Zarqawi's End

[NYer]

Iraqpundit defines Improvement. (http://iraqpundit.blogspot.com/2006/06/zarqawis-end.html)

Iraq improved today, though true peace is obviously still far off. There are already reports of more deaths at the hands of terrorists who are now killing only for the sake of murder. Zarqawi's death is another setback for a campaign that is only about death. The Zarqawi movement has failed to achieve any of its goals. Obviously, it has failed to stop the (often painful) development of Iraqi democratic institutions. Yes, there has been much sectarian violence, more than enough to satisfy those vultures who have been circling what they hope is Iraq's corpse. But that violence was far from what Zarqawi's band of killers sought to foment. Indeed, the last time we heard from Zarqawi, in an audiotape released this month, he had been reduced to pleading for an all-out civil war, ordering Iraq's Sunnis to kill Shiites. But it's Zarqawi who is dead. Iraq lives. As the Baghdadi man said from his heart, "It has to."

[NYer]

And then one day ...God showed up. (http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008681.php)

The man whose wedding party was bombed by al Qaeda in November says that the air strike that killed al Qaeda mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was "heavenly justice."

Ashraf al-Akhras lost his father and both his new in-laws in the attack in Amman, Jordan, an event that brought almost all Jordan's people to denounce Zarqawi and his terrorist network.

"Time may heal something simple, but what happened to us was big," he said. "I don't remember it as my wedding day, it's a day in which the eyes of Amman turned black and cried. "I can't describe how I feel," he said, tears in his eyes.

The death of Zarqawi does nothing to make Islamism's vision of utopia appear more likely in the eyes of the hundreds of millions of Muslims who are sitting on the fence, waiting to see which side to step off to. If al Qaeda et. al. really are the keepers of the true faith of Islam, as they insist they are, then it's reasonable for other Muslims to ask just when Allah will finally get in the game.

I think that more and more Muslims will decide that Ashraf al-Akhras is right: Allah is in the game, but not on al Qaeda's side.

Read the whole thing.

[NYer]

Zarqawi: Killing the Future Chief of Al Qaeda?

The first question some skeptics asked in the early hours of June 8, 2006 was: Is the elimination of chief terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi in Iraq a victory?

Of course it is. (http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=127864)

Read the whole thing.

[keith]

Zarqawi disciple ready to fill void
Michael Ware
10jun06

IRAQI terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death this week in a US military air strike will test the renowned regenerative ability of his al-Qa'ida network like never before.

Leadership of al-Qa'ida in Iraq will now fall to a new generation of men, such as Abu Mustafa, to continue the movement's holy war.
Under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Abu Mustafa was a member of the security unit for the regime's inner circle.

A professional military officer, he quickly picked up arms in the first months of the Iraq occupation to take the fight to the US-led forces.

He did so, as he explained in safe houses in the summer of 2003, to rid his country of a foreign power.

But the following year, intelligence from a US informant led to his arrest and detention in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

There the secular military officer rubbed shoulders with Zarqawi's early adherents and some of the hardline foreign fighters imported across Iraq's porous borders.

He joined a prison yard religious school which, the cleric in charge openly admitted, taught not just the Koran but holy war.

By the time Abu Mustafa was released, he was no longer battling for a nationalist cause but a religious one.

Even his former military and insurgent comrades came to be wary of Abu Mustafa and his newfound ruthlessness.

And for a man who two years earlier had criticised tactics that killed innocent civilians, he soon rose up the al-Qa'ida hierarchy to become what the Americans call a Tier II leader, directing precisely the kind of ghastly suicide operations he once derided.

In many ways, through men such as Abu Mustafa, Zarqawi injected jihad into a war where there was none.

In future, that most horrific and effective of the terrorists' weapons -- the suicide bomber -- shall be the telling factor. It was Zarqawi who introduced the use of suicide bombings, not seen until then in Iraq, but now so wretchedly commonplace.

It is these things that shall outlive the man who died among the rubble of that safe house.

Killing Zarqawi, however, forces an evolution on the insurgency. The tone of al-Qa'ida's attacks in Iraq could shift.

Zarqawi's relentless attacks on Shi'ite Muslims and disregard for civilian casualties has been divisive within the insurgency and the global jihad community, with many arguing the attacks were counterproductive, sapping more support than they gained.

