West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Train of Thought => Topic started by: Sikotic™ on June 08, 2006, 12:51:20 AM
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted insurgent in Iraq, is dead, according to an aide to Iraq's prime minister.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was expected to make a public announcement of the death, the details of which are unclear.
Two Pentagon officials told CNN that the government is awaiting al-Maliki's announcement in Baghdad before commenting on the report officially.
One official says the Pentagon is not sure of how the death was confirmed and that there might need to be "additional forensics" done before they can be fully confident the terrorist leader is dead.
Officials could provide no further details at this time.
Terror mastermind al-Zarqawi had eluded U.S. and Iraqi authorities for years, often taunting them with recorded messages and videotapes, including one in which he is believed to behead an American hostage.
He and his followers had taken responsibility for or been accused of perpetrating or aiding suicide bombings, car bombings, beheadings and other acts of brutality.
Soon after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, the 39-year-old al-Zarqawi quickly became the face of the insurgency.
Militant Islamic Web sites instantaneously posted his messages, bringing terrorism to cyberspace and reinforcing his support among Islamists.
In one videotaped posting, al-Zarqawi was suspected of being the masked man who beheads U.S. hostage Nicholas Berg, as he lets out piercing screams.
"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage for some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib (prison), and they refused," the voice said. "Coffins will be arriving to you one after the other, slaughtered just like this."
In October 2004, al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, and renamed his group al Qaeda in Iraq.
With the insurgency spreading, the United States grew more determined to catch or kill the Jordanian-born militant, and increased his bounty to $25 million -- equal to bin Laden's.
"This guy, Zarqawi, has sworn his allegiance to bin Laden. He's declared his intentions," President Bush once said. "This is an enemy with no conscience and they cannot be appeased."
Al-Zarqawi gained recognition in February 2003 when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared before the U.N. Security Council to make his case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Iraq, he said, was harboring al-Zarqawi's terrorist network, a "collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda lieutenants."
Two years later, a man thought to be al-Zarqawi said his group had "declared a bitter war against democracy and all those who seek to enact it," and declared all Iraqi candidates and voters enemies of Islam.
Al-Zarqawi fled to Iraq after the U.S.-led attack in Afghanistan and soon made a name for himself as one of the insurgent leaders. In one attack, his network was blamed for the 2003 suicide bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. envoy to Iraq, and 21 other people.
There was an upsurge in car bombings in Iraq in late April 2005, after the transitional national assembly chose a new Cabinet. It was the worst spike of attacks since the U.S.-led push against militants in Falluja the previous fall.
Counterterrorism and intelligence officials believe Al-Zarqawi has forged links with terrorist groups in many other countries, including his native Jordan, where he admitted to the Nov. 11, 2005, triple hotel bombings in Amman that killed 60 people and injured scores, mostly Jordanians.
Jordanian courts have convicted and sentenced al-Zarqawi in absentia.
In December 2005, he was sentenced to death by hanging for a failed suicide bombing at the al-Karama border crossing between Jordan and Iraq. In March, he received 15 years in prison for a plot to attack the Jordanian Embassy in Iraq.
A court handed him a death sentence for the October 2002 assassination of Laurence Foley, with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and convicted him in a December 1999 "millennium" plot against Jordanian hotels.
Al-Zarqawi was born in Zarqa, Jordan, as Ahmed al-Khalayleh. He created his nom de guerre from the name of his hometown, one of the poorest communities in Jordan that is home to Palestinian refugees and Bedouins.
Al-Zarqawi's father, a Palestinian, fought the Israelis in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that established the state of Israel. The son didn't excel academically, and by his late teens had developed a reputation as a petty thug.
In 1989, he joined the mujahedeen, the loosely aligned, U.S.-backed opposition groups fighting to oust the Soviet army from Afghanistan.
There, al-Zarqawi met a spiritual mentor, Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, a Kuwaiti-born jihadist leader intent on overthrowing secular Arab governments. The two reunited in 1992 in Jordan, where Al-Zarqawi was jailed for having explosives and plotting against the Jordanian kingdom.
When he was released in 1999, he was described as a committed radical.
