Posted on 06/08/2006 1:21:30 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
LONDON (AP) -
Islamic militants and world governments warned Thursday that violence would continue in Iraq and around the globe despite the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said al-Zarqawi's death was a victory.
"The death of al-Zarqawi is a strike against al-Qaida in Iraq and, therefore, a strike against al-Qaida everywhere but we should have no illusions," Blair said at his monthly news conference. "We know that they will continue to kill, we know that there are many, many obstacles to overcome."
Britain, America's main coalition partner, has about 8,000 troops in southern Iraq.
President Bush said the killing of al-Zarqawi was "an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide of this struggle," but he said more terrorist and insurgent violence is to be expected.
"We have tough days ahead of us in Iraq that will require the continued patience of the American people," he said.
A former close aide to Osama bin Laden said Thursday that al-Zarqawi's death would spark retaliatory attacks across Iraq.
"Al-Zarqawi's martyrdom is not going to weaken the jihad in Iraq," Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistani intelligence officer who helped bin Laden fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press.
"Rather, you will soon see more retaliatory attacks by his successors."
Italian defense minister Arturo Parisi expressed "satisfaction for the action of the coalition, which certainly contributes in a very significant way to the fight against international terrorism."
Italy's 2,600 troops are expected to be withdrawn by year's end.
Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said killing al-Zarqawi will "move the dynamics of the situation in Iraq in a good direction," the PAP news agency reported.
"The less terrorists there are, especially at the highest level, the calmer the situation in Iraq will be," he said.
Poland has some 900 troops in south-central Iraq, where it commands a multinational force.
The father of a U.S. contractor believed slain by al-Zarqawi said he did not see any good coming from the terror leader's death.
Michael Berg, whose 26-year-old son, Nicholas, was taken hostage and beheaded on videotape in 2004, said al-Zarqawi's death leaves the terror leader's family in grief and likely will spark fresh violence.
"I see more death coming out of al-Zarqawi's death," said Berg, a pacifist running for Delaware's lone U.S. House seat on the Green Party ticket.
Al-Zarqawi also is believed to have beheaded Eugene Armstrong, a 52-year-old contractor formerly from Hillsdale, Mich.
"An evil man is dead, and what more can you say?" said family spokeswoman Cyndi Armstrong, the wife of the slain man's cousin.
Paul Bigley - the brother of Briton Kenneth Bigley, who was kidnapped Sept. 16, 2004, and beheaded - said he believed al-Zarqawi was behind his brother's death.
"My initial thoughts are that the world has rid itself of a very evil person - if a person at all. He's a specimen, that's what he is," Bigley told the AP. "I hope they catch the others ASAP."
During a visit to Islamabad, Pakistan, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar said al-Zarqawi's death was only a minor loss to the anti-U.S. resistance movement.
"We are dead sure that assassination of any of the people (like al-Zarqawi) who are resisting will not ... end the resistance," said Zahar, a hard-line Hamas leader.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, a close aide of the militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is in prison for conspiracy in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, said al-Zarqawi's death would not affect the fight by Islamic militants.
"The arrest or death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi does not mean the end of the struggle, because Islam does not depend on any personality," Fauzan Al-Ansory said. "It does not depend on al-Zarqawi, on Osama or Abu Bakar Bashir. Even if it's true, there will be many new Abu Musabs to be born."
In Australia, which has 2,000 troops in Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard called al-Zarqawi's death "great news" for Iraqis, "the real victims of his murderous behavior."
"Not only does his death remove a cruel terrorist, but it's also a huge boost for anti-terrorist forces in Iraq," Howard said.
The government of South Korea, which is reducing its 3,200-member contingent in northern Iraq by 1,000 troops by year's end, declined immediate comment.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the action a "step forward," and senior Vice Foreign Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda said he hoped the news would herald a new period of stability.
