Zarqawi's laptop and thumbdrive survived the bombing?

[KyuzoGator]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060615/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

-snip-
Al-Rubaie said a laptop, flashdrive and other documents were found in the debris after the airstrike that killed the al-Qaida in Iraq leader last week outside Baqouba, and more information has been uncovered in raids of other insurgent hideouts since then.

He called it a "huge treasure ... a huge amount of information."

When asked how he could be sure the information was authentic, al-Rubaie said "there is nothing more authentic than finding a thumbdrive in his pocket."
-snip-

Something about all this reeks. You don't drop a half-ton of explosives on a house and find shit intact like this.

[acmavm]

1. Well, apparently you can live through a dead hit by two

500 lb. bombs as well. And not be to badly bruised or torn up either. The house was totally blown to shit, but this guy and his computer equipment...

This whole story reeks.

[Tesla]

2. I wonder how hard it was for him to lie still for his

postpartum shot

[MercutioATC]

3. Let's be clear, Zarqawi obviously wasn't at ground zero.

Either the bombs hit the wrong building or he was in another building. They even said that he was killed by the concussion wave, not the explosion itself.

That being the case, I don't see why it's unreasonable that a laptop and a USB drive survived...they're a whole hell of a lot more resistant to concussion waves than human flesh.

[treestar]

9. Is that what * is claiming?

The latest among a multitude of conflicting claims?

Whatever they claim the contents of the laptop are, there is no way for us to know they haven't been finagled with. Or if Z. even used the laptop.

It's all for show.

[originalpckelly]

11. By the way, for those who know nothing about physics...

The shock wave results from the explosion. So saying he didn't die in the explosion is exactly the same as saying he didn't die from the shock wave. All that changes is the distance to the original point of detonation. The further away, the less damage the wave will do because it has less energy. I don't believe Zarqawi was in the house, I think he must have been a good distance away from it at the time of the attack. Maybe he heard the F-16 coming and was trying to escape? I hear them all the time when they fly back to Buckley AFB. (I am fairly certain they were F-16s, though I could be wrong on that.) Those planes are very loud.

[MercutioATC]

15. I guess my point was that he didn't die in the initial explosion...

...the concussion wave damaged his lungs and he died a short time later.

If that was the case, I don't have a problem believing that a computer could have survived (at least enough of it to be able to extract data from the hard drive).


People keep saying "The whole story is a lie because there'd be nothing left if he was hit by two 500-pound bombs". That's true if we're talking about a direct hit. Apparently, we're not.

[originalpckelly]

20. Yep.

I don't even think we could have saved him, without the Alveoli, there is so way to exchange oxygen. You can't even put someone on a ventilator if that kind of thing happens. The only thing that might work is putting someone on a heart-lung machine, but they are notorious for causing blood clots. Zarqawi was a dead man no matter what we would have tried.

[formercia]

19. If you watch the clip of the attack

you can see debris rising from 3 tunnels leading away from the house. If sentries were posted in the surrounding area, they would have spread the alarm that jets were in the area. He may have been attempting to escape down one of these tunnels when the explosion incapacitated him.

No time to save the women...


You can use a stealthy aircraft but nothing beats a thousand pair of ears with cellphones.

[acmejack]

4. Must have been an IBM!

The hard drive "braced for impact" just like on TV! I am impressed though, that technology is even better than I had heard. How fing stupid do these people think we are? Wait, don't answer that!

[lectrobyte]

40. IBM? You mean "LENOVO", right?

[peacetalksforall]

5. IRAN - here it comes folks. We're going to be told that al Zarqawi

was communicating with them about a new 9-11.

And no Congress person or investigator will challenge.

And China, our creditor, is going to give us an OK and lend us more money?

Unbelievable, because they know NO TRUTH. Their heart and mouths betray the world.

[OKNancy]

10. Don't think so

Iran ( Persians) hate the AlQueda Arabs.
AlQueda was hoping to get the US entangled in Iran.
Let's not give them what they want :rofl:

[halobeam]

33. Didn't Saddam hate Bin Laden? It doesn't have to make sense.

People will ask questions, MAYBE, and then something else will happen and they'll ask questions about THAT... leaving the situation before, well...unfinished.

[paparush]

6. Just like when they found Al Suqami's passport in the rubble of the WTC

Its just amazing..like a MIRACLE or something :sarcasm:

LINKAGE: http://www.rense.com/general68/pass.htm

[originalpckelly]

7. How else would they have the information?

Did they just make it up?
Where did the drives come from?
Why would someone even do that?