While his wife and four children remained in Zarqa, he returned to western Afghanistan, where he oversaw a terrorist training camp in Herat, became an authority on chemical and biological weapons and met bin Laden. The camp was destroyed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and al-Zarqawi fled west, to Iraq.
Al-Zarqawi has proved to be slippery prey.
# In November 2004, U.S.-led troops raided the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, only to find that many insurgent leaders, perhaps even al-Zarqawi, had bolted before the attacks.
# In February 2005, U.S. troops received a tip that al-Zarqawi might be heading to a meeting in Ramadi, west of Falluja. Although his vehicle was under surveillance by a Predator spy plane, and checkpoints were set up, the vehicle eluded them, and the militant escaped.
# In April 2005, U.S. troops raided a hospital in Ramadi in the hope of capturing al-Zarqawi -- but struck out. "He was taken to a hospital. When we got the news, we rushed there, but he was out of there," said Iraqi Lt. Gen. Nasser Abadi months later.
# In December 2005, Hussain Kamal, Iraq's deputy minister of interior, admitted that Iraqi security forces had al-Zarqawi in custody in 2004, but released him because they didn't know who he was.
Although al-Zarqawi touted many successes in the insurgency he heads, a senior U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad contended in December 2005 that the militant was "struggling."
"He's struggling because we've taken away a lot of his leadership. He's struggling because we've taken away a lot of his munitions. He's struggling because we've denied him safe havens across Iraq. He's struggling because we've taken away his freedom of movement," said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch.
"But he's still out there with the same stated objective."
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;D
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westside 4 life
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i love god
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Only if you guys knew, he's a nobody :banana_trippin:
:laugh:
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President Bush: "This violent man will never murder again".... because we murdered him, lol.
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President Bush: "This violent man will never murder again".... because we murdered him, lol.
sometimes, it's the only way.
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yo, i still blv that zarqawi was just a charecter created by the american military to be able to kill him when ever they need some publicity......... well if am wrong am glad a terrorist is down, but u know there r 10000 other zarqawis on the way....
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On April 10, 2006, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. military has indeed been conducting a major propaganda offensive designed to exaggerate Zarqawi's role in the Iraqi insurgency. Gen. Mark Kimmitt says of the propaganda campaign that there "was no attempt to manipulate the press." In an internal briefing, Kimmitt is quoted as stating, "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." The main goal of the propaganda campaign seems to have been to exacerbate a rift between insurgent forces in Iraq, but intelligence experts worry that it has actually enhanced Zarqawi's influence.
Col. Derek Harvey, "who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," warned an Army meeting in 2004 that "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways." While Pentagon spokespersons state unequivocally that PSYOPs may not be used to influence American citizens, there is little question that the information disseminated through the program has found its way into American media sources. The Post also notes that "One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war."
:laugh: ;D :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSYOP
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Only if you guys knew, he's a nobody :banana_trippin:
:laugh:
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(http://www.vg.no/bilder/edrum/1149775926054_142.jpg)
(http://www.vg.no/bilder/bildarkiv/1149773714.76834.jpg)
(http://www.vg.no/bilder/bildarkiv/1149768554.84945.jpg)
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Only if you guys knew, he's a nobody :banana_trippin:
:laugh:
He's just a name.
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good news .iraqis deserve a peaceful country
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IMO, they should let Berg's dad decapatate the corpse.
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On April 10, 2006, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. military has indeed been conducting a major propaganda offensive designed to exaggerate Zarqawi's role in the Iraqi insurgency. Gen. Mark Kimmitt says of the propaganda campaign that there "was no attempt to manipulate the press." In an internal briefing, Kimmitt is quoted as stating, "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." The main goal of the propaganda campaign seems to have been to exacerbate a rift between insurgent forces in Iraq, but intelligence experts worry that it has actually enhanced Zarqawi's influence.
Col. Derek Harvey, "who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," warned an Army meeting in 2004 that "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways." While Pentagon spokespersons state unequivocally that PSYOPs may not be used to influence American citizens, there is little question that the information disseminated through the program has found its way into American media sources. The Post also notes that "One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war."
:laugh: ;D :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSYOP
sad how the US tries to manipulate and brainwash their own citizens.
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IMO, they should let Berg's dad decapatate the corpse.
