Various links here. I’ll be following Iraq the Model. If you see anything interesting on this astonishing story, put it in the comments below and we’ll transfer to the Pajamas… er… OSM site.
JUST A THEORY: If Zarqawi has been killed… and the AP is correct that there was a tip on his whereabouts… that tip could have come from inside Al Qaeda itself or from people friendly to it. After the Amman hotel horrors, Zarqawi was the blodthirsty poster boy for the Al Qaeda Psychopath. If you believe the Zawahiri letter, they didn’t need publicity like this. He had to go.
UPDATE: Ah, well…
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18 Comments
1. Asher Abrams:I’ve recently posted a roundup of relevant news and links.
Nov 20, 2005 - 2:32 pm 2. Sissy Willis:I miss the Pajamas, too, big time. Poetry vs. bureaucracy.
Nov 20, 2005 - 2:44 pm 3. Robert Stevens:Roger, I first began following the story yesterday here which pointed to a jihadi web forum at:
http://www.baytalmaqdes.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1862.
Roundup at my website also.
Nov 20, 2005 - 2:58 pm 4. Terrye:Fingers and toes are crossed.
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:00 pm 5. Robert Stevens:didn’t link directly to jihadi forum. pasted in url. rendered as active url.
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:00 pm 6. DP111:I would suggest that even if Zarqawi is dead, it is in the interests of the Jihadis to keep his name alive – much like pirate Roberts in the Princess’s Bride.
A poster remarked to this comment that indeed that this was likely. And in this war, it seemed we were heading in the direction of the Cliffs of Insanity, followed by a pirate who had an uncanny resemblance to a cartoon in a Danish paper.
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:01 pm 7. Ed Poinsett:DP111
Just as they’ve kept OBL’s name alive since he was buried, along with his transvestite lover Mullah Omar, in the lush mountains of Tora Bora.
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:10 pm 8. WhatDoIKnow:Interesting… I heard only a few hours ago on FNC that Zarqawi’s family, tribe, cats, dogs etc, all of whom in Jordan and some of whom in the Jordanian government (???) are publicly and strongly dennouncing him.
I took a well-deserved afternoon nap, I woke up and now he’s supposed to be dead. Heck! If that’s true, does it mean that his own people knew all along his whereabouts and once they got fed up with his “war exploits” they spilled the beans about his hideouts ? Does this also mean that he was a good member of the family as long as he was killing innocent Iraqis by the dozen and decapitating sub-human infidels ?
King Abdulah is an ally in the WOT, but where does the Jordanian government stand, at least parts of it ?
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:32 pm 9. andrei:The trouble with your theory Roger is that if Al qaeda wanted Al Zarqawi out they would do it themselves quietly rather than give our side a very public victory.
Mind you AQ could be that stupid
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:36 pm 10. ex-democrat:WhatDoIKnow – i’m not sure what it means either, but please take another nap.
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:38 pm 11. ex-democrat:…just in case correlation IS causation after all.
Nov 20, 2005 - 3:39 pm 12. C.Y.:I’ve already noticed this attempt to downplay what al-Zarqawi’s death might mean.
Nov 20, 2005 - 5:32 pm 13. Pat Curley:Pity poor Michael Moore; the George Washington of Iraq dead?
Nov 20, 2005 - 6:49 pm 14. Syl:My initial theory was that this was disinformation from Zarqawi’s group. He’s going into real hiding for a while.
How did we learn there were ‘top-level’ al qaeda there? Is that what the military thought? or just suspicious foreigners in the house?
If this is true I bet Michael Yon is sorry he missed it.
I read something from the AP, I also read what JPost said. Plus what feels like hundreds of blog posts. I couldn’t make myself click a link to Reuters though.
And I don’t have a clue who thought Zarqawi was there in the first place. Or who, when they all blew up, thought Zarqawi might be one of them and spread the word.
Ah, the joys of rumors.
Nov 20, 2005 - 6:54 pm 15. Robert Stevens:“tip could have come from inside Al Qaeda itself or from people friendly to it.”
More likely is that Zarqawi’s Iraq Sunni Baathist allies gave him up. Now that Jalal Talabani is willing to talk to insurgents in order to bring them into the political process, Zarqawi has become expendable to them.
Thus ever to tyrants.
Nov 20, 2005 - 6:54 pm 16. ShoreMark:Completely expected C.Y., just not quite that quickly!
I figured they’d wait until he was actually confirmed dead, then declare (while the smoke was still rising from the first subsequent IED) that he wasn’t “all that” anyway.
Then from MSM:
Day 1 Headline: Zarqawi Dead: Violence Continues.
Day 7 Headline: Bush Falsely Claimed Zarqawi Led Insurgency: 12 Die in Suicide Attack.
Then 2 Weeks on legends are begun and Zarqawi gets his own bullet point on the “BushLied” list.
Nov 20, 2005 - 8:52 pm 17. Syl:There’s a UPI thingy playing it down. There’s no sign that Zarqawi’s group is behaving any differently from normal. Communique’s still going out, credit being claimed for attacks, etc. If their leader had been killed, there would be a drop or a spike or something to indicate a jolt.
Nov 20, 2005 - 10:12 pm 18. Rosemary:As I was listening to Cpt. Dale Dye on KFI 640am at 5pm Sunday evening, he claimed it was unlikely that we got him.
BTW, it was a tip from one or more of the people in the neighborhood, as far as his sources say, that tipped of the Iraqi National Guard. They’re tired of these scumbags. It’s about time.
Nov 21, 2005 - 3:19 am