Afghanistan, which hosted bin Laden and his terror training camps before a U.S.-led invasion ousted the hard-line Taliban regime, praised the American attack.
"Al-Zarqawi's death is a huge victory in the war" on terrorism, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said. "This is good news for all Muslims and people of all religions. He was killing people of all faiths."
The Pakistani government said it hoped the Jordanian-born militant's killing would blunt the violence ravaging Iraq.
"It is a significant development in the war on terrorism and Pakistan continues to hope that the security situation will, particularly now, improve," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.
Some Muslims in Somalia, where Islamic militant militiamen just seized control of the capital and surrounding areas, expressed sympathy for al-Zarqawi.
"His death is a bad news for all Muslims because he was facing a great, superpower enemy of Islam in the United States," said Shamsa Abdi, a mother of six.
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Associated Press reporters Jim Krane in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Paisley Dodds in London; Randall Chase in Dover, Del.; Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Pakistan; and Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.
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HA! Praised everywhere except at DU.
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Today: June 08, 2006 at 11:50:51 PDT
Quotations about the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi:
"Al-Zarqawi was eliminated." - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
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"Whenever there is a new al-Zarqawi, we will kill him." - al-Maliki.
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"Now Zarqawi has met his end, and this violent man will never murder again. Iraqis can be justly proud of their new government and its early steps to improve their security. And Americans can be enormously proud of the men and women of our armed forces, who worked tirelessly with their Iraqi counterparts to track down this brutal terrorist and put him out of business." - President Bush.
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"Zarqawi is dead, but the difficult and necessary mission in Iraq continues." - Bush.
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"Arguably over the last several years, no single person on this planet has had the blood of more innocent men, women and children on his hands than Zarqawi. ... He personified the dark sadistic and medieval vision of the future - of beheadings, suicide bombings and indiscriminate killings." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
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"Today's announcement was very good news because a blow to al-Qaida in Iraq is a blow against al-Qaida everywhere." - British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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"The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme." - Statement signed by "Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi," identified as the deputy "emir," or leader, of al-Qaida in Iraq.
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"Al-Zarqawi's martyrdom is not going to weaken the jihad in Iraq. ... Rather, you will soon see more retaliatory attacks by his successors." - Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistani intelligence officer who helped Osama bin Laden fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
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"We anticipated that he would be killed for a very long time. ... We hope that he will join other martyrs in heaven." - Zarqawi's brother, Sayel al-Khalayleh.
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"If it's true al-Zarqawi was killed, that will be a big happiness for all the Iraqis." - Thamir Abdulhussein, a college student in Baghdad.
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"I think the world has rid themselves of a very evil person. I think all of his assistants and gofers and people who support him, I hope they meet the same fate." - Paul Bigley - brother of Kenneth Bigley, who was kidnapped Sept. 16, 2004, and beheaded.
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"An evil man is dead, and what more can you say?" - Cyndi Armstrong, speaking for the family of Eugene Armstrong, a 52-year-old Michigan contractor who was beheaded by Zarqawi.
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"George Bush is more of a terrorist than Zarqawi is. Zarqawi is attributed to the deaths of a couple hundred people, including my son. George Bush is responsible for 150,000 deaths and another one every 12 minutes." - Michael Berg, whose son Nicholas of Pennsylvania was believed to have been beheaded by al-Zarqawi.
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"Sooner or later evil people meet their just desserts. The entire world of people who believe in freedom and peace can take solace in what happened." - Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
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"While we must not become complacent, the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is indeed a major victory in the global war on terror. Al-Zarqawi was a terrorist, a murderer and a coward. Osama bin Laden has lost his Prince of al-Qaida in Iraq. We will do everything possible to help Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki get his government off the ground and, God willing, move his country forward as we work to make Iraq truly free." - Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio.
