Cole on al-Zarqawi: ''Some informed observers think Zarqawi is dead''

[Zhade]

Inside a post on Cheney pressuring the CIA for Hussein-Zarqawi links, Cole writes this:

Cheney has been using Zarqawi's occasional presence in Iraq in the Saddam period as a proof of Iraq's ties to al-Qaeda for years. This line of reasoning is typically squirrelly and does not hold up. First, Zarqawi was in that period a bitter rival with al-Qaeda and would not share the resources his Monotheism and Holy War organization in Germany with Bin Laden's group. In Iraq, Zarqawi was said to be associated with the Ansar al-Islam group, which consisted of 200-400 Kurdish members who were radical fundamentalists, and some of whom had fought in Afghanistan. Ansar al-Islam was a deadly enemy of the Saddam regime. The US declined to take out its base on more than one occasion in spring of 2003. Some think Rumsfeld was afraid of removing a pretext for the Iraq war. I myself suspect that Ansar was at that point seen as a potential ally against Saddam.

Cheney used to allege that Zarqawi could not have gotten treatment at a Baghdad hospital for his leg wound without Saddam's knowledge. But now there is doubt that Zarqawi had a leg wound. And it should be obvious that the Iraqi regime was so dilapidated that an argument from its totalitarian efficiency is just ridiculous. Some informed observers think Zarqawi is dead, and that the Bush administration has a black psy-ops game going to build his ghost up as a threat in Iraq. (It is painful to admit that the US is actually mainly fighting the Iraqis it said it came to liberate.)

More good stuff over there, but I thought it worth mentioning here that a very well-informed observer of the Iraq situation points out what many of us here feel to be true: that al-Zarqawi is probably dead and is being used as a myth to prop up U.S. military action in Iraq.

What's most heartening is that he comments that informed observers believe this about al-Zarqawi. In other words, my friends, we're not the only ones "crazy" enough to suspect that the whole al-Zarqawi manhunt in nothing but a giant scam.

Those of you not reading Cole on a daily basis, I'd like to recommend you do. He knows his stuff.

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. Tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. Composite characters can't even be killed

Specially not the ones with Teleportation, Omnipresence and Limb Regeneration cards.

These people should not try to play Wawon Terra III with the big kids unless they at least read the rules.

[Disturbed]

2. War Games

Is there provable evidence Bush and the Neo Fascists passed up three opps to assasinate al Zarqawi because he was part of their claim about terrorist ties to Saddam? Now if al-Zarqawi actually exists and is responsible for over 700 deaths, it is indirectly a responsibilty of the US Neo Fascists.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. Well, if you want to look at it that way.. whether he ever existed or not

is irrelevant. Zarqawi is a concept. He represents all the billions of people around the world who oppose US policies, and are willing, even eager to **gasp** kill Americans when those policies involve blowing the feet off their children, denying them and their families access to food, potable water, medical treatment, destroying their crops, their homes, riding their grandmothers like donkeys, sexually abusing them, their families, torture, murder, etc etc.

It's not about politics, or politicians.

The party responsible for that are the people who have paid for it for years. The American voters, the American taxpayers. It's like any other free market enterprise, you choose what you want, and you pay for it. Maybe the purchase has a downside, but there is no indication that the US taxpayers regret their choice.

They know the consequences, and have decided it is worth it.

[radwriter0555]

3. SOME informed insiders insist that zarqawri has never been SEEN

IN IRAQ.

[Zhade]

4. Oh, and one more thing: we knew the Ansar al-Islam link was a lie.

We knew it BEFORE the IWR vote.

[SoCalDem]

5. "Some informed observers" think

that Iraq had WMDs too :eyes:

[Zhade]

6. Are you really trying to paint Cole in the same light as the neocons?

Cole knows a hell of a lot more than you seem to be giving him credit for. Have you ever read his posts?

[SoCalDem]

9. Not really.. I just am tired of hearing "some" as a modifier..

I am at the point where I want NAMES.. Who are these "some people".. It's the same phraseology that the Bush crowd uses.. "everybody".."some people"..

I guess I am just grouchy today..:)

[frylock]

8. he's just sleeping..

the way that guy gets around, he deserves a break. bushco would have us believe that he's been behind every single act of terrorism ever perpetrated, including the sinking of the Lusitania.

[dansolo]

10. That would explain why he is always covered

in all of the videos that purport to be him (e.g. the Berg beheading)