posted June 08, 2006 01:14 PM            

Look for:

He was murdered by the US

He was a CIA plant for the United States

He never existed

He's been dead for months and the US planted him at the scene

How many innocent Iraqi children were also killed

He was killed to prop up Bush poll numbers

Why didn't we just capture him and try him in a civilian court...preferably the World Criminal Court

It won't make any difference

Blah, blah, blah

Zarqawi killed
in U.S. attack
Bush calls leader's death
'severe blow to al-Qaida'
Posted: June 8, 2006
9:45 a.m. Eastern
WorldNetDaily.com

President Bush called the raid on an isolated safe house 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, which also killed seven of Zarqawi's aides, a "delivery of justice."

"Zarqawi's death is a severe blow to al-Qaida," the president said. "It's a victory in the global war on terror, and it is an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide of this struggle."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Zarqawi's death "was very good news because a blow against al-Qaida in Iraq was a blow against al-Qaida everywhere."

Bush noted al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden called the Jordanian-born terrorist "the prince of al-Qaida in Iraq" for his leadership in a bloody campaign to sabotage the new government that has killed thousands.

The president warned that despite Zarqawi's death, "the difficult and necessary mission in Iraq continues."

"We can expect the terrorists and insurgents to carry on without him," Bush said. "We can expect the sectarian violence to continue. Yet the ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders."

News of Zarqawi's death came just before the Iraqi parliament approved crucial posts of defense and interior ministers, which had remained unfilled despite the formation of a coalition government last month, the BBC reported.

Iraqi officials said Zarqawi was killed in a precision strike about five miles north of Baquba.

"We have eliminated Zarqawi," Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad.

Maliki said the airstrike – two 500-pound bombs dropped by F-16s – was based on intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by area residents.

Efforts to find Zarqawi were stepped up after the terrorist leader appeared in a videotape in late April, according to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

The tape helped "pinpoint" Zarqawi's location, he said, without further explanation.

The head of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said Zarqawi's body was identified through fingerprints, facial recognition and known scars.

The coordinated attack against "an isolated safe-house" included U.S. and Iraqi air and ground forces, and a Jordanian government spokesman said Jordanian agents also contributed with intelligence.

Zarqawi reportedly was meeting with aides at the time of the attack. Among the aides killed was spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman.

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

"We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the mujahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"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."

Al-Zarqawi led a wave of kidnappings of foreigners and the killings of at least a dozen, including three Americans.

He is blamed for the beheading of two Americans – Nicholas Berg of West Chester, Pa., and Eugene Armstrong, formerly of Hillsdale, Mich.

posted June 08, 2006 01:24 PM            

Oh yeah, I absolutely anticipate all the BS from our leftie friends.

A story will be concocted demonstrating that this dude was already dead, but because Bush's ratings are down, the adminstration decided to 'say he was killed in an air raid" and pulled his body out of the freezer.

OR....

It was a look alike- again planted by the CIA on behalf of the Bush administration to make Republican's look good.

OR... someone will post this article and have 50 other people talk about "yes... it is all Bush's fault"

Father of Beheaded Man blames Bush not Zarqawi

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Michael Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, said on Thursday he felt no sense of relief at the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq and blamed President Bush for his son's death.

Asked what would give him satisfaction, Berg, an anti-war activist and candidate for U.S. Congress, said, "The end of the war and getting rid of George Bush."

The United States said its aircraft killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader who masterminded the death of hundreds in suicide bombings and was blamed for the videotaped beheading of Nick Berg, a U.S. contractor, and other captives.

"I don't think that Zarqawi is himself responsible for the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq," Berg said in a combative television interview with the U.S. Fox News network. "I think George Bush is.

"George Bush is the one that invaded this country, George Bush is the one that destabilized it so that Zarqawi could get in, so that Zarqawi had a need to get in, to defend his region of the country from American invaders."

Berg said Bush was to blame for the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

"Yeah, like George Bush didn't OK the torture and death and rape of people in the Abu Ghraib prison for which my son was killed in retaliation?" he told his Fox interviewers.

In a telephone interview with Reuters from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the father said: "I have no sense of relief, just sadness that another human being had to die."
Berg, who is running as a Green Party candidate, has repeatedly blamed Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his 26-year-old son's death.

Nick Berg's videotaped beheading by hooded captors was posted on the Internet, and the father said he could understand what Zarqawi's family was going through.

"I have learned to forgive a long time ago, and I regret mostly that that will bring about another wave of revenge from his cohorts from al Qaeda," he told Fox.

Zarqawi's organization took responsibility for the execution of Nick Berg in May 2004. The video was published with a caption saying: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American."

When an Islamist Web site showed the video of a man severing Berg's head, the CIA said Zarqawi was probably the one wielding the knife. The father said he was not convinced.

"I have been lied to by my own government," he told Reuters on Thursday.

_________

Okay.... so this chump doesn't put any blame on the terrorists, but he blames Bush for the war and his son going to Iraq? Hey POPS... your son was a freaking civilian that was told NOT TO GO but did it anyway. He was told to leave by the FBI and the US Department, but he refused.

Here's another thing Pops.... Nick Berg SUPPORTED the war on Terror and why we were in Iraq in the first place!

posted June 08, 2006 02:04 PM            

Incredible isn't it Pid? Father Berg is the male counterpart of Mother Sheehan. A thoroughly disgusting pair to which every ill on earth is the fault of George Bush. No matter what the compliant around the world...Bush did it.

These are some incredible statements...meaning not at all credible to anyone who has 2 brain cells.

quote:

---

"I don't think that Zarqawi is himself responsible for the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq," Berg said in a combative television interview with the U.S. Fox News network. "I think George Bush is.

---

Typical of leftists to excuse the actual killers and blame someone else for their inexcusable murderous behavior.

quote:

---

"George Bush is the one that invaded this country, George Bush is the one that destabilized it so that Zarqawi could get in, so that Zarqawi had a need to get in, to defend his region of the country from American invaders."

---

Yes, Zarqawi, a Jordanian, had to go to Iraq and blow up, behead and gun down innocent and unarmed Iraqi civilians to defend innocent Iraqis from the evil Americans and George Bush.

quote:

---

Berg said Bush was to blame for the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

---

quote:

---

"Yeah, like George Bush didn't OK the torture and death and rape of people in the Abu Ghraib prison for which my son was killed in retaliation?" he told his Fox interviewers.

---

Yes, we have it on the good authority of Father Berg that Bush personally instructed those Abu Ghraib guards to abuse Iraqi and al-Qaeda prisoners....and then abandoned them and stood by while they were punished by military courts.

posted June 08, 2006 06:22 PM            

Democrats call Zarqawi killing a stunt
By Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 8, 2006

4:09 p.m.
Some Democrats, breaking ranks from their leadership, today said the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq was a stunt to divert attention from an unpopular and hopeless war.
"This is just to cover Bush's [rear] so he doesn't have to answer" for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers, said Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat. "Iraq is still a mess -- get out."
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Democrat, said Zarqawi was a small part of "a growing anti-American insurgency" and that it's time to get out.
"We're there for all the wrong reasons," Mr. Kucinich said.
Officially, Democratic leaders reacted positively to the news and praised the troops that successfully targeted al Qaeda's leader in Iraq with 500-pound bombs at his safe house 30 miles from Baghdad.
"This is a good day for the Iraqi people, the U.S. military and our intelligence community," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
President Bush said that yesterday's killing of the 39-year-old Jordanian-born terrorist offers an opportunity to "turn the tide" in the war and that Tuesday he will discuss with Iraqi leaders "how to best deploy America's resources in Iraq."
A senior White House official cautioned that Mr. Bush was not hinting at possible early reductions in U.S. troops there, according to Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Democrats sprinkled caveats throughout their praise.
"That is good news; he was a dreadful, vicious person," said Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat. Mr. Conrad added that he hopes the military can get Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, another top al Qaeda leader.
"They're even more important," he said.
Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Michigan Democrat, said it was good news but added, "I think we have a long way to go."
Republicans called Zarqawi's death a positive step and thanked Iraqi citizens for standing up to a threat against their nascent Democracy.
"I am more optimistic than ever that a free and stable Iraq can be achieved," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

posted June 08, 2006 06:52 PM            

Thursday, June 8, 2006 12:29 a.m. EDT
Rumsfeld: Zarqawi Had 'Medieval Vision'

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday that while the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a significant victory in the war on terror, it won't end terrorism.

"Given the nature of the terrorist networks, really a network of networks, the death of Zarqawi, while enormously important, will not mean the end of all violence in that country," Rumsfeld told reporters.

Rumsfeld, who has been under consistent fire from critics for his handling of the war in Iraq, took his time Thursday taking the stage for one of his military's most significant intelligence victories of late.

And when asked how the other defense ministers reacted to the news of Zarqawi's death, he adroitly said, "positively."

When he finally stepped in front of the cameras, an understated Rumsfeld spoke first about progress in the NATO operations in Afghanistan, and then suggested that it was appropriate that Zarqawi died on the day that Iraqi officials announced their new defense and interior ministers.

"But," he added, "let there be no doubt, the fact that he is dead is a significant victory in the battle against terrorism in that country, and I would say worldwide, because he had interests outside of Iraq. He was an integral part of the war on terror."

Speaking at a news conference at a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Rumsfeld said that al-Zarqawi's death will hurt the terrorist network, particularly since others with him were also killed.

"It will slow them down," he said.

According to Rumsfeld, commanders in Iraq had been tracking Zarqawi, and concluded they couldn't go after him "on the ground without running the risk of having him escape, so they used air power and attacked the building he was in having a meeting."

Informed of the raid by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, Rumsfeld said he was told they were "putting people on the ground and would have information, but it would take some hours to validate it with fingerprints."

He also tried to put Zarqawi's death in perspective in terms of the wider terror networks.

"Arguably over the last several years, no single person on this planet has had the blood of more innocent men, women and children on his hands than Zarqawi," said Rumsfeld. "He personified the dark sadistic and medieval vision of the future - of beheadings, suicide bombings and indiscriminate killings."

Al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. air raid north of Baghdad.

Rumsfeld arrived at the conference Wednesday, landing in Brussels as forces launched their strike on the remote Baqouba safe house. And he huddled with aides Thursday morning as the news of al-Zarqawi's death began to trickle out.

As the day wore on, and news of the U.S. military's dramatic symbolic victory dominated casual conversations in the NATO building, Rumsfeld stayed publicly mum and out of reach of the media.

The reports of the terror leader's death sent a rumble of excitement through an otherwise routine meeting of the ministers, overshadowing discussions of the ongoing transfer of military control in Afghanistan to NATO-led forces.

Rumsfeld announced Zarqawi's death to the other defense ministers during a midmorning meeting of the North Atlantic Council. But in brief public, televised moments of the meetings, the ministers talked only of the NATO operation in Afghanistan, and during press conferences earlier in the day, the now-dead terror kingpin's name never came up.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/6/8/123258.shtml?s=ic

posted June 08, 2006 09:37 PM              

But we did, and we do, and Zarqawi, who killed more than a few innocent Iraqis himself, is no longer counted among the living and I for one can't work up any tears for the man.

His soul is in the hands of the Almighty now ... and good luck to both of them.

"Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds." Mohammed

posted June 08, 2006 09:46 PM            

quote:

---

It's a victory in the global war on terror...

---

Hilarious.

"Why, soon, there will be no more terrorism in the world!"

quote:

---

"Arguably over the last several years, no single person on this planet has had the blood of more innocent men, women and children on his hands than Zarqawi," said Rumsfeld.

---

posted June 08, 2006 10:23 PM            

I know that I don't have all the proof(for they're isn't any pictures of it), but I do have to say that the way that Zarqawi's safehouse went up like that from the bombing with two 500lbs Laser-guided missiles like that, the cinematographers sure know how to make this guy look in some really fantastic shape! For someone that had everything all around him shatter into a million pieces like the way they have shown it on TV!

Look at him, not one hair on him is even singed, but yet, he was pulled out of rubble like this!

posted June 08, 2006 11:35 PM              

this sort of news is way too convienent for the bush adminstration...I dont buy it at all, something just feels off...

i think...
he was already dead,
or they didnt really kill him.

either way, the guy was out of control, didnt care who he killed, iraqis, arabs, didnt matter- that sort of behavior really bothered me...The americans I can understand why he would kill them but killing the Iraqis was unjust, like they dont have enough BS they have to deal with already, they have to worry about bombs coming from their own, and a-holes from the west...

if he is dead, great- but honestly...
this is just GREAT PR for BUSH...I dont even know why it is good PR, the war is BS, the whole reason we're there is BS, anyone who goes wow we caught the ******* ... do you even know why we should be happy about it? why arent people more upset about being there?

people always forget the big picture...

gotta give it to bush,
he knows how to put on a show,

with the cost of lives of course...

------------------
"WHATEVER the soul longs for, WILL be attained by the spirit"

"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation"

posted June 09, 2006 02:01 AM              

quote:

---

"Arguably over the last several years, no single person on this planet has had the blood of more innocent men, women and children on his hands than Zarqawi," said Rumsfeld.

---

posted June 09, 2006 02:17 AM              

Like you said....maybe it WAS the cinematographers who made him look so good while all hell was breaking loose all about him....

On the other hand, it might be what someone else here said,

quote:

---

A story will be concocted demonstrating that this dude was already dead, but because Bush's ratings are down, the adminstration decided to 'say he was killed in an air raid" and pulled his body out of the freezer.

---

Think about it?

Doesn't he look like he's just been pulled out of a freezer?

It could be that too........

posted June 09, 2006 08:32 AM            

quote:

---

either way, the guy was out of control, didnt care who he killed, iraqis, arabs, didnt matter- that sort of behavior really bothered me...The americans I can understand why he would kill them but killing the Iraqis was unjust, like they dont have enough BS they have to deal with already, they have to worry about bombs coming from their own, and a-holes from the west...

---

How easy it is to slip on God`s shoes ey

Blessings,

------------------
~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted June 09, 2006 12:38 PM            

Like the one time that I've seen on the news was an insurgent gunner firing rounds from an AK down some street and a newsman standing along side of him reporting about insurgents attacking news reporters...

...does anybody see anything wrong with that picture?

Here's another one:

Nick Berg's beheading took an aproxomation of 11 hours to completely take off his head during the so-called beheading with some "buck knife"(at least that is what shown from the video tape), maybe the person doing the filming didn't want to accidently erase the part of tape of his children visiting Disney World! Besides, isn't a beheading ritual supposed to be done with something like a Machete, or any sword at that matter?

posted June 09, 2006 12:51 PM            

On the one hand I can see where if this was altogether a Special Ops operation that it would be possible to plant the body as Marine Special Ops do cooperate with the CIA who run secret prisons where such a prisoner could be held until politically expedient to plant. My only problem with this scenario is that absolutely everyone involved would have to agree with and protect that lie. A person with the slightest inkling of ethics would report such a planting of the body. If non-Special Ops personnel were involved, then I think the chance of getting caught would be too great to risk.

posted June 09, 2006 01:07 PM            

quote:

---

On the one hand I can see where if this was altogether a Special Ops operation that it would be possible to plant the body as Marine Special Ops do cooperate with the CIA who run secret prisons where such a prisoner could be held until politically expedient to plant. My only problem with this scenario is that absolutely everyone involved would have to agree with and protect that lie. A person with the slightest inkling of ethics would report such a planting of the body. If non-Special Ops personnel were involved, then I think the chance of getting caught would be too great to risk.

---

No, I don't agree with that AG, believe me when I tell you that when your under orders, you don't discuss any part of it to anyone from the outside. I have some family there now and cannot discuss anything about the war whatsoever. Otherwise that is grounds for Court-martial, possibly even worse!

"Oppps! I shot him in the head by accident Sergeant! Thought he was 'the enemy' from a distance!"

posted June 09, 2006 01:17 PM            

DayDreamer:

"Wow, after bombing all those innocent iraqis, Zarqawis finally been killed. Now if only you didnt start the Iraq war...you wouldnt have had to deal with all that sh!t and growing terrorism."

You're quote is priceless!!! Instead of calling you Anti-American I am going to label you what you really are "Pro-terrorist"

Everything you say is aimed to attack us and protect the terroristic Muslim factions. Therefore nothing you say matters since you would rather see innocent people murdered as a result of a jihad versus taking to task those that would see the destablization of democracies.

posted June 09, 2006 01:31 PM            

quote:

---

I also believe that if that their was non-Ops personel that witness anything that went on, like planting of a body at a site like that, it would never reach to us anyway. The media would say not a word about it.

---

Actually, come to think of it, does anyone here realize how easy it is not to have any media(or other non-personel) at any destination point where they are not allowed in without having a clearance in the first place? It is as easy as placing a soldier at a roadway telling anyone not to enter a certain site that the military doesn't want anyone to be into at the time.

posted June 09, 2006 01:35 PM              

She is against murder.

Killing for revenge will never bring any good. You just look bad. Because you have done the same deed. I rather die then carry anyone's blood in my hands. Agreeing with it is evil enough.

And you know that.

So quit the you love terrorists or you are anti american crap.

She is more American then you will ever be.

posted June 09, 2006 01:43 PM              

BAGHDAD, Iraq (June 9) - U.S. troops conducted 39 raids late Thursday and early Friday based on information gleaned from searches in the hours after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death. Fearing that insurgents will seek revenge, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki imposed driving bans in Baghdad and in restive Diyala province, where the terrorist was killed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch Video:
Al-Zarqawi Survived Strike | Violence Up in Wake of His Death

Jump Below: Where's bin Laden?

More Coverage:
· Insider Tips Helped Military Locate al-Zarqawi
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Talk About It: Post Thoughts

Terrorist leader al-Zarqawi was still alive and mumbling after U.S. airstrikes on his hideout and tried to get off a stretcher when he saw American troops nearby, a top military official said Friday. The al-Qaida leader could barely speak when Iraqi police arrived at the scene of Wednesday's attack.

"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news conference.

Later, U.S. and Polish forces intending to provide unspecified medical treatment put al-Zarqawi on a stretcher, Caldwell said. The terrorist "attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher, everybody reached to insert him back. ... He died a short time later from the wounds suffered during the air strike.

"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "There was some sort of movement he had on the stretcher and he did die a short time later. There was confirmation from the Iraqi police that he was found alive."

Caldwell said it was unclear whether al-Zarqawi was trying to get away as he made movement on the stretcher.

Where's bin Laden?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Coverage: Why bin Laden Is Hard to Find | Al-Qaida Tape Airs

Watch Video: Where's bin Laden? | Talk About It: Post

But earlier, in an interview with Fox News, Caldwell suggested that al-Zarqawi was trying to escape in the final moments of his life.

"He was conscious initially, according to the U.S. forces that physically saw him," Caldwell said. "He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military.

U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said at the time that the American airstrike targeted "an identified, isolated safe house." Four other people, including a woman and a child, were killed with al-Zarqawi and Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, the terrorist's spiritual consultant.

Revising what military officials said Thursday, Caldwell said it now appears there was no child among those killed in the bombing. He cautioned that some facts were still being sorted out.

He said three women and three men, including al-Zarqawi, were killed.

Hours after al-Zarqawi's death, U.S. troops carried out 17 simultaneous raids Wednesday around the location of his safe house near Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province. The region is in the heartland of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency and has seen a recent rise in sectarian violence. Baqouba is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Those raids provided the information leading to the searches overnight Thursday.

In the 39 raids, troops "picked up things like memory sticks, some hard drives" that would allow American forces to begin dismantling al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, Caldwell told the British Broadcasting Corp.

He said the latest information was helping U.S. forces unravel the source of al-Qaida's weapons and financing.

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In announcing al-Zarqawi's death, Caldwell said the 17 raids "produced a tremendous amount of information," which he described as a "treasure trove." He also said they waited to kill al-Zarqawi before carrying out the other raids, in an apparent effort not to spook the Jordanian-born terrorist.

"We had identified other targets that we obviously did not go after to allow us to focus on al-Zarqawi. Now that we got him, we will go after them," Caldwell told the BBC.