And you obviously don't understand much about physics or bombs if you question this. Most bombs kill with a pressure wave that destroys these little sacks of air called Alveoli, this is actually what happened in the case of Zarqawi. These little sacks are far more sensitive than even electronic components. If I had to guess the components were probably specially designed to take shocks because they are for mobile devices.

I don't know how much we should trust these people (they do lie all the time), but I also don't know why we should question them. What will profoundly change if what you implied does turn out to be true? There is a point where no one will listen to you, yet you could even be right. I do, however, doubt that much else will be discovered because I don't think there is much that we don't know.

[Spazito]

34. LOL, nah, just like they didn't offer the Niger papers (forged)...

lie about the mobile WMD labs, etc, etc, etc. The Pentagon/bush admin/Iraqi puppet government will lie through their teeth about everything and they do. Why would anyone believe them about anything?

[originalpckelly]

39. I know they have called wolf too many times...

but this is not anything worth lying about. If you can think of some good reasons why it would be, please show me, other than propaganda value, this isn't that important.

[Spazito]

45. The bush admin/Pentagon/Iraqi government puppets are all

about propaganda, it is everything to them. That IS the good reason for them to lie although they never need a reason, it is simply ingrained in them to lie as we have seen over and over again.

[frylock]

52. Why would someone even do that?

You can't possibly be serious, right? Are you familiar with the term psyops?

[OKNancy]

8. If early reports are true, some of the stuff found is good

for our side ( antiwar) Apparently they were trying to figure out ways to provoke US action in Iran.
Democrats could tell BushCO... "War in Iran is what the terrorists want"

[underpants]

13. I'd like to point out that they have told this basic story before

Maybe the computer did survive the explosion. Maybe he really did keep everything you could ever want to know in one place after all he was nothing but a "street thug" so that would...hold it that makes the story start falling apart.

Anyway here is a story about his computer from 2005 (when he jumped out of the car under the overpass)

from the April 27, 2005 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0427/p03s01-woiq.html

WASHINGTON – The United States military has not yet managed to catch Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top Al Qaeda-linked terrorist in Iraq. But they have perhaps snagged the next best thing: his laptop.

"His computer ... has provided a treasure trove of information," says a Pentagon official who asked to remain nameless.

Zarqawi is a bear-like Jordanian-born figure renowned even among terrorists for his brutality. He has set himself up as the top Islamist terror figure in Iraq, although his exact relationship with Osama bin Laden and the rest of Al Qaeda's leadership remains unclear.

When they caught the pickup the US personnel found the computer, over $100,000 in euros, and two Zarqawi associates. Zarqawi himself may have escaped by rolling from the truck under an underpass, then fleeing on foot to a safehouse somewhere in the vicinity.

[OKNancy]

18. I'm spinning, as every good Democratic politican should do

Al Queda, according to reports, was trying to do mischief in Iran and Iraq and blame it on the Iranians so the US would be involved in a second front. With this information, it weakens the Bush case for actions in Iran. If they try to say that thae Iranians are promoting terror, then anti-war people can say.. "how do you know it's not Al Queda?"

[Imperialism Inc.]

23. Hmmm. Sounds like PSYOPS!

Same exact wording from over a year ago? This is planted info to make his associates nervous , hoping they'll make a bad move in their panic.

[ima_sinnic]

25. oh, that's right! I'd forgotten they already supposedly got his

computer a little more than a year ago.

Did they use the expression "treasure trove of information" this time also? :eyes:

[underpants]

29. “huge treasure ... a huge amount of information.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060615.wzarqawi0615/BNStory/International/home

BAGHDAD — Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday a “huge treasure” of documents and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's hideout, giving the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

[endarkenment]

12. Classic Psyops Nonsense.

If they had found something of real value we would never be told about it.

[Virginia Dare]

14. You hit it dead on, endarkenment....n/t

[aceman2373]

32. We were not told about it

until almost a week later. They were going over the information and getting all of the data from the equipment. Then, they did their raids. They did not let out this information until after the large amounts of raids were done.

[Virginia Dare]

50. If Al-Qaeda knew that the information was lost...

why did they just sit there like ducks? If they didn't know what info was lost, why advertise it? Nope, I'm still not buying it.

[lapfog_1]

43. Not only that, but if this guy was REALLY important

we wouldn't have been told that he was killed UNTIL the information gleaned from his effects had been ACTED ON.

