Posted on 09/16/2005 10:46:35 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Al-Qaida's leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead but Washington continues to use him as a bogeyman to justify a prolonged military occupation, an Iraqi Shia cleric says in an interview.
Sheikh Jawad al-Kalesi, the imam of the al-Kazemiya mosque in Baghdad, told France's Le Monde newspaper on Friday: "I don't think that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi exists as such. He's simply an invention by the occupiers to divide the people."
Al-Kalesi claimed that al-Zarqawi was killed in the Kurdish northern region of Iraq at the beginning of the US-led war on the country as he was meeting with members of the Ansar Al-Islam group affiliated to al-Qaida.
"His family in Jordan even held a ceremony after his death. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is therefore a ploy used by the Americans, an excuse to continue the occupation. It's a pretext so they don't leave Iraq."
Al-Kalesi made the comments to Le Monde as he passed through Paris after attending an inter-religious gathering in the eastern French city of Lyon organised by the Roman Catholic Sant'Egidio Community.
Fake statement
He said an audio message posted on the Internet on Wednesday and attributed to al-Zarqawi, was meant to push Shia "to find refuge with the Americans rather than join the resistance."
The voice message had declared "all-out war" on Iraqi Shia and claimed responsibility for a series of attacks that killed more than 150 people, most of them Shia waiting to be hired as day labourers in Baghdad.
"If the occupation continues, the situation will only get worse and Iraqis will increasingly join the resistance," al-Kalesi said.
Iraq's main Sunni Arab religious authority, the Association of Muslim Scholars, has condemned the call to arms against Shia, calling it "very dangerous" and saying it "plays into the hands of the occupier who wants to split up the country and spark a sectarian war."
Sorry buddy but that don't wash! Mohammed Atta's family said he was still in Saudi Arabia after he drove the plane into the tower. Families of terrorists are full of Crap just like you!
"If the occupation continues, the situation will only get worse and Iraqis will increasingly join the resistance," al-Kalesi said.
Wrong again buddy! More and More Iraqis are getting sick to death of those terrorists and their killing of innocents that they are giving up valuable info to our soldiers to help them track them down.
E's not dead, e's sleeping.
Who cares.
When I see a roach somewhere, I don't look for a leader. They all get Black-flagged.
"...told France's Le Monde newspaper..."
Say no more.
I haven't heard any recent news on this score, but I very seriously doubt al-Zarqawi is dead.
Bring us his head.
Maybe he's only "mostly dead."
Inigo Montoya: He's dead. He can't talk.
Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What's that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
oooh, we must be getting close. If he is getting ready to bug-out in a burka this is the standard cover-story.
This imam needs to dissappear, pronto.
You want the insurgency to end? Take people like this guy and wisk them away in the middle of the night and have no one ever hear from him again.
That'll scare the crap out of those cowards.
Part of this strategy is to manufacture a figure who is constantly resurrected from the dead. Part of it is to manufacture embarrassment for the US/military when none is deserved. They have done this about 5 times now and it is another chance for Zarqawi to reemerge victoriously.
I'm sick of it. It's scripted and very predictable.
I think so too. They are getting desperate. They are killing and kiliing and killing innocents and they can't get us to budge nor scare the Iraqi people into submission. What else can they do but create lies in the News media.
These folks spend an inordinate part of their lives scheming. They must stay up late, and all the next day doing little else. We know they don't work for a living. Scheming and dreaming. It's gotta be the hash.
Hell, it would make sense to hide his death and use fake messages to ferret out terrorists.
If Al Zarqawi is really dead, then it is Al Queda not the U.S. administration that does all it can to make people think he is still alive. You can bet this "Shia" cleric is himself a fiction or a Baathist who sided against his own people when Sadaam was in power. Now, he needs the terrorists and the insurgents because he cannot redeem his own history.
Reuters has the photo(shop) to prove it!
Hmm, Bodansky has also said he believes Zarqawi is dead (since June).
"Sheikh Jawad al-Kalesi, the imam of the al-Kazemiya mosque in Baghdad, told France's Le Monde newspaper on Friday..."
From a rag about as accurate as newsweak.
Amen!! And when you see a rabid dog you don't first try to figure out why he is rabid and what made him rabid -- you just shoot him.
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