Posted on 06/16/2006 7:48:00 AM PDT by pabianice
June 16, 2006: Al Qaeda in Iraq has been virtually wiped out by the loss of an address book. The death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi was not as important as the capture of his address book and other planning documents in the wake of the June 7th bombing. U.S. troops are trained to quickly search for names and addresses when they stage a raid, pass that data on to a special intelligence cell, which then quickly sorts out which of the addresses should be raided immediately, before the enemy there can be warned that their identity has been compromised. More information is obtained in those raids, and that generates more raids. So far, the June 7th strike has led to over 500 more raids. There have been so many raids, that there are not enough U.S. troops to handle it, and over 30 percent of the raids have been carried by Iraqi troops or police, with no U.S. involvement. Nearly a thousand terrorist suspects have been killed or captured. The amount of information captured has overwhelmed intelligence organizations in Iraq, and more translators and analysts are assisting, via satellite link, from the United States and other locations.
Perhaps the most valuable finds have been al Qaeda planning documents confirming what has been suspected of terrorist strategy. Also valuable have been the al Qaeda assessment of their situation in Iraq. The terrorist strategy is one of desperation. While the effort continues, to attempt to trigger a civil war between Sunni and Shia in Iraq, this is seen as a losing proposition. The new strategy attempts to trigger a war between the United States and Iran. This would weaken the United States, and put the hurt on Iran, an arch-enemy of al Qaeda. Other documents stressed the need to manipulate Moslem and Western media. This was to be done by starting rumors of American atrocities, and feeding the media plausible supporting material. Al Qaeda's attitude was that if they could not win in reality, they could at least win imaginary battles via the media.
Zarqawi considered al Qaeda's situation in Iraq as "bleak." The most worrisome development was the growing number of trained Iraqi soldiers and police. These were able to easily spot the foreigners who made up so much of al Qaeda's strength. Moreover, more police and soldiers in an area meant some local civilians would feel safe enough to report al Qaeda activity. The result of all this is that there are far fewer foreign Arabs in Iraq fighting for al Qaeda. The terrorist organization has basically been taken over anti-government Sunni Arabs. That made the capture of Zarqawi even more valuable, as his address book contained a who's who of the anti-government Sunni Arab forces. This group has been hurt badly by last week's raids.
The government deployed two infantry divisions and over 40,000 police in and around Baghdad to prevent "revenge" attacks by terrorists not yet rounded up by the growing wave of raids. Al Qaeda has announced an increased number of attacks. These have not occurred, although it is believed that more attacks are possible, as many attacks in various stages of preparation can be rushed forward before they are aborted by a raiding soldiers or police. At the moment, most al Qaeda members appear to be scrambling for new hiding places.
The damage done by the post- Zarqawi raids has spurred the Sunni Arab amnesty negotiations. These have been stalled for months over the issue of how many Sunni Arabs, with "blood on their hands", should get amnesty. Letting the killers walk is a very contentious issue. There are thousands of Sunni Arabs involved here. The latest government proposal is to give amnesty to most of the Sunni Arabs who have just killed foreigners (mainly Americans). Of course, this offer was placed on the table without any prior consultations with the Americans. Naturally, such a deal would be impossible to sell back in the United States. But the Iraqis believe they could get away with it if it brought forth a general surrender of the Sunni Arab anti-government forces. The Iraqis, after all, are more concerned with Iraqi politics, than with what happens in the United States. Iraqi leaders believe that the U.S. has no choice by to continue supporting Iraqi pacification efforts. However, the spectacle of amnestied Sunni Arabs bragging to Arab, European and American reporters about how they killed Americans, might have interesting repercussions.
If a foreign army invaded your country would you resist?
After all, we can't have chrissy matthews head exploding on national TV, even it is only for about 100 viewers.
I'm confident we'll find out that the alleged action in Haditha is a LIE. And the good thing is that it will be the end of that whining old fool Murtha.
bump
"The latest government proposal is to give amnesty to most of the Sunni Arabs who have just killed foreigners (mainly Americans)."
I don't think at this rate there will be many in this category. We seem to be taking out the trash by the dumpster load. If we keep up the number of raids as we develop even more leads, there won't be any killers left negotiating their amnesty deals.
There was speculation on a local morning show whether Murtha would be able to come up with the names of his senior Marine sources when he's called to testify in the case. Methinks he will be a tad uncomfortable sitting in the witness stand.
You make the assumption that this would actually happen if they amnesty thousands of killers, just because they happened to kill non-iraqis. I say this would be an extraordinarily stupid, bonehead move. They are winning. The last thing they need to do is to show weakness by pardoning killers. Remember, even if you are NOT weak, if the arab mind PERCEIVES weakness, it might as well be the same thing. At your feet or at your throat.
Oh, and speaking of throats, they might be able to jam this down OURS, but they'd be sorry. The president would lose face, it would be increasingly difficult to garner support in Congress, the left would have a field day, and they just might find themselves vietnamized -- victorious in the field followed by cut-off funding and a precipitous withdrawal of American force leading to a renewal of chaos, both in and out of the Iraqi military. It could wind them right back up where they started, so I think they better think twice about whether it's a worthwhile gamble to pander to baathists and terrorists at this time in their history.
According to an op-ed in TODAY'S NY Slimes,
"Violence on the whole is as bad as ever. Sectarian strife is worse than ever. The economy has slowly come back to prewar levels for the most part, but is now treading water. As a result, optimism has waned. According to an International Republican Institute poll conducted in late March, more than 75 percent of Iraqis consider the security environment to be poor and the economy poor or mediocre."
See http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/opinion/16ohanlon.html
So the MSM just keep plugging away.
I admit that this is confusing. It might be a goal to somehow incite a war between Iran and the United States. If anything, it seems that it would solidify ties between Iran and Al Qaeda, with both sides trying their best to cause massive U.S. casualties.
They will be out soon.
I want to know why intellegence allows this news to be "outed" before they can get the most good out of it.
I mean, they let them know its time to bug out.
Calling the following willing accomplices: Mass. Senator John F. Zar-Kerry; Pa. Congresscritter John al-Murtha; al Jazeera; al-gore et al
"Violence on the whole is as bad as ever. Sectarian strife is worse than ever. The economy has slowly come back to prewar levels for the most part, but is now treading water. As a result, optimism has waned. According to sources in the Times' newsroom, more than 75 percent of the reporters consider the environment to be poor and the future of the paper worse..."
bump
I wonder what the US and allied occupation forces did with all the captured Nazi soldiers that killed allies during WWII? I'm not talking about leadership here just the average guy that used a gun.
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