Why in the F'ing world would we take out the number two terrorist in the world, get his laptop and/or flash disk, and within a week tell the other side that we have it? This is psy-ops aimed at gullible americans.

[Norquist Nemesis]

16. He must have been going from town to town to re-charge the battery

I dunno...it just seems out of place imagining Zarqawi with a machine gun belt over one shoulder and a laptop over the other. :shrug:

[halobeam]

35. LOL.... and Osama can hook up his dialysis machine to a cave wall

and goes wireless while in his travels to the next cave. OMG. I almost spit my coffee out. :rofl:

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Funny, we claimed to have gotten his laptop in 2005. Guy must have

had a hundred back-ups...wonder if the information is the same?



http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0427/p03s01-woiq.html

[underpants]

21. Some other links on the other all inclusive laptop

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1432974&mesg_id=1432974

[Mr_Spock]

26. Head of an organization might just be able to get another laptop

ya know? It is possible that either or neither was his, but it likely would have been someone close to him based on what was found on it.

[endarkenment]

30. Or it is a bunch of bullshit. eom.

[frylock]

53. possible, you'd also think that after he lost his first laptop..

that maybe he would encrypt his data so it wouldn't be compromised, AGAIN. Maybe AQiI are incapable of converting a drive to NTFS.

[Warpy]

22. No, but you can find shit inside shit intact

and the only way to destroy a hard drive is to drill a hole through it. Otherwise, data is recoverable.

[Mr_Spock]

24. Stop using common sense here

He clearly was blown to smitherines by that 500 lb. BOMB!!!, that picture of him mostly intact was just a holywood actor :eyes:

[endarkenment]

31. Why would they broadcast this important intelligence coup?

If they found a whole bunch of valuable information don't you think that they would keep that fact to themselves?

[Marr]

44. No kidding. Nothing else is ever revealed because it could

"expose our operations" or "let the terrorists know that we're on to them".

Please. This is such obvious bullshit, I can't believe anyone here would believe it.

[Mr_Spock]

49. OK, so they lied about the laptop & memory stick

Heck, I don't care either way - I'm not sure why it even matters. Perhaps a lot of people on the scene saw them recover the electronics and that's why they reported it - it's not the first time they have claimed to have recovered these sorts of things. I just don't see how this is all that important - we don't know what the information is and that is the valuable part. Seems like they are trying to make the enemy move by throwing this out there - when they move they are vulnerable? :shrug:

[Richard D]

27. Hey, If a Passport and a Koran can survive . . .

. . . anything is possible.

[spanone]

28. ....including his body.

[bluedog]

36. did they find his fake leg?

[slackmaster]

37. I hope they got his TIVO too

:eyes:

[KharmaTrain]

38. Do We Get To See The Video Of The 72 Virgins, Too?

Seems like we're getting every little detail of his demise. A Hollywood script writer couldn't have written the demise any better. This was right out of Wag The Dog...(that poor old shoe strikes again).

I joked here when the boooosh baghdad crap came out that this was coming from a sounstage in Washington...as we never saw a video of AF1 taking off or landing or flying around Baghdad. The surreal nature of a "5 Hour" visit with no layover or other diplomatic flourish would entail made me wonder. Then there he is the next day struttin' around the Rose Garden. Hell, I'd be jet-lagged to bits if I had done all that travelling in little over 24 hours.

[Perky]

41. My impression is that this is simply military Propoganda

It is pretty shallow, but tactics like this are made with the intent to make the insurgent community do stupid thing and walk into traps.

You are absolutely right, it would not survive,.....but I suspect this is military tactics/propoganda rather than US domestic spin consumption.

[Marr]

42. "Dear Diary, GW Bush has us on the run! His optimism is too much for us!"

"Dear Diary, We have succeeded in blocking that do-gooder's plans to reform Social Security! Ah-HA!"

"Dear Diary, Iran sent me supplies today. I hope Bush never finds out, because he might get tough with them, too!"

Blah, blah, blah. I'm so sick of being pelted with ham-handed propaganda written for Fox News zombies.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

46. This is like finding intact, a passport of a hijacker in the rubble of the

WTC.......

[deaniac21]

47. The whole thing was really done on the same Hollywood stage

where they faked the moon landings.

[Vidar]

48. 500 lb bombs sure aren't what they used to be.

[Emit]

51. Is that the correct link?

At your link is a different article, or did I misread it. Anyway, here's another link to an article with your quote:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060615.wzarqawi0615/BNStory/International/home