Beheaded man's father: Revenge breeds revenge
Michael Berg talks about the death of his son and al-Zarqawi
Thursday, June 8, 2006; Posted: 12:58 p.m. EDT (16:58 GMT)
(CNN) -- The U.S.-led coalition's No. 1 wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- who conducted a campaign of insurgency bombings, beheadings and killings of Americans and Iraqi civilians -- was killed in a U.S. airstrike.
A gruesome video was posted on Islamic Web sites in May, 2004, depicting a man believed to be al-Zarqawi beheading Nicholas Berg, an American businessman who was working in Iraq.
CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien talks to Nicholas Berg's father, Michael Berg, by phone from Wilmington, Delaware, for his reaction to the news.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Berg, thank you for talking with us again. It's nice to have an opportunity to talk to you. Of course, I'm curious to know your reaction, as it is now confirmed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man who is widely credited and blamed for killing your son, Nicholas, is dead.
MICHAEL BERG: Well, my reaction is I'm sorry whenever any human being dies. Zarqawi is a human being. He has a family who are reacting just as my family reacted when Nick was killed, and I feel bad for that. (Watch video of the two bombs falling on al-Zarqawi -- 2:00)
I feel doubly bad, though, because Zarqawi is also a political figure, and his death will re-ignite yet another wave of revenge, and revenge is something that I do not follow, that I do want ask for, that I do not wish for against anybody. And it can't end the cycle. As long as people use violence to combat violence, we will always have violence.
O'BRIEN: I have to say, sir, I'm surprised. I know how devastated you and your family were, frankly, when Nick was killed in such a horrible, and brutal and public way.
BERG: Well, you shouldn't be surprised, because I have never indicated anything but forgiveness and peace in any interview on the air.
O'BRIEN: No, no. And we have spoken before, and I'm well aware of that. But at some point, one would think, is there a moment when you say, 'I'm glad he's dead, the man who killed my son'?
BERG: No. How can a human being be glad that another human being is dead?
O'BRIEN: There have been family members who have weighed in, victims, who've said that they don't think he's a martyr in heaven, that they think, frankly, he went straight to hell ...
You know, you talked about the fact that he's become a political figure. Are you concerned that he becomes a martyr and a hero and, in fact, invigorates the insurgency in Iraq?
BERG: Of course. When Nick was killed, I felt that I had nothing left to lose. I'm a pacifist, so I wasn't going out murdering people. But I am -- was not a risk-taking person, and yet now I've done things that have endangered me tremendously.
I've been shot at. I've been showed horrible pictures. I've been called all kinds of names and threatened by all kinds of people, and yet I feel that I have nothing left to lose, so I do those things.
Now, take someone who in 1991, who maybe had their family killed by an American bomb, their support system whisked away from them, someone who, instead of being 59, as I was when Nick died, was 5-years-old or 10-years-old. And then if I were that person, might I not learn how to fly a plane into a building or strap a bag of bombs to my back?
That's what is happening every time we kill an Iraqi, every time we kill anyone, we are creating a large number of people who are going to want vengeance. And, you know, when are we ever going to learn that that doesn't work?
O'BRIEN: There's an alternate reading, which would say at some point, Iraqis will say the insurgency is not OK -- that they'll be inspired by the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the sense of he was turned in, for example, we believe by his own No. 2, No. 3 leadership in his ranks.
And, that's actually them saying we do not want this kind of violence in our country. Experts whom we've spoken to this morning have said this is a critical moment where Iraqis need to figure out which direction the country is going to go. That would be an alternate reading to the scenario you're pointing to. (Watch how Iraqi leaders cheered after learning about al-Zarqawi's death -- 4:31)
BERG: Yes, well, I don't believe that scenario, because every time news of new atrocities committed by Americans in Iraq becomes public, more and more of the everyday Iraqi people who tried to hold out, who tried to be peaceful people lose it and join -- what we call the insurgency, and what I call the resistance, against the occupation of one sovereign nation.
O'BRIEN: There's a theory that a struggle for democracy, you know...
BERG: Democracy? Come on, you can't really believe that that's a democracy there when the people who are running the elections are holding guns. That's not democracy.
O'BRIEN: There's a theory that as they try to form some kind of government, that it's going to be brutal, it's going to be bloody, there's going to be loss, and that's the history of many countries -- and that's just what a lot of people pay for what they believe will be better than what they had under Saddam Hussein.
