Zarqawi’s death would end the unrelenting violence in the country, saying he was a foreigner but the Iraqi resistance to U.S.-led forces would likely continue.

    “He didn’t represent the resistance, someone will replace him and the operations will go on,” he said.

    Missed chances
    In the past year, he moved his campaign beyond Iraq’s borders, claiming to have carried out a Nov. 9, 2005, triple suicide bombing against hotels in Amman, Jordan, that killed 60 people, as well as other attacks in Jordan and even a rocket attack from Lebanon into northern Israel.

    U.S. forces and their allies came close to capturing al-Zarqawi several times since his campaign began in mid-2003.

    His closest brush may have come in late 2004. Deputy Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal said Iraqi security forces caught al-Zarqawi near the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah but then released him because they didn’t realize who he was.

    In May 2005, Web statements by his group said al-Zarqawi had been wounded in fighting with Americans and was being treated in a hospital abroad — raising speculation over a successor among his lieutenants. But days later, a statement said al-Zarqawi was fine and had returned to Iraq. There was never any independent confirmation of the reports of his wounding.

    U.S. forces believe they just missed capturing al-Zarqawi in a Feb. 20, 2005 raid in which troops closed in on his vehicle west of Baghdad near the Euphrates River. His driver and another associate were captured and al-Zarqawi’s computer was seized along with pistols and ammunition.

    U.S. troops twice launched massive invasions of Fallujah, the stronghold used by al-Qaida in Iraq fighters and other insurgents west of Baghdad. An April 2004 offensive left the city still in insurgent hands, but the October 2004 assault wrested it from them. However, al-Zarqawi — if he was in the city — escaped.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  2. #2
    Partridge Guest
    Excellent. So who will be the new bogey man?

  3. #3
    beltman713 Guest
    The president of Iran.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Chavez.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  5. #5
    PhilosophyGenius Guest
    Here's my theory: The reason he was 'killed' (depending on how you look at it) now of all times because it's to show that the war in Iraq is 'winding down' so they can proceed onto Iran.

  6. #6
    casseia Guest
    I put the significance of his death in the context of the "Canadian terrorists" -- they were "home-grown." Along with killing off a major external boogeyman, "they" seem to making the suggestion that we should shift our fear, or some portion of it, from an external, foreign threat, to people living down the street (probably Muslims) who have just spontaneously become terrorists. The thing that's really ominous about this, in addition to the demonization of Muslims, is the suggestion I heard wrapped into one news account that we must all be extra-vigilant and report anything weird and potentially "terroristic" that our neighbors do. (Like suggest Osama played a peripheral role in 911, fr'instance.) Shades of East Germany.

  7. #7
    thumper Guest
    wasn't he killed a few times already?

  8. #8
    Partridge Guest
    I actually meant who will be the new bogey-man in Iraq.

    The reason for this (real or apparent) killing seems to me to be quite obvious - who cares if US occupiers are slaughtering civilians in Haditha, Ishaqi or anywhere else anymore - WE GOT THE EVIL DOER! The strategy is working dammit! The back of the insurgency has been broken (for the fifty millionth time).

    Of course, the resistance will carry on regardless. And the US will need a new evil mastermind for people to boo and hiss at when his face is shown on the news.

    I just wonder who it will be. Especially as the US have (ahem) killed about 25 of Zarqawi's right-hand men. Maybe it'll be one of his left-hand men!

  9. #9
    PhilosophyGenius Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Partridge
    I actually meant who will be the new bogey-man in Iraq.
    Ya know what, US intel already named who they think would be his successor. An Egyptian named al-Masri.

  10. #10
    Partridge Guest
    It's not Abu Hafs al-Masri is it by any chance? Cos he's dead too! (Died in a US air-strike during the Afgan invasion). There is a an Abu Hafs al-Masri brigade supposedly active in the insurgency, but they are just named after him.

    The only other Egyptian called al-Masri that I can think of is Abu Hamza al-Masri, the london based cleric with the hook who is currently (I believe) doing time at Her Majesty's Pleasure for 'incitement to racial hatred' and 'incitement to murder'. (Personally I reckon he's an MI6 assest who's been shafted).

Similar Threads

  1. The Myth Of Al-Qaeda
    By Gold9472 in forum 9/11 Justice Forum
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 06-29-2006, 10:42 PM
  2. The Myth Of Al-Qaeda
    By Gold9472 in forum The New News
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 06-29-2006, 11:26 AM
  3. Further Proof Al-Zarqawi Myth Created By The U.S.
    By Gold9472 in forum The New News
    Replies: 26
    Last Post: 06-16-2006, 04:51 PM
  4. The Myth Of War Prosperity
    By Gold9472 in forum The New News
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 04-30-2006, 05:59 PM
  5. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 10-31-2005, 01:19 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •