Posted on 06/27/2005 7:49:04 AM PDT by dead
WASHINGTON - The US military is close to locating al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces in the region, said.
"I think we have a good idea of where to find him," Abizaid told CNN.
"We know what we're doing in our efforts how to get him," he said.
"But I want to also stress that it's not about one man. It's about his network. His network exists inside Iraq. It's connected to al-Qaeda. It's got facilitation nodes in Syria," Abizaid told the US cable news channel.
"It brings foreign fighters in from Saudi Arabia and from North Africa. It is connected to what is happening in Afghanistan and what is happening in Pakistan. It is a global battle that we face," he said.
"The Zarqawi part of the network needs to be taken down. He needs to be captured or killed. But we should understand: It's a long war ahead of us. It's a difficult enemy that we'll have to fight over time throughout the region," the general said.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, is blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq and is the country's most-wanted man.
Zarqawi warned militants against contacts with the "enemies of God" and dismissed as lies revelations that US officials had been in contact with insurgents in Iraq.
"We are warning anyone who meets the Jewish, the Crusaders and their agents," according to an Internet statement attributed to Zarqawi's al-Qaeda organisation in the Land of Two Rivers.
Abizaid spoke after US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld earlier confirmed a British newspaper report that US officials had contacted insurgents in a bid to stem the violence plaguing Iraq.
"Sure, my goodness, yeah. The first thing you want to do is split people off and get some people to be supportive. The same thing's going on in Afghanistan," Rumsfeld said.
AFP
Well I'm glad they announced it!!!!
/sarcasm
Uh, General, I'd rather you not tell us, given that he's probably already packed up and moved with this announcement.
Didn't we just hear this about Bin Laden?
Short of actually accomplishing a task, the next best thing is to say you're really, really close to accomplishing it.
That could be part of the plan.
If we have two or three locations where we think he is, announce we know the location and monitor for activity.
Abizaid gets the benefit of the doubt in my book.
Maybe their together! Having tea.
Just send a CBS reporter out to interview him and follow........
How about a couple of MOABs from about 30,000 feet. Sovreign nation be damned!
Dumbass.
Then vaporize his entire zip code.
I see this rag is tipping off the terrorists!
I hope we kill some more Top Aides. There has to be over 200-300,000 of them.
/sarcasm "
I've noticed that this Abizaid guy has been doing a whole lot of talking lately.
Half of the things he says would seem to have a detrimental effect to their efforts.
Short of actually accomplishing a task, the next best thing is to say you're really, really close to accomplishing it.
You know Zarqawi doesn’t like hearing it.
It also might prod one of his aides to give him up. If you believe the noose is tightening, the temptation to save your own ass and pocket $25,000,000 in the process is going to pretty damn tempting.
I see this rag is tipping off the terrorists!
If Abizaid didn’t want it printed, he wouldn’t have said it.
I don't know that it means anything to him. Sounds like empty noise to me.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that anything that senior military say like this is carefully thought out, and part of a well-planned strategy.
Right on. The military holds such contempt for CNN, and other news services, that it often uses it (CNN) for misinformation against the bad guys.
After all Castro loves his CNN.
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