Zarqawi's Final Atrocities

Human Events Online ^ | 06/08/06 | Richard Minitier

[MikeA]

If you are looking for the legacy of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, do not look in the concrete rubble of so-called safe house in Baqubah that became his final resting place. Instead, look less than 10 miles to the west, on the side of the road in the desert town of Hadid, for a pile of cardboard banana boxes.

Inside those boxes were nine human heads.

Some of the heads still had their blindfolds on. Iraqi police are still attempting to identify the murdered men.

Days earlier, in Baquba, Iraqi police found another eight severed heads. One of those heads belonged to a prominent Sunni Muslim imam, who preached peace and tolerance.

For the past few weeks, U.S. military intelligence analysts had seen a spike in beheadings—a specialty of the Zarqawi network.

Of course, Zarqawi will be remembered chiefly as a beheader. He apparently enjoyed wielding the knife and slowly hacking off the head of Nicholas Berg of West Chester, Pa. In a video that Zarqawi’s followers proudly posted on the Internet, Berg screams in pain in seven long minutes as Zarqawi saws through his neck.

Zarqawi also is believed to have beheaded Eugene Armstrong of Hillsdale, Mich.

Zarqawi is also believed to have beheaded Ken Bigley, the Liverpool, U.K.-based engineer who came to Iraq “to help people,” in October 2004.

Now it is Zarqawi’s own head that is capturing the world’s attention. Displaying his head has several immediate benefits: it boosts the morale of Iraqi police and military officers, who have been taking increased casualties in the past few weeks and were spooked by the Zarqawi video released last month. In that video, Zarqawi made a point of firing an M-4 and an M-249—two automatic weapons that are only used by U.S. forces. If he can take guns from the hands of Americans he killed and turn those weapons against the world’s sole remaining superpower, maybe Zarqawi is invincible after all. Yesterday’s air strike has already reversed the downward spiral of Iraqi police morale, one source told me.

Nor can Zarqawi be easily replaced. He had a kind of rogue-ish charisma that resonated in the Arab world. He was featured in Arabic-language pop songs and feted on Arabic soap operas. His persona drew hundreds of Saudis, Syrians and other foreigners to fight alongside him in Iraq. There is simply no one else in the organization who has his aura.

At the very least, the beheadings and suicide attacks will decline sharply.

Mr. Miniter is author of Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror and "Losing bin Laden."

[Smartass]

Great Job Troops!

Iraqi men walk through the rubbles that remain
after the air raid in which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
was killed. AP.


U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell
at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. AP


A later image of what purports to show the body of al-Zarqawi.
Al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq who waged a
bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings, was
killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on
his isolated safehouse. AP/Intelcenter

 

[potlatch]

LOL, those would have been good when I made up my other one! I just did a Google search for what I found!

[DigitalVideoDude]

Sadly, this looks like another example of the 'Jersey Girls' syndrome.

Mr. Berg appears to be capitalizing on his son's tragic death for his own personal benefit.

[Smartass]

Those were among 25 posted by my IP server.
There's a very interesting story about the methods
used to track and finally bring justice to him.

 

[billhilly]

A thing of beauty.

[don-o]

Gotta ask - prolly already been, but how does the body hold together with two big bombs dropped?

[Smartass]

Thursday, June 8, 2006

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REBUILDING IN THE GULF
Special ops A-Team
helped nail Zarqawi
U.S., British defense chiefs formed
task force to kill him 2 months ago

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Posted: June 8, 2006
1:17 p.m. Eastern

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© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Image of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in death released by U.S. military

WASHINGTON – When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, was killed today by 500-pound bombs dropped by two F-16 fighter jets on a house north of Baghdad, it was the result of intelligence information gathered, in part, by an elite task force of international special operations forces formed just a month ago with the express purpose of taking him out.

The "A-Team" created for the mission drew on the skills and expertise of U.S. Army Green Berets, "Tier 1" of Britain's Special Air Service and the Israeli Mossad, as reported last month in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND.

The decision to form the unit was taken after a top-level conference between U.S. and British defense chiefs in Washington a month ago.

The unit was part of the already-secret Task Force Black run by Britain's MI6 out of coalition forces headquarters in Baghdad. Nicknamed "The Untouchables," it was given a no-holds barred brief in pursuit of Zarqawi in May.

To avoid detection, the team dressed in clothes bought from second-hand stalls in Baghdad's back-street markets. They regularly sprayed themselves with a pungent, sweat-smelling odor known as "souk scent." Each man wore contact lenses that turned their eye color brown or black. The goal was to permit them to look like any other Iraqi peasant as they hunted the most bloodthirsty killer in Iraq.

"The Untouchables" were assured in advance they need fear no investigation into their methods to bring Zarqawi to summary justice.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Though Zarqawi was done in ultimately by massive bombs delivered from high-tech fighters, the unit members were each equipped with L115A-353 sniper rifles that allowed them to kill at 1,000 yards. But the key to the mission was the fact that each made high-risk surveillance operations into normally no-go areas in Iraq.

While officially Israel denies any presence in Iraq, four Mossad assassins were assigned to serve with the unit.

"The Untouchables" also used thermal-imaging equipment to probe the "rat holes" the terror chief used as he flitted around Baghdad and other cities. They also had at their disposal a CIA-operated Predator unmanned aircraft able to provide a real-time video feedback of any area where Zarqawi was spotted.