As Iraqi and U.S. leaders cautioned that al-Zarqawi's death was not likely to end the bloodshed in Iraq, Caldwell said another foreign-born militant was already poised to take over the terror network's operations.

He said Egyptian-born Abu al-Masri would likely take the reins of al-Qaida in Iraq. He said al-Masri trained in Afghanistan and arrived in Iraq in 2002 to establish an al-Qaida cell.

The U.S. military did not further identify al-Masri and his real identity could not immediately be determined. But the Central Command has listed an Abu Ayyub al-Masri as among its most wanted al-Zarqawi associates and placed a $50,000 bounty on his head.

Al-Masri, whose name is an obvious alias meaning "father of the Egyptian," is believed to be an expert at constructing roadside bombs, the leading cause of U.S. military casualties in Iraq.

The midday driving ban in Baghdad lasted four hours. All traffic was banned in Diyala from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for three days starting Friday.

The Baghdad ban fell during the times that most Iraqis go to mosques for Friday prayers. Bombers have been known to target Shiite mosques during the weekly religious services with suicide attackers and mortars hidden in vehicles.

Iraqi authorities imposed the vehicle ban as a security measure "to protect mosques and prayers from any possible terrorist attacks, especially car bombs, in the wake off yesterday's event," an official from the prime minister's office said, referring to al-Zarqawi's death. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media.

Al-Zarqawi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was killed at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday after an intense two-week hunt that U.S. officials said first led to the terror leader's spiritual adviser and then to him.

The U.S. military earlier had displayed images of the battered face of al-Zarqawi and reported that he had been identified by fingerprints, tattoos and scars. Biological samples from his body also were delivered to an FBI crime laboratory in Virginia for DNA testing. The results were expected in three days.

Caldwell said Friday that authorities made a visual identification of al-Zarqawi upon arriving at the site of the airstrike.

Associated Press Military Writer Robert Burns contributed to this story from Washington.

6/9/2006 10:46:28

posted June 09, 2006 01:52 PM            

Hey Gutter snipe troll... like your opinion matters. LMAO you are a total cyber stalking loser that gets banned every other day. I am sure that anyone you back up must feel relieved to have such a racist on their side. Wow.... your family should be proud.

posted June 09, 2006 02:11 PM            

It is just one hELL of an incredible story to behold for me to believe.

posted June 09, 2006 02:34 PM            

The typical and predictible leftist reaction to the killing of the number 1 terrorist in Iraq points to a collective psychotic episode among leftists.

Reasonable people heretofore willing to give the benefit of the doubt to leftists skating on the edge of sanity will now be forced to conclude leftists have taken the plunge

The Left and the Death of Zarqawi
By Ben Johnson
FrontPageMagazine.com | June 9, 2006

George W. Bush called it “a severe blow to al-Qaeda.” Donald Rumsfeld called it “a significant victory.” Joe Biden admitted it a was “very significant hit.” How did much of the Left describe the killing of al-Qaeda murderer Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi?

A “transparent psychological operations campaign run out of the Pentagon”; “a double tragedy”; “part of a larger and tragic story of miscalculation”; a possible fraud; a conspiracy; not “moral”; an “obscene spectacle”; no “big deal”; and good cause to beat a hasty retreat.

A Cornspiracy So Immense

David Corn at The Nation charges President Bush with inventing Zarqawi’s threat – and insists Bush played into al-Qaeda’s hands by killing him. “[T]he two people most satisfied by Zarqawi's death,” he writes, “are Osama bin Laden and his number-two Ayman al-Zawahiri, for now they have been spared a competitor for attention and handed a martyr.” He surmised Zarqawi’s “death is welcomed – but it remains part of a larger and tragic story of miscalculation.” He then lays out the Left’s current wisdom on the bombing:

Bush did not mention that it was his invasion of Iraq that fully allied Zarqawi with al-Qaeda. Prior to the war, terrorism experts considered Zarqawi more of a rival than a partner. And he did not mention that four years ago – before Zarqawi had become a major terrorist figure and before he had become responsible for the deaths of hundreds (if not thousands) – the Bush White House chose not to take him out when it could [in summer 2002]…The administration put off attacking Zarqawi because it wanted to invade Iraq.