Zarqawi had also been resisting longstanding pressures to anoint an Iraqi as leader and this may now be fulfilled.

An Iraqi leader, sensitive to local moods, may refocus attacks away from queues of locals waiting for petrol or praying in a mosque and back to harder, military targets.

And he may increase co-operation with homegrown insurgent groups rather than challenging them. Repeatedly, Zarqawi defied the counsel of his mentors, even Osama bin Laden.

So his removal may allow al-Qa'ida's classic leadership, now hunkered down in Pakistan, to step in and garner greater sway, further buttressing moves to abandon some of the worst of Zarqawi's methods.

And remarkably, it may be Saddam's old party, the Baathists, who benefit most immediately from Zarqawi's demise.

For years, the nationalist insurgent groups have wrestled with Zarqawi for influence and attention. His absence could now see them reassert their authority.

Zarqawi inspired a new generation of al-Qa'ida, more volatile and brutal, and his death will be the new generation's first test.

Shall they continue down the path he outlined, or forge their own?

For now, nothing is clear, except that Zarqawi leaves a legacy yet to be reckoned with.

Michael Ware is CNN's Baghdad correspondent

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,19423877,00.html

[keith]

A Jordanian Sting Operation Yielded the Vital Lead

June 10, 2006, 12:45 PM (GMT+02:00)

The final breakthrough in the long pursuit of the most blood-stained terrorist of them all, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, came from Jordan.

The source was Ziyad Halaf al Karbouli, also known as Abu Hufeiza, one of the lowlifes Zarqawi employed to attack and rob the convoys plying Baghdad’s main supply route across the Jordanian border and murdering their Iraqi or Jordanian drivers. Foreigners riding along were taken hostage. DEBKA-Net-Weekly reveals that he was picked up – not by chance, but in consequence of a well-laid Jordanian sting operation set up and executed by King Abdullah’s old unit, The Riders of Justice of Jordan’s 71st Commando Brigade - and on his orders.

Jordanian intelligence had a score to settle with Zarqawi’s highway robber-in-chief. Last September, he kidnapped a Palestinian called Khaled Da Siko, who was an important Jordanian undercover agent, assigned with penetrating Zarqawi’s following. The abduction took place in Ruthba in western Iraq. When Abu Hufeiza asked Zarqawi what to do with his captive, he was told to execute him forthwith, which he did.

From that moment, Jordanian intelligence never let up on their efforts to lay hands on the kidnapper to exact revenge.

The Riders of Justice infiltrated western Iraq at the beginning of 2006 and scoured al Qaim, Ruthba, Falujja and Ramadi for the wanted man. At some point, they realized that even if they overpowered his bodyguards and killed him, they would never make it back to Jordan past Zarqawi’s killers. It had become necessary to go for the boss, who was in any case under sentence of death in the kingdom.

In early April therefore, a decision was taken in Amman to lure Abu Hufeiza into entering the kingdom in defiance of Zarqawi’s prohibition. Double agents held out an offer of a Jordanian base for al Qaeda, plus information on ways to lay hands on the hundreds of millions of dollars flowing through the funding channel between Jordan and Iraq.

Abu Hufeiza swallowed the bait. He was dazzled enough to picture himself handing the rich booty over to Abu Zarqawi and being promoted to his Number Two in al Qaeda’s Iraq hierarchy by his grateful master.

The moment he and his bodyguards set foot on Jordanian soil, all got up as Iraqi businessmen on a shopping trip, the trap snapped shut; they were surrounded by the Riders of Justice and hauled to Amman for questioning.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s counter-terror sources report that Abu Hufeiza held nothing back from his Jordanian interrogators. He was the source of the first real lead to Zarqawi’s location to be made available to the US command and intelligence in Iraq.

Abu Hufeiza also gave away certain members of the Butcher of Baghdad’s command group. Here is a summary of the data the Jordanians extracted from him:

The name of al Qaeda chief’s chief of operations, Yassin Harabi – an Iraqi Sunni codenamed Abu Obeida. Going down the chain of command, he identified Yunas Ramlawi, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Ramallah, and Muhammad Majid, a Saudi Arabian known as Abu Hamza.

The descriptions he gave the Jordanians were good enough for identikit portraits and betrayed their hideouts, how they stayed in touch with Zarqawi and their movements.

