YAY!!!!!!

Al-Hayat says that successors to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are vowing to fight on. One report disputed that Abd al-Rahman al-`Iraqi was killed along with him, and said he was organizing for reprisals. Another report, from the US military, suggested that he had an Egyptian successor. Al-Zaman adds, that sources close to the Sunni Arab resistance movements, among the the (neo-Baathist) Army of Islam and the Brigads of the 1920 Revolution and the Army of Mujahidin said that Zarqawi's organization, which had announced open war on the Shiites of Iraq, had distorted the motives of the Resistance and harmed its potiential. They consider him a martyr, but differ with him in their interpretation (ijtihad) of Islam. One big problem for the guerrilla movement has been that it has largely been ethnic Sunni Arabs, and Zarqawi's tactics made pan-Islamic alliances difficult. The resistance movements appear to hope that with him out of the way, a Sunni-Shiite joint resistance to US presence might become more plausible. Al-Hayat says that they pledged "to intensify their operations during the coming phase against the American forces, as a way of demonstrating the true weight of al-Qaeda." (I.e., the indigenous Iraqi movements are saying that Zarqawi's group is not that important, and they will show who has really been doing the fighting.)

Make no mistake: Democrats are depressed. They're down in the dumps because they have been counting on the war in Iraq to go badly so that they can use that to pick up enough seats in this fall's election to take back control of the House. With Zarqawi getting clipped yesterday, this throws a wrench in things. What is going to happen to their aspirations if this marks a turning point in Iraq and we defeat the insurgency?

I notice you don't attribute this to Boortz. Good thing, too--that way, people who don't bother to click on the link, or don't notice it's there, will not realize that gobshite wrote this tripe.

McGentrix wrote:

Make no mistake: Democrats are depressed. They're down in the dumps because they have been counting on the war in Iraq to go badly so that they can use that to pick up enough seats in this fall's election to take back control of the House. With Zarqawi getting clipped yesterday, this throws a wrench in things. What is going to happen to their aspirations if this marks a turning point in Iraq and we defeat the insurgency?

You seriously believe that this one killing will be the end of the troubles? I'd say that's being extremely optimistic.

I notice you don't attribute this to Boortz. Good thing, too--that way, people who don't bother to click on the link, or don't notice it's there, will not realize that gobshite wrote this tripe.

... probably shouldn't bother reading my posts.

Setanta wrote:

I notice you don't attribute this to Boortz. Good thing, too--that way, people who don't bother to click on the link, or don't notice it's there, will not realize that gobshite wrote this tripe.

True and that's how the righties operate. Leave out the major details... Lie by omission. Chicken George makes that a speciality in his silly speeches.

I am sorry that the subtlties of links are beyond your comprehension.

McGentrix wrote:

... probably shouldn't bother reading my posts.

Finally a noteworthy opinion of yours that's worth following, McG.

WASHINGTON - A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, still alive after a U.S. airstrike on his hideout, mumbled briefly and attempted to "turn away off the stretcher" he had been placed on by Iraqi police, the U.S. military said Friday.

U.S. officials had said Thursday in announcing the attack that Zarqawi was dead when U.S. troops arrived on the scene.

Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from his post in Baghdad, said he learned after getting briefings Friday that Zarqawi was alive when Iraqi police first arrived on the scene, but he died a short time later.

"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "He mumbled a little something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short."

Caldwell said U.S. forces have conducted many raids over the past two days based on intelligence gathered from the scene of Zarqawi's killing. He displayed several digital photographs taken from the results of one such raid, which found small arms, ammunition and other items hidden beneath the floor of a building in the Baghdad area.

He said one targeted individual, whom he did not identify, was killed in the latest raids and at least 25 were captured.

Pentagon officials have refused to say whether U.S. special operations forces participated in the Zarqawi operation Wednesday, but a comment Friday by President Bush suggested that some of the military's most secretive units may have been involved on the ground.

Speaking to reporters, Bush mentioned that among the senior officers he called to offer congratulations for killing Zarqawi was Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of Joint Special Operations Command, whose forces include the Army's clandestine counterterrorism unit, Delta Force.

Asked whether Zarqawi was shot after U.S. ground troops arrived at the scene of the airstrike, Caldwell said he could not give a definitive answer based on what he had read in the latest official U.S. military report on the event. "I'll go back and specifically ask that," he said. "But no, there was nothing in the report that said he had received any wounds from some kind of weapons system like that."

Zarqawi's safehouse was destroyed by two 500-pound bombs launched from an Air Force F-16 on Wednesday evening.

Caldwell said the U.S. military was still compiling some details of the event, including the exact amount of time Zarqawi was alive after the attack. He said an initial analysis of Zarqawi's body had been done but he was not certain whether it constituted a full autopsy.

"I know that there was, quote, an autopsy done, but I'll go back and make sure it was performed by the certified kind of person that we're supposed to have so we can call it an autopsy and make sure I'm exactly correct before I tell you that," he said.

In an interview earlier Friday with Fox News Channel, Caldwell was more descriptive of Zarqawi's actions before he died.

"He was conscious initially, according to the U.S. forces that physically saw him," Caldwell told Fox. "He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was U.S. military."

Caldwell indicated that U.S. troops "went into the process to provide medical care to him" before Zarqawi expired. He did not elaborate on the medical assistance. He said U.S. officials are in discussions with Iraqi government officials about the disposition of Zarqawi's body.

The spokesman also provided a revised accounting of the dead. He said the six people killed in the airstrike included three women. On Thursday U.S. officials had said one woman and one child were among the dead. Caldwell said Friday the latest information available to him gave no indication that a child was killed.

The U.S. military earlier had displayed images of the battered face of al-Zarqawi and reported that he had been identified by fingerprints, tattoos and scars. Biological samples from his body also were delivered to an FBI crime laboratory in Virginia for DNA testing. The results were expected in three days.

Caldwell said Friday that authorities made a visual identification of al-Zarqawi upon arriving at the site of the airstrike.

"Zarqawi attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher, everybody resecured him back onto the stretcher but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike," Caldwell said.

Caldwell said it was unclear whether Zarqawi was trying to get away as he made movement on the stretcher.

"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "There was some kind of movement he had on the stretcher and he did die shortly thereafter. But yes, it was confirmed by other than the Iraqi police that he was alive initially."

Al-Zarqawi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was killed at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday after an intense two-week hunt that U.S. officials said first led to the terror leader's spiritual adviser and then to him.

U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said at the time that the American airstrike targeted "an identified, isolated safe house." Also killed in the airstrike was Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, the terrorist's spiritual consultant.