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"A violent thug who beheaded Americans and showed the photos to the world, Zarqawi was one of the world's most dangerous terrorists, and now he can never threaten Americans or our allies again. While this is not the silver bullet to create peace and stability in Iraq, it is a victory over al-Qaida and the murderous ideology of terrorism." - House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
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"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a brutal terrorist and his death strikes a blow to al-Qaida in Iraq. This ruthless thug who abused the true meaning of Islam was an intruder on Iraqi soil and it's good news that he's dead. Our troops did an incredible job hunting him down and destroying him, and all of America is proud of their skill and commitment." - Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
Hmmmmm - Nothing from Pooty Poot or China? I wonder why? Maybe they are upset one of their Cash Cows is barbecued!
These Muslim spinners and assorted apologists are almost as good as the "even-if-we-lose-we-win" democRATS.
Everywhere except for DU and left-wing blogs.
Iraq Premier: $25M to Be Paid on Al-Zarqawi
Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday that the $25 million bounty on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's head will be honored.
"We will meet our promise," al-Maliki told al-Arabiya television without elaborating.
The United States had put forth the $25 million bounty for information leading to the death or capture of al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi, a 39-year-old Jordanian-born terrorist, was killed in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday.
Also killed in the airstrike was al-Zarqawi's deputy and spiritual adviser Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, who had been key to pinpointing his boss' location, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said. Intelligence officials identified al-Iraqi with the help of an insider in al-Zarqawi's network and began tracking his movements, watching when he would meet with his boss.
The U.S. also has a $25 million bounty for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Al-Zarqawi swore allegiance to bin Laden in 2004.
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all except here in the US with the MSM....who'd ever believe it?
LONDON (AP) - Two men worlds apart illustrate the divide in global opinions about the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The brother of a Briton beheaded by the terrorist band hoped he "rots in hell," while al-Zarqawi's brother said he was on his way to paradise after being killed Wednesday by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq.
News of the terrorist leader's death invoked relief in world capitals but sadness in other corners of the globe. His death was perhaps felt most deeply by those who loved him and those who suffered because of him.
Paul Bigley, a Briton whose brother Kenneth was kidnapped Sept. 16, 2004, and beheaded before a camera, described al-Zarqawi as an "evil person."
"As far as I'm concerned, he can rot in hell because that's where he is," Bigley told The Associated Press. "He's not in paradise, that's for sure."
But al-Zarqawi's long struggle against U.S.-led forces in Iraq made him a hero to many extremist Muslims. His older brother said the family had anticipated his death for some time.
"We expected that he would be martyred," Sayel al-Khalayleh told The Associated Press from Zarqa, the poor Jordanian industrial town that al-Zarqawi called home and from which he derived his pseudonym.
"We hope that he will join other martyrs in heaven."
In Zarqa, al-Zarqawi's three sisters, all dressed in black, arrived at the one-story family home looking grief stricken. But the husband of one of the women, who identified himself as Abu Qudama, said: "We're not sad that he's dead."
"To the contrary, we're happy because he's a martyr and he's now in heaven."
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Associated Press reporters Jamal Halaby and Mohammad Abu Ghosh contributed to this report.
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...a land where Zarqawi and his cohorts successfully defended a bunch of Godforsaken, pitiful caves against an underpaid, underprovisoned, dejected, drunken force of sad-sack soldiers from an even-then collapsing Soviet "empire", but where a properly funded and trained army from the United States of America pounded countless cave-dwelling Taliban troglodytes into a fine red mist with 5000 pound MOAB-style death-bringing, life-stealing ordinance, guaranteeing that the totalitarian, murderous bastards got a trip on the A-Train to the afterlife, to discover that hey, Allah was only joking about the virgins, guys.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -
It was a day filled with rare good news for Iraq's new prime minister: Not only did he announce the death of the country's most-feared terror leader, he also won approval for new ministers on security, charged with stopping the violence in Iraq.
With that rapid series of breakthroughs, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki firmly established his control, setting the stage for what he pledges will be a sharp crackdown to restore order. U.S. officials seemed overjoyed, keenly aware that their ability to trim the number of U.S. troops depends on his success.