Zarqawi boasted on his website of beheading innocent victims, including the murders of more than 1,000 British and American soldiers in Iraq over the past two years. Zarqawi also led terrorists that killed thousands of Iraqis through relentless suicide bombings and organized attacks. Many of the bombings were directed at large crowds of Shi'ites under a strategy U.S. and Iraqi officials said was designed to trigger a civil war.

Gen. Sir Timothy Granville-Chapman, Britain's vice chief of the defense staff, had told senior officers in Baghdad that "removing this terrorist will be a massive blow against al-Qaida." Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told a news conference today the big breakthrough that led to Zarqawi's location came while U.S. forces were trailing Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman.

"Through painstaking intelligence efforts we were able to start tracking him, monitoring his movements. ... Last night, he went to meet [Zarqawi] again at 6.15 pm when the decision was made to go ahead and strike that target," he added.

Zarqawi came from humble beginnings – a former street thug from Jordan. But he remained elusive despite several U.S. military offensives, a $25 million bounty on his head and the capture of what officials said were several of his aides.

Caldwell said an Egyptian militant trained in Afghanistan named Abu al-Masari, who established the first al-Qaida cell in Baghdad, may succeed Zarqawi as head of the group in Iraq.

"What everyone needs to understand is the strike last night did not occur in a 24-hour period," he said. "It truly was a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human sources, electronics, signal intelligence that was done over a period of time, many, many weeks."

There were six people in the house, including a woman and a child, but only Zarqawi and Abdul-Rahman have been identified.

Caldwell said important information was found at the location that led to 17 simultaneous raids later that night in Baghdad and its outskirts that uncovered a "treasure trove" of information.

But he cautioned against being overly optimistic because Zarqawi's followers still posed a threat.

"It's not the beginning or the end but it is a step forward," said Caldwell. "Ridding Iraq of Zarqawi will not instantaneously stop the violence."

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Related offers:

Get the news before it's news by subscribing to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter now available at sharply discounted prices.

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Related story:

President Bush's statement on Zarqawi's death

Previous stories:

Zarqawi setting up bases in Jordan, Gaza Strip?

Zarqawi wounded

Zarqawi a nuke threat

Zarqawi has safe haven in Iran

Report: Al-Zarqawi captured near Syria

Zarqawi 'commander' of terrorists in Iraq

Iran refuses to hand over Zarqawi

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[MHGinTN]

Mister Berg will be the consummate democrat politician, as proven by his eagerness to use the tragedy of his son's murder by this vermin as a stepping stone to political office. Liberalism, a deadly disease in need of eradication before it kills the Republic!

[potlatch]

I haven't read all that yet, not feeling good today and just saw all the headlines when I came on and got to work on the graphic.

[MarkL]

Satan reclaims one of his own!

Uh Oh! Saddam's gonna be jealous!

Mark

[BenLurkin]

"For the past few weeks, U.S. military intelligence analysts had seen a spike in beheadings—a specialty of the Zarqawi network."

[AgThorn]

Gag me with a spoon!!!

Michael Berg and Cindy Sheehan
Two people capitalizing on their offsprings death ...

poster children for the left!

[Muzzle_em]

I would literally be standing on the roof of my house screaming from a megaphone and rejoicing and dancing like a fool if the person who murdered my child had just been killed.
I cannot believe this man is saying these things.
He has truly lost his mind.

[MikeA]

Capt. Dale Dye is on KFI radio in L.A. right now. He has great sources in the military who have been feeding him info. on how this was carried out. Fascinating stuff. But among the things he said is the Air Force used a special type of JDAM that collapses the floors of the upper story and caused them to collapse down upon him. They did that on purpose so they'd have a body to show, rather than just using a high explosive device that just left him as a stain on the wall. Apparently Zarqawi died from being crushed to death, not from the explosion. Brilliant. Plus it means he probably was alive for just a minute or so after being nailed which is nice to know, so he had a minute or so to realize we finally nailed him, that we won and he lost.

[don-o]

Great info - thanks MikeA.

Uh, what is a JDAM? I'll give a Google here.

[ChadGore]

If we would have listened to the capitulating isolationist liberals . .

1) Kuwait would not exist (1991).

2) Uday and Qusay would have taken over for their father.

3) Saddam would be retired at Dora Farms.

4) Zarqawi would be on Uday's payroll.

[MikeA]

A JDAM is a Joint Direct Attack Munition, or a laser guided bomb.

[don-o]

All over Google - Looks like the 500# bomb was the correct load to achieve the desired result. Collapse the building twice. There are bigger ones, which would have left a greasy spot.

What we have is good pre-planning on the operation.

[HitmanLV]

I went to college and was friends with author Rich Miniter back in the late 1980. One of the good guys!

[MikeA]

5) Sanctions on Saddam would have ended

6) Saddam would have WMD by now and be working in a nuke, so we'd have 3 rogue states with a nuclear weapon or working on one

7) Saddam would have further boosted Al Qaeda and provided them with logistical and safe haven support more than he had before his overthrow

8) Saddam would have used terrorists to attack the US mainland again as Vladimir Putin warned us in November 2002 that Saddam was planning to do according to their significant intelligence assets in Saddam's Iraq.

I'm sure we could think of several other negative consequences of having left Saddam in power.