Does Zarqawi Death Signal Bush Made a Deal With Iran? Edited on Thu Jun-08-06 08:06 AM by leveymg
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1379644It's widely conceded within the U.S. intelligence community that Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Sunni militant, has served as an asset in U.S. efforts to slow Iran's consolidation of control over Southern Iraq.
His killing by a U.S. air strike, following a tip received from the Shi'a controlled Iraqi gov't, comes immediately after an apparent deescalation in tensions between Washington and Iran.
Zarqawi, a Jordanian national, commanded Sunni militia responsible for numerous terrorist attacks targeting religious sites and the population of the 60 percent Shi'a majority in Iraq.
As ABC reported last year, the Bush Administration went out of its way to preserve Zarqawi as an ace up its sleeve to counter the Iranian-allied Shi'a majority regime that would likely succeed Saddam Hussein. According to ABC:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1627197.ht... May 1, 2006.
Abu Musab al Zarqawi ... Former spy says the US had the terrorism figure in its sights.
Bush turned down chances to kill Zarqawi: ex-CIA spy
A former top CIA spy says the United States deliberately turned down several opportunities to kill terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the lead-up to the Iraq war.
Mike Scheuer headed the CIA's bin Laden unit for six years before resigning in 2004.
He has told the ABC's Four Corners program the Bush administration had Zarqawi in its sights almost every day for a year.
SNIP
Today, The Guardian (UK) reported that Iraqi PM, Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'a, announced that Zarqawi had been "eliminated" after high officials in the Shi'a dominated Iraq regime tipped off the U.S. military to his location. Zarqawi had previously escaped numerous efforts by American forces to locate and kill him.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1792817,00.html The death of Zarqawi comes just as an apparent Bush Administration shift away from threats of military action against Iran toward a diplomatic solution to rising U.S.-Iranian tensions.
Far from the huge victory for the U.S. military that this is being portrayed, the killing of Zarqawi marks the beginning of the end of U.S. attempts to control the outcome in Iraq, and a compromise with Iran, which will surely now move to consolidate control over oil-rich majority Shi'a areas of southern and central Iraq.
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2006. Mark G. Levey