The three posts that al-Maliki named Thursday are crucial to that effort - the defense minister to run the army, the interior minister to run the national police and the national security minister to advise the prime minister.
The posts had been deadlocked for weeks by squabbling among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But the new ministers were quickly approved by Parliament on Thursday, just minutes after al-Maliki announced the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.
U.S. military and Iraqi officials said the timing was coincidental; indeed, Iraqi political leaders said the final agreement on the new ministers came late Wednesday, before news of al-Zarqawi's death was known.
If anything, that made the achievement even more impressive.
In the end, al-Maliki - widely viewed as a pragmatist - apparently was able to break the Sunni-Shiite-Kurdish logjam over the posts by picking technocrats, less likely to aggravate either old, Saddam Hussein-era prejudices or the country's virulent new sectarian divides.
The Interior Ministry was the hottest button.
Sunnis had accused the previous interior minister, a Shiite, of allowing Shiite death squads to operate from inside his ministry, and were determined to get a more neutral figure this time.
The new interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani, is also a Shiite but - as an independent member of the dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance - is considered so neutral that no Sunnis objected to his name. Almost a political unknown, he had worked, he said, as an engineer in the Iraqi air force until 1999.
The new defense minister, Iraqi Army Gen. Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim al-Mifarji, is a Sunni Arab unaffiliated with any party. He was thrown out of the military and Saddam's Baath Party in 1991 after he criticized the invasion of Kuwait and received a seven-year prison term, he said.
"As a defense minister I will work for all Iraqis and will not work according to my tribal, religious and ethnic background," he said after he was named.
The new national security minister, Sherwan al-Waili, who will advise the prime minister on security matters, also is a Shiite but also considered neutral.
With those three key Cabinet posts now filled, al-Maliki can presumably turn to the still-overwhelming tasks ahead - including reining in militias and getting Iraqi forces trained and cohesive enough to slowly take over from the U.S. military.
For an Iraqi public that craves security, that would be good news. And al-Maliki's announcement of the death of al-Zarqawi could create a well of good will and support, just what he needs to take on other, difficult security tasks like shutting down militias.
Yet despite Thursday's success, no one expects the way to be easy for al-Maliki, a veteran insider in Iraq's oldest Shiite political party who spent years in exile after receiving a death sentence from Saddam's regime.
While his more pragmatic stance may have helped resolve the Cabinet stalemate, al-Maliki still will need much help from both his fellow Iraqis and other Arabs, all working to "take advantage of the gap left behind by al-Zarqawi to gain back his followers," said one political analyst, Mohammed El-Sayed of the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo.
Thursday's events make clear that al-Maliki is determined to try.
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Sally Buzbee, the AP's Chief of Middle East News, reports often from Iraq.
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The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may provide a much-needed morale boost to Iraq's new government. But it is unlikely to end the country's brutal insurgency.
Instead, the death of the most visible and feared terror leader in Iraq simply may give the United States and its Iraqi allies another brief chance to build some momentum toward stability and away from violence.
If the effort stumbles, then al-Zarqawi's death may in the end have no more impact on the insurgency than the capture of Saddam Hussein.
The White House seemed mindful of that Thursday, refraining from calling the killing a breakthrough but also moving quickly to try to capitalize on a clear victory after weeks of mounting death tolls.
President Bush warned "we can expect sectarian violence to continue," but he also announced that top U.S. officials would meet at Camp David to map out America's next steps. Of the militants, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the death would only "slow them down."
There is no question that al-Zarqawi's killing was a huge symbolic gain. Because of that, it could provide the Bush administration and the new Iraqi government with an opportunity to seize the initiative from suicide bombers, sectarian killers and other extremists.
With al-Zarqawi out of the way and the new government finally in place, some Sunni Arab leaders may be emboldened to resume a dialogue they started last fall - a dialogue that was sunk by al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq.