This data haul Jordanian intelligence whipped across to Washington where analysts went to work on it and rushed their findings to American headquarters in Baghdad.

All of a sudden, the US military in Baghdad had an intelligence bonanza instead of chance identities of the odd Zarqawi adherent which was all they had to work with before. From Abu Hufeiza Jordanian intelligence had extracted the first clue to the location of the safe house near Baquba, where Zarqawi was actually in conference with his senior commanders. The next link in the chain came from a senior Zarqawi commander in Iraq, who fell into American hands and was persuaded to part with the final steps that brought two US 500-pound bombs crashing down on Zarqawi’s last address.

At first, some American officers queried these offerings as disinformation designed to trip them up. But when US commander General George W. Casey and American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad ordered the input examined and cross-referenced, it proved solid enough for direct action.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1173

[NYer]

Mohammed from IraqTheModel Blog in The Wall Street Journal (http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110008506): A Demon's Demise.

Hamas's reaction to the death of Zarqawi caused the contempt of so many Iraqis. The printed and watched Iraqi media lashed out vigorously on Hamas, politicians and ordinary people on the streets are just equally angered by some Arabic official and media reactions which spoke of the criminal as if he were a hero.

It is totally unimaginable why someone would describe the head chopping, children murdering terrorist as a hero. It's disgusting and infuriating beyond words.

This wrongful description of evil is a major reason for misery in this region and it only contributes to justifying more unjustifiable death and violence. This makes one sometimes whishes that Iraq is somehow lifted away from these perverted sociopaths who surround us.

To say I was angry is the least I can say to describe how I felt reading the comments from Arabs (in Arabic) on a BBC forum. There was no surprise that all Iraqi commentators were pleased that we got rid of that vicious terrorists but on the other hand there was probably 90% of non-Iraqi Arab commentators who mourned him as a martyr.

Here I'm choosing only one comment that drew my attention because it shows how when hate prejudice reaches certain levels it blinds the minds and hearts of people. This one comment may be the most accurate to describe how thousands if not millions of people think in this region; this Arab commentator is telling frankly why he's sad without lying and without using decorated speech:

I think it reflects the truth in the way of thinking of unfortunately many Arabs; a truth that was released by an individual mouth carrying more courage of expression than those who appease and keep their inside hidden . . . Zarqawi's death means nothing at all because it's the byproduct of the despotic policy that exists in his home country, Jordan. There are thousands of Zarqawis in our nation who are getting persecuted and terrorized so they found their way to Iraq where they can vent, thanks to America who brought destruction to the region with the help of her agents (the rulers). And for your information, our information about Zarqawi is vague . . . is he a national hero, or a criminal terrorist? We don't know for sure but we see that our enemies are so happy that he's killed and that is what makes me feel sad for his death.

I'll end this with a comment from an Iraqi commentaror:

I used to be against killing people because of their perverted opinions or their anti-freedom doings but after I have seen and lived through their terrorism and anti-humanity extremism I say now that the only solution is to end the life of those who are not even humans. They poison the minds and thoughts of sane people. People, let the world live in freedom and happiness . . . I say it to all the sane and rational people; congratulations on the death of Zarqawi. [emphasis added]

I couldn't agree more, so if you are sane, come celebrate the moment with us, but if not, get prepared to mourn more demons.

Mr. Fadhil, along with his brother Omar, runs Iraq the Model, a blog based in Baghdad.

[involved]

Zarqawi: Killing the Future Chief of Al Qaeda?

The first question some skeptics asked in the early hours of June 8, 2006 was: Is the elimination of chief terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi in Iraq a victory?

Of course it is. (http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=127864)

Read the whole thing.


Just another odvious question , if they had this house surrounded and secured , why did they Not try and take this guy alive ? wouldn't this make better sense considering his status with Al Qeada and information etc..etc..etc ...?

[Vancouver]

Just another odvious question , if they had this house surrounded and secured , why did they Not try and take this guy alive ? wouldn't this make better sense considering his status with Al Qeada and information etc..etc..etc ...?
It wasn't surrounded, but there were "less than half a dozen" Delta Force personnel in the palm grove adjacent to the house, according to Time. There were vehicles coming and going from the house, and the spotters on the ground called in an air strike rather than risk losing sight of Zarqawi, who was known 100% to be present.