Posted on 07/18/2007 2:30:11 PM PDT by saganite
BAGHDAD: For more than a year, the leader of one the most notorious insurgent groups in Iraq was said to be a mysterious Iraqi named Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi.
As the titular head of the Islamic State in Iraq, an organization publicly backed by Al Qaeda, Baghdadi issued a steady stream of incendiary pronouncements. Despite claims by Iraqi officials that he had been killed in May, Baghdadi appeared to have persevered unscathed.
On Wednesday, a senior American military spokesman provided a new explanation for Baghdadi's ability to escape attack: He never existed.
Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, the chief American military spokesman, said the elusive Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima.
The ruse, Bergner said, was devised by Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, who was trying to mask the dominant role that foreigners play in that insurgent organization.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
As opposed to Chicago's al-Qaeda leader, Reverend Mullah Jeese Jackson Who'sYourDaddy?
Leader of Republican group in White House was fictional, GOP voters Say
Or New York al-Qaeda leader Gerald NadlerFatDaddy.
IBTZ?
Or Massachusetts al-Qaeda leader Barney FrankBaggedYourDaddy..
I wish they were fictional and this was all a bad dream.
President Bush was right and is still right on the war.
I think he was horrible in not constantly keeping the public with him when the main stream media and socialist constantly attacked our efforts and the troops.
Bush is wrong on immigration, wrong on prescription drug benefits, but not bad after that.
Not a great communicator obviously and that is why the war is seen in a bad light IMO.
We’ll, in point of fact, he turned out to be wrong about Iraq, but it doesn’t matter now, we’re there and it has become the central front on the “WOT.”
Great - their rabid anti-American propagandist never existed, while ours is employed as Speaker of the House.
The problem is the UN caused us to announce for 11 months that we were coming in and anything they wanted move was moved out. Nobody has said that Iraq didn't move lots of stuff out, and plenty of Saddam's former military leaders did in fact say they were moved under the disguise often of relief efforts to places like Syria.
We also found out France had a deal with Saddam where they got 75% of the profit of Iraqi oil fields in exchange for maintaining and distribution. Other people blocking us at the UN also had illegal back door deals going.
Then since this all began, we have Iran and Syria fighting proxy wars with us by financing and providing weapons against the Iraqi people and American forces.
Truth is we do not have enough of a volunteer army, but if we did, we’d have troops all along the border with Iran ready to go in.
You ever see the Viking Kitties???
I love reading about these “former CIA officials” quoted in the NYT. I immediately wondered which current socialist think tank Mr Riedel works for. A quick on line check reveals that Riedel works for Liberal Think Tank “The Brookings Institute”. Interesting how the NYT didn’t feel that info was pertinent to the readers.
ping
He sucks on education too.
he was really Keyser Söze
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.