New photos believed to be Zarqawi

this is CNN's big news from Iraq.

I'd snip more, but this is about it. There's some pictures of some guy, and he might be a guy that the U.S. govt. says a lot of things about. If you're wondering "so what?" that very good question isn't answered by CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/03/05/zarqawi.pics/

<snip>

Sources tell CNN the man in the photos is indeed al-Zarqawi.

Also, it looks like he's gained quite a bit of weight and has aged about 20 years since his last photo-op.

was gone. :shrug:

I think C.A. died something like five times.

Different person. I don't think he really exists.

n/t

...do you? ;-)

who do I report this to?

but it could also be wind-burn or reddness from cold.

Then again maybe its because I am on a Dell

off topic, I know, but I've been thinking of taking advantage of what looks like a pretty good deal in their TV ads.

glare is a nuisance. This is the only Dell I know.


And sitting in the library/sunroom beats being in the 55F basement.

I have a dell dimension 4600C, and I bought in Dec. 03, I have not had any major problems, graphics are nice, I have a flat screen, I have either had one or worked on almost every other major brand and this is the only 1 I liked. They are really quick to ship, and the service has been great.

edit for typo!

How else can we explain CNN getting them instead of Al-Jazeera? There have been persistent rumors in the Arab press that al-Zarqawi was arrested a few weeks ago.

they just took what the military's propaganda office gave them and ran with it.

on what the Italians have to say.

Orwell and Frank Herbert in HS?

He needs to branch out. There's still Huxley, Sinclair, and
even the late Arthur Miller to choose from.

You have plagiarized '1984' for domestic security
too hard, Karl.

And anyone who has read 'Dune' understands our
foreign policy.

I'm surprised you left out Machiavelli. :-)

he just didn't full understand him,
and doctor shopped what he did adopt.

I love the Machiavelli quote on converting
republics to principalities, for example.

for a one legged dead man.

the 'noose' must be tightening - M$MW's

peace

many identities...and missing body parts....they bring him out when they need a diversion.

On Tom Engelhardt's site, he posts an article by Michael Schwartz that says the US is fighting this war based on a top-down image of the enemy that is completely wrong and doomed to fail. The current theory is that if we kill or capture the leadership, the insurgency will fall. He explains why this is wrong.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=2241

snip

This new portrait of the Iraqi resistance may be an accurate description of one aspect of the ongoing war; and its key new element -- a working alliance between Saddamist exiles and Zarqawi's fighters inside Iraq -- may be an important new development. But the foundation upon which these descriptions are built -- that these forces now dominate the resistance, supply its leadership, or provide the bulk of its resources -- is likely to prove profoundly inaccurate.

This is most easily seen by consulting -- of all sources -- the CIA, which issued a contrary report about the time the Newsweek article appeared. According to the CIA, the Zarqawi faction and his Saddamist allies were "lesser elements" in the resistance, which was increasingly dominated by "newly radicalized Sunni Iraqis, nationalists offended by the occupying force, and others disenchanted by the economic turmoil and destruction caused by the fighting." There is, in fact, a vast body of publicly available evidence in support of the CIA's perspective, including, for example, most first-hand accounts of the resistance in Falluja and other cities in the Sunni triangle.

snip

This command-and-control image applies well to a large bureaucracy or a conventional army; but invariably provides a poor picture of a guerrilla army, which helps explain American military failures in Iraq. Whether or not Zarqawi maintains command and control over his forces (who are, as far as we can tell, not guerrillas) no one exercises such control over the forces that fought against the Americans in Falluja or Sadr City and those that are currently fighting a guerrilla war in Ramadi and other Sunni cities that boycotted the recent elections.

Guerrilla wars violate the command-and-control portrait in two important ways: local units must, by and large, supply themselves (since an occupation army would be likely to interdict any regular shipments of supplies); and they are likely to have substantial autonomy (since hit-and-melt tactics do not lend themselves well to central decision making).

snip

The American military simply lacks the tools it needs to fight the guerrillas, just as in the 1970s the Big Three automakers lacked the production system needed to produced fuel-efficient automobiles, and the French army lacked the technology it needed to defeat German tanks in 1940. In response, military leaders are doing exactly what their organizational forbears did: They continue to develop theories about how to win the war "with the army they have." This backward logic leads inevitably to imagining an enemy that might be far more susceptible to defeat with the tools at hand; that is, an opponent with long supply lines (from Syria, for example) and a command-and-control leadership (Zarqawi and his Saddamist allies, for example) capable of being "decapitated." This portrait of the enemy then justifies a military strategy that seeks, above all, to kill or capture the theorized leaders. Such tactics almost always fail (even when leaders are captured); and in the process of failing, only alienates further the Iraqi population, producing an ever larger, more resourceful enemy.

The resistance is indigenous and grass roots readily replenish its need for recruits. There is a bottomless well of recruits thanks to the gross injustices heaped upon the Iraqi people by our belligerent and dishonest regime.

The focal points for local organization are the Iraqi Army veterans and fedayeen trained by Sadaam's regime in unconventional warfare in preparation for the invasion and supported by the deployment of huge amounts of secret weapons caches throughout the country.

The resistance is a cultural movement at this point moved by an oral tradition of personal revenge, nationalism, and the search for political legitimacy. It is decentralized and depends on local communities for support. Once the trained cadre have trained others in bomb making and communications and security principles, the resistance grows to another level. Each cadre and each trained and experienced fighter is a seed for another group wherever he goes.

These fighters travel among the people freely. This is their greatest resource. Their kinsmen employed by the quisling government and the occupation forces provide them with valuable intelligence. Unfortunately, American forces cut off by language, culture and the moral divide of an unjust war and occupation are at a complete disadvantage in this sphere.

American armed forces also operate on the very long tether of the bureacratic pyramid and consequently suffer from the unreality principle of centrally managed politics and isolation from the immediate tactical and political environment. In Iraq, venturing forth from organizational security bubbles is hazardous to American health. When forces remove themselves from the bubble, they are ineffectual in communicating to each other what they are doing and what is happening. Threats, shooting, smashing in doors, and imprisoning people are the major forms of communication with the locals.

Anyone who has studied Mao's campaigns or the Vietnam conflict knows this adventure is ill fated. More troops would actually result in nothing more than increased casualties. It is evident that the neo-con leadership sees the current situation as a satisfactory development and looks to Israels security state occupation model. However there is little likelihood that the intelligence, brutality and ruthlessness required for this will be sustainable by Americans in the face of a much more widespread, capable and younger resistance movement.

it's just that it's unlikely he's as single-handedly responsible for the insurgency as the bush administration and their paid, intimidated, and true believer media lackeys would have us believe

and so are his Cult. The need simple scenerios and evil doers. It is the sports mentality. Two teams; one good one evil. Anything more complex than that and the simple minds fuzz out.

Kilroy was EVERYWHERE during WW2! Read all about him here: http://www.kilroywashere.org/001-Pages/01-0KilroyLegends.html

takes a back seat. Waaaaay back.

Iraqi sources: Al Zarqawi arrested

Iraqi sources have told a Saudi newspaper that al-Qaeda's man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been arrested. Al Watan daily said Sunday that the official announcement on the arrest was delayed until a new Iraqi government is in place. The purported arrest supposedly took place on the Iraqi - Syrian border, the report added.

It should be mentioned that CNN aired on Saturday new pictures believed to show al-Zarqawi, who is America's most-wanted man in Iraq.

The Saudi paper said that the arrest of al-Zarqawi was completed ahead the recent visit of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Iraq. This visit took place early February.

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Iraq/180980