BERG: Well, you know, I'm not saying Saddam Hussein was a good man, but he's no worse than George Bush. Saddam Hussein didn't pull the trigger, didn't commit the rapes. Neither did George Bush. But both men are responsible for them under their reigns of terror.
I don't buy that. Iraq did not have al Qaeda in it. Al Qaeda supposedly killed my son.
Under Saddam Hussein, no al Qaeda. Under George Bush, al Qaeda.
Under Saddam Hussein, relative stability. Under George Bush, instability.
Under Saddam Hussein, about 30,000 deaths a year. Under George Bush, about 60,000 deaths a year. I don't get it. Why is it better to have George Bush the king of Iraq rather than Saddam Hussein?
O'BRIEN: Michael Berg is the father of Nicholas Berg, the young man, the young businessman who was beheaded so brutally in Iraq back in May of 2004.
Runs away laughing ;D
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Danm!!! Berg's dad just sooned The U.S Effort's....
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Ya' know. Gaw DAMN!!!!!!!!!! I wish I had an audio, I'd put that on my sig and you can click. Where's CWalker at now.
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On April 10, 2006, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. military has indeed been conducting a major propaganda offensive designed to exaggerate Zarqawi's role in the Iraqi insurgency. Gen. Mark Kimmitt says of the propaganda campaign that there "was no attempt to manipulate the press." In an internal briefing, Kimmitt is quoted as stating, "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." The main goal of the propaganda campaign seems to have been to exacerbate a rift between insurgent forces in Iraq, but intelligence experts worry that it has actually enhanced Zarqawi's influence.
Col. Derek Harvey, "who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," warned an Army meeting in 2004 that "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways." While Pentagon spokespersons state unequivocally that PSYOPs may not be used to influence American citizens, there is little question that the information disseminated through the program has found its way into American media sources. The Post also notes that "One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war."
:laugh: ;D :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSYOP
sad how the US tries to manipulate and brainwash their own citizens.
fuck them, sad is me going bald :'(
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After reading that interview, Berg's dad is certifiably insane..........
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good another fuckin rag head is dead
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I understand where Berg is coming from. America is the country that really is the reason for his son's death, and he knows it.
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buck buck bitches
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I understand where Berg is coming from. America is the country that really is the reason for his son's death, and he knows it.
Yeah man you are totally right, it is all America's fault. Zarqawi sawing off his son's head had absolutely nothing to do with it.
You are an idiot, 7even....
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I understand where Berg is coming from. America is the country that really is the reason for his son's death, and he knows it.
just like mcdonalds is the reason emotionally unbalanced girls from the south are fat fucks
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After reading that interview, Berg's dad is certifiably insane..........
Then so was Jesus.
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good news .iraqis deserve a peaceful country
oh yes, this incident is going to bring soooo much peace.
10 more will replace this guy and will only get stronger.
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One thing I don't get.. They killed em and all, ok, but according to the news they threw like 2 superbombs on the man's head. Ok, cool, now we sure he's dead. BUT howcome all the pics of him dead are where he's 100% intact, I mean, when you got such bombs on ya head you're happy to find a lil snippet of the man. Those bombs make holes of like 20-40 meters deep.
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One thing I don't get.. They killed em and all, ok, but according to the news they threw like 2 superbombs on the man's head. Ok, cool, now we sure he's dead. BUT howcome all the pics of him dead are where he's 100% intact, I mean, when you got such bombs on ya head you're happy to find a lil snippet of the man. Those bombs make holes of like 20-40 meters deep.
It's a fraud, obviously. The US just needs some good publicity.
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One thing I don't get.. They killed em and all, ok, but according to the news they threw like 2 superbombs on the man's head. Ok, cool, now we sure he's dead. BUT howcome all the pics of him dead are where he's 100% intact, I mean, when you got such bombs on ya head you're happy to find a lil snippet of the man. Those bombs make holes of like 20-40 meters deep.
It's a fraud, obviously. The US just needs some good publicity.
The more you post the dumber you come off. Is everyone in Germany as idiotic as you?
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^LMAO@Him even trying :D
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dude probably shot himself re-loading an AK, and troops found him on a street corner..