Posted on 04/26/2005 5:30:33 PM PDT by blam
US soldiers just miss taking Iraq's al-Qa'eda leader
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 27/04/2005)
American troops seized the computer of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qa'eda's leader in Iraq, when they came tantalisingly close to capturing the terrorist after chasing a truck in which he was travelling, it was disclosed yesterday.
A senior military official described finding the laptop as "a seminal event" which would help to run to ground the Jordanian-born militant and unravel his network, responsible for many of Iraq's worst outrages, including the beheading of the British contractor, Ken Bigley.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Details of the computer's discovery showed how close America was to detaining Zarqawi - who, with a $25 million bounty on his head is their No 1 target in Iraq - and the extensive precautions he takes to avoid detection.
The covert US military unit charged with finding him, known as Task Force 626, was alerted by a source inside Zarqawi's network on Feb 20 that he was to attend a meeting in Ramadi, the city west of Fallujah that he is believed to use as his operational base.
Mobile vehicle checkpoints were set up around the city and predator drones scrambled to track all movements.
Just before the meeting was scheduled, a car on its way from Fallujah was pulled over as it approached a checkpoint. This is now believed, the American officer said, to have been a support car sent ahead to "check the waters".
A pick-up truck half a mile behind the car was seen turning around and speeding off in the opposite direction. American teams gave chase but, when the truck was stopped several miles away there was no sign of Zarqawi.
Instead there was evidence of quite how close they had been to inflicting a massive blow to al-Qa'eda. The computer had several plug-in hard drives which identified it as Zarqawi's as well as tactical information and photographs of the man.
It emerged that his currency of choice appears to be the euro, with 80,000 euro notes discovered in the vehicle.
The two men inside, Zarqawi's driver and bodyguard, were taken into custody.
The Americans said they had since learnt that Zarqawi jumped out of the vehicle when it passed beneath an overpass to avoid detection from the air and hid there before running to a nearby safe house.
That house was raided and the owner arrested.
Lt-Gen John Vines, responsible for daily military operations in Iraq, recently said he believed American operations had damaged Zarqawi's network and hampered its ability to operate in the country.
Iraq's political process took a step forward yesterday when Dr Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the prime minister-designate, was reported to have almost completed a draft list of ministers to submit to the president.
The cabinet is expected to be approved today, ending a political vacuum since the January election that is widely seen as having emboldened the insurgency.
Missed again.....Next time!
This from a man who expects his followers to martyr themselves.
Is it so easy for this slug to get away? Seems we could grab him if we really set out to do it. Maybe we're letting him by a Typhoid Mary-Judas Goat of sorts.
Boy. I panic when someone gets mad and cuts me off. Can't imagine if I had the army trying to kill me!
What? We didn't nab his number 2 guy again?
Wake me up when they nab something other than a computer.
Be aware that Zarqawi may just suddenly disappear one day. If the CIA gets their hands on him before the army does he'll never be seen again, especially if any of Col. Buckley's friends are still active. He will also be the unhappiest individual on the face of the earth, and for a very long time.
Missed it by "that much".
It's also bound to make him so paranoid that he may spend a lot of his time in Saddam's old hole.
"Wake me up when they nab something other than a computer."
Most intelligence types now say that the computer and cell phone of terrorist types is often more valuable than the actual suspect. People usually clam up or lie, but the documentation can be tracked, cross-matched, and fed back into our electronic monitoring gear. It's usually far more hard, verifible and objective than verbal interviews.
If this is for real (which it may not be) and there's real data in there, this is a huge win for us.
Then again, maybe he's fooling us, or we're faking out the terrorists into thinking they've been compromised by this discovery (Ah, the tangled webs...).
Yup. Makes me wonder if the 'rang-up' Osama on his computer before the story broke, lol.
Am I the only one curious as to why he would have pictures of himself on his computer?
If he jumped out of a moving pickup under an overpass (and it sounds like he did it while the truck was moving), it's possible that he's a little banged up.
"Be aware that Zarqawi may just suddenly disappear one day."
Or he could simply decide to slip out of the country via. northeastern cooridor, and run his part of the terrorist actions out of Iran in the mountain regions or sometning. He must not sleep well, much like anyone on such a wanted list. And his closest associates are not going to turn him in for the money. They are his associates because they think the same way and have the same goals. And his closest associates are going to make sure he is not caught. I got a bad feeling we are not going to tag this goon.
I have to agree.
Look at what the CIA did to Russian KGB defector Yuriy Nosenko in 1964: They were convinced he was a double agent and literally kept him in a small heated box for five-plus years with little human contact or reading material. Just a plank to sleep on, a toilet, and no blanket. His only human contacts were the CIA interrogators.
The poor bastard went crazy but never told the CIA the lie that they wanted to hear -- that he was a double agent. The CIA finally let him go when the mistake was discovered.
Nosenko could presumably still be alive, living in the US under an assumed identity.
It's for his computer dating profile
Likes:
Moonlit walks in the desert
Beheading infidels . . Ali akbar!!
Dislikes:
Infidels
Infidels chasing me
Not getting any respect from infidels
Looking for a woman who looks good in a burka
ping
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