Corn makes two mutually exclusive arguments: that Zarqawi was not “fully allied” with Osama bin Laden before the Iraq invasion…and that the president needlessly allowed him to inflict “hundreds (if not thousands)” of deaths on innocent Iraqis, and Americans, to secure an American occupation. Or as Democrats.com put it, Bush “refused to kill” this terrorist, because he “needed to keep Zarqawi alive to ‘sell’ his illegal and insane invasion. As a result of Bush's insanity, hundreds needlessly were murdered by Zarqawi. Impeach Bush Now!”

In addition to being logically untenable, it is ridiculous. In the summer of 2002, Zarqawi led an organization that, in time, became Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affiliate based in northern Iraq – which named its hideout “Little Tora Bora” out of solidarity with bin Laden long before the invasion of Iraq. His group forcibly took its base of operations on September 11, 2001.

It is true the White House turned down plans to bomb Ansar in the summer of 2002 – because State Department officials long drew no connection between Zarqawi and al-Qaeda. Like the Left (including Corn), Foggy Bottom analysts concluded the two were unaffiliated parties. By the time they connected the dots, a strike would have been too risky and virtually impossible to secure diplomatically.

Eric Alterman, the Mother Jones blog, Counterpunch’s Chris Floyd, Kurt Nimmo, and others recycled this self-contradiction, often in startlingly similar language. Coincidentally, most leftist bloggers were at Yearly Kos, an annual left-wing hatefest organized by the DailyKos website, when the news broke.

Zarqawi: “Neocon Propaganda Program”

Others proved more creative. Kurt Nimmo – whose article appeared in The Final Call, the newspaper of the Nation of Islam – wrote Zarqawi’s death was “simply another dimension of a rather transparent psychological operations campaign run out of the Pentagon.” That is, the CIA put one over on the American people. “Al-Zarqawi is little more than hype, a neocon propaganda program…in fact, it is difficult to prove ‘al-Qaeda’ itself actually exists.” In his view, America also “engineered” the Iraqi “civil war.” (Either he is channeling Chris Floyd of Counterpunch or vice-versa.)

Ron Jacobs also endorses the belief that Washington created Zarqawi:

There is a likelihood that the forces of sectarian hatred have already done so much…that those hopes for a united nation without foreign occupation have been destroyed forever. Some folks even suggest that this was part of Washington's plan all along.

Jonathan Cutler, who is – surprise! – an Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Wesleyan University, dubbed Zarqawi the “ideological ‘mirror image’ of Washington's Neocons/Right Zionists.” The good doctor blogs these perfidious Jews – err, “neocons” – may have lied about Zarqawi’s death altogether.

Right Zionists will not shed a tear for Zarqawi, but they may miss him when he is gone. If he is gone. For Right Zionists, Zarqawi is really an indespensible enemy.

TalkLeft floats the opposite conspiracy theory: perhaps Zarqawi had been long dead by Thursday.

His face looks very intact for someone who was killed by two 500 pound bombs…Because this Administration has so little credibility and a history of distracting us with terror news when it is hurting politically, like now, I can't help but wonder if al-Zarqawi wasn't killed some time ago and they just decided to announce it today and tell us he was killed in yesterday's raid.

More American Murder

Air America host Randi Rhodes – whose program previously joked about assassinating President Bush – upbraided the troops for their inhumanity. Even al-Qaeda, she noted, asked Zarqawi to stop killing fellow Muslims. “Then you have to say to yourself, my God: Al-Qaeda is telling Zarqawi to cut the crap with the killing of the Iraqis, and yet we haven’t cut the crap with the killing of the Iraqis.” Her Air America colleague and rumored Ohio Democratic candidate Jerry Springer agreed, “We killed a hell of a lot more people just by the decision to go to Iraq than ever died at the hands of Zarqawi.” [1]

Meanwhile, the Mother Jones blog pined for the innocent terrorists, terror sympathizers, and enablers slain along with the “prince of al-Qaeda in Iraq.”

