Free Republic

Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a shadowy figure affiliated with al Qaeda who is helping to plan and carry out anti-coalition attacks in Iraq, Defense Department officials said here today. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita and Joint Staff Operations spokesman Army Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez said Zarqawi is one of the 10 or 15 most important terrorists for the coalition to kill or capture. The two men spoke during a Pentagon news conference. Their information follows Army Gen. John Abizaid's revelation that Zarqawi was linked to attacks in Baghdad and Karbala that killed almost more than 100 Shiia pilgrims and wounded...

The rotation of troops into and out of Iraq is in full swing, DoD officials said today. More than 40,000 troops scheduled to deploy to Iraq have moved into theater, and 35,000 of those set to come home already have departed, said Army Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez, a Joint Staff spokesman. The general and Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita fielded questions during a press conference. Pentagon officials said the rotation is the largest troop movement since World War II. A logistics official in Kuwait said it was like the Normandy invasion "in both directions." More than 60 commercial ships are carrying...

LAWRENCE DIRITA (Pentagon spokesman): I do want to just first of all welcome General Dave Rodriguez to the briefing room. He's the deputy director for Regional Operations in the Joint Staff, the J-3. Previous iterations of him have included such stars as Admiral Stufflebeam and others. We're very happy to have him engaged in this responsibility, which is to provide some updates from time to time, which we're happy to do today. There have been some other briefings, I know, throughout the day at other agencies, and I think Ambassador Bremer spoke earlier. But we thought it would be useful...