One reason it's so hard to predict what might happen is that it's never been clear what role the Jordanian-born terrorist actually played.
U.S. officials were quick to draw attention to the brutality of al-Zarqawi and his followers - from their slaughter of Shiite civilians to their beheading of foreign hostages, captured on video.
Yet that may exaggerate al-Zarqawi's relative importance, leading to an impression, deemed incorrect by most experts, that the entire insurgency was orchestrated and directed by a single figure.
In fact, more than a dozen Sunni Arab insurgent groups are believed to be operating in Iraq. Several employ tactics just as ruthless as al-Zarqawi but do not share his goal of re-establishing the ancient Islamic caliphate.
Whether these organizations operate entirely on their own or take direction from a central leader has long been the subject of intense debate.
"Most of the insurgency will not be affected, because al-Qaida is a highly visible and extraordinarily brutal cadre within a much larger group of different insurgent movements," said former Pentagon analyst Anthony Cordesman.
"These groups will not be directly affected by Zarqawi's death and could be strengthened if his death weakens al-Qaida," he said.
French terrorism expert Dominique Thomas speculated that al-Qaida might actually step up the pace of attacks just to prove it has survived its leader.
"While Zarqawi's death is a symbolic gain for the Americans, I don't think we'll see a real change on the ground," Thomas said.
Yet most agree the death could prompt another U.S. and Iraqi effort to try to lure Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq's Anbar province toward a political compromise and away from the insurgency.
Last November, the Americans achieved a breakthrough by persuading those tribal leaders to establish a dialogue with U.S. and Iraqi government officials. As a first step, community leaders dropped their objection to allowing Sunnis to join the police and army.
But those moves were undermined by al-Qaida in Iraq, which assassinated key sheiks.
If another effort is now made - with al-Zarqawi out of the way - much will depend on the new Iraqi government's ability to live up to its promises to build a political system that includes all groups, including disaffected Sunnis.
The release of about 2,500 detainees, which began this week, appears aimed at bolstering Sunni confidence in the new government, as does the appointment of new defense and interior ministers.
"Zarqawi's death will not in itself end the violence in Iraq," said the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. "But it is an important step in the right direction."
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Robert H. Reid is correspondent-at-large for The Associated Press and has reported frequently from Iraq since 2003.
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The hidden message? The butcher was sold out by his own boys...and you can get a cut of the money too.
The AP is cranking out the copy....but they ain't writing like you are......ROFL!
Seems like someone is having their doubts about the wacky, Islamic, 72 virgins, "martyr" gig.
I was reading DU and was almost convinced that Zarqawi was just a made-up identity by the CIA to fool up into going to war in Iraq. You mean to say that the entire world believes Zarqawi was real and that we killed him? Wow, I'd better go tell the DUmmies about this before they embarrass themselves any more.
Prayers for the 72 virgins whose immortality has just become an eternal living hell.
How will we know when it is retaliation? Who is next in line, by the way?
And if he was standing in front of an oncoming train, would that be bad news for Muslims? It would be great and powerful, too!
Please, Shamsa...this guy would be first in line to shoot you in the head for getting an education, flying kites, playing soccer, or showing a little ankle. How are we ever going to liberate your people into the 20th Century, let alone the 21st, if you insist on being so damn stupid?
As I have said, I am done with being lectured to about freedom by idiots who fasten the iron collar around their own necks and hand the chain to their local mongloid Imam. The Crusaders of a half-century ago were kind to you by comparison with your Muslim leaders. The Crusaders (wrongly) killed you. Your own leaders exploit you every day of your life so they can be in charge of you like cattle, and their only reason why is "Allah says so"?
At least in My Faith, Christ told men to "love your wife like Christ loved the church"; Christ died for the church. Who do you think is listening to a higher calling?
Yes,....someone should tell them....but I'm not going over there....
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