Specifically, the blog wants to know how many civilians were killed in the raid. Seems like a fair question to me…Sure, it's easy to say that there's a moral difference between accidentally killing civilians while trying to track down mass murderers and the actual mass murderers themselves, but at some point the fact that we're doing counterterrorism by dropping ‘precision-guided munitions’ on lots and lots of houses across the country should make people realize that there’s not really a moral way to conduct this war.

MoJo’s radical friends at the (frighteningly) popular World Socialist Website called the bombing of Zarqawi “an obscene spectacle.” They, too, charged Bush with “vastly exaggerating Zarqawi’s role in the country” in order to” justify its illegal intervention.” The commander-in-chief “sought to identify all armed opposition to the U.S. occupiers with Zarqawi, in an effort to discredit as terrorists the Iraqis who were fighting to rid themselves of foreign invaders,” the occupational forces of the United States. WSWS also intimates the United States was involved in decapitating Nicholas Berg.

A view apparently shared by the man’s father. Michael Berg, the father of Nicholas Berg and current Green Party political candidate, said, “I think al-Zarqawi's death is a double tragedy.” On Thursday’s Fox and Friends, he blamed our president for his son’s death, saying, “George Bush destabilized the country to let Zarqawi in.” (As noted, Zarqawi had taken residency in Iraq long before the war.) This is somewhat toned down from his assertion immediately after his son’s beheading that “The administration did this.” (Michael acknowledges his son was “a Bush supporter.”)

Apathy Ascendant

Others on the Left have attempted to minimize the importance of this event, as they have with every American success. The blog of the Bill Moyers/George Soros-funded The American Prospect magazine insisted, “it would be honestly moronic to make a big deal out of this.” Discredited 9/11 Commission witness Richard Clarke stated, “this is not going to mean a big difference,” although, well, Zarqawi was “making a network in Europe and the Middle East.”

The Surrender Brigade

Most elected Democrats have followed one blogger’s suggestion to “declare victory in Iraq and bring our troops home.” Sen. John Kerry said the if Bush suggested “destroying” Arabs.) “It's time to work with the new Iraqi government to bring our combat troops home by the end of this year.” Surrender spokesman John Murtha said this will “have a significant impact in reducing the amount of violence in Iraq” – so “we should be able to substantially reduce our presence in Iraq and redeploy our military outside of Iraq.”

Potential Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, perfunctorily “commended” our troops – demanded withdrawal from Iraq on the grounds of…identity theft. “[A]s many as 2.2 million military personnel were among the 26.5 million records mishandled and lost by the Department of Veterans Affairs,” which is “simply the latest example of incompetence in the Bush Administration.” “If we can't even protect the personal records of our men and women in uniform, what does that say about our ability to secure a nation?” she asks.

Any retreat before Iraq is capable of defending itself will result in a bloodbath. Ayman al-Zawahiri – the number two man in al-Qaeda, who remains at large – instructed Zarqawi last fall to establish a theocratic caliphate in Iraq “in order to fill the void stemming from the departure of the Americans.” Expanding this beachhead throughout the Arab world will precede the destruction of Israel and the establishment of the Kingdom of Allah; but all is conditioned upon a U.S. retreat. In effect, the Democratic Party Left has said: We have killed al-Zarqawi, and now we must assure that his dream lives on.

The Democrats also fail to appreciate the effect of Zarqawi’s having been done in by one of his own. As those who have tracked domestic terrorists know, few tools are as effective as sowing seeds of doubt that one's co-conspirators are actually government informants. With this surgical strike, the United States has “cut off the head of the serpent,” the most charismatic leader in al-Qaeda (and also, for the record, its only free and effective one), spread confusion amongst his ranks, and imported paranoia to the jihadist movement. The death of Zarqawi no more assures victory than the capture of Saddam Hussein – though thankfully, unlike the Butcher of Baghdad, the Terrorist Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight won’t be haranguing an Iraqi judge on international television anytime soon. Instead, he serves as a witness that there are no “untouchables” in the jihadist camp, and his followers may soon follow him to Hell.

posted June 09, 2006 03:09 PM              

Try again buddy.

No one's gonna take your side on that crap. Unless of course its another republican.

They are the ones who like agreeing with murder. Right or wrong it doesn't matter. No one has the right to kill anyone.