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Zarqawi's Final Atrocities
Human Events Online ^ | 06/08/06 | Richard Minitier

Posted on 06/08/2006 2:17:06 PM PDT by MikeA

If you are looking for the legacy of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, do not look in the concrete rubble of so-called safe house in Baqubah that became his final resting place. Instead, look less than 10 miles to the west, on the side of the road in the desert town of Hadid, for a pile of cardboard banana boxes.

Inside those boxes were nine human heads.

Some of the heads still had their blindfolds on. Iraqi police are still attempting to identify the murdered men.

Days earlier, in Baquba, Iraqi police found another eight severed heads. One of those heads belonged to a prominent Sunni Muslim imam, who preached peace and tolerance.

For the past few weeks, U.S. military intelligence analysts had seen a spike in beheadings—a specialty of the Zarqawi network.

Of course, Zarqawi will be remembered chiefly as a beheader. He apparently enjoyed wielding the knife and slowly hacking off the head of Nicholas Berg of West Chester, Pa. In a video that Zarqawi’s followers proudly posted on the Internet, Berg screams in pain in seven long minutes as Zarqawi saws through his neck.

Zarqawi also is believed to have beheaded Eugene Armstrong of Hillsdale, Mich.

Zarqawi is also believed to have beheaded Ken Bigley, the Liverpool, U.K.-based engineer who came to Iraq “to help people,” in October 2004.

Now it is Zarqawi’s own head that is capturing the world’s attention. Displaying his head has several immediate benefits: it boosts the morale of Iraqi police and military officers, who have been taking increased casualties in the past few weeks and were spooked by the Zarqawi video released last month. In that video, Zarqawi made a point of firing an M-4 and an M-249—two automatic weapons that are only used by U.S. forces. If he can take guns from the hands of Americans he killed and turn those weapons against the world’s sole remaining superpower, maybe Zarqawi is invincible after all. Yesterday’s air strike has already reversed the downward spiral of Iraqi police morale, one source told me.

Nor can Zarqawi be easily replaced. He had a kind of rogue-ish charisma that resonated in the Arab world. He was featured in Arabic-language pop songs and feted on Arabic soap operas. His persona drew hundreds of Saudis, Syrians and other foreigners to fight alongside him in Iraq. There is simply no one else in the organization who has his aura.

At the very least, the beheadings and suicide attacks will decline sharply.

Mr. Miniter is author of Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror and "Losing bin Laden."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: armstrong; baqubah; beheadings; berg; bigley; decapitation; engineer; eugenearmstrong; hesdeadjim; hillsdale; iraq; kenbigley; liverpool; m249; m4; nicholasberg; nickberg; uk; video; wot; zarqawi; zarqawikilled; zarqawivideo
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To: don-o
JDAM = Joint Directed Attack Munition

The "joint directed" means that any member of any American armed forces (Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy) can designate a target and call in a strike.

It's kind of like calling in Artillery, but with the range that covers the whole country.

41 posted on 06/08/2006 3:43:53 PM PDT by ChadGore (VISUALIZE 62,041,268 Bush fans. We Vote.)
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To: AgThorn

In that picture of the two smelly hippies, the one called Berg is weating a nametag that appears to say "LEAD Insurgent". I say offer him a ticket to Iraq to fight alongside his Al Qaeda brothers. Arm him with the fiercest weapons of the left...a whistle, a video camera, some weed...


42 posted on 06/08/2006 3:58:03 PM PDT by RedQuill
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To: oyez
I fail to see an aura in that photo. Do you?

What? No halo??

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Horns and tail are more appropriate.

43 posted on 06/08/2006 4:11:51 PM PDT by Ole Okie
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To: MikeA
I just thought of this... if Zarkowee was firing American Weapons.M249 M-4... then the "fact" that Haditha killings may have had American weapon bullet casings around might cast doubt on who really killed the "victims' of Haditha.

The MSM will never mention this possibility, maybe we the Pajamahadeem might want to bring this factoid to light.

44 posted on 06/08/2006 4:18:19 PM PDT by Dick Vomer (liberals suck......... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.)
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To: AgThorn
The latest "Happy a Family Member Was Murdered by a Muslim Rally".


45 posted on 06/08/2006 4:27:06 PM PDT by Dick Vomer (liberals suck......... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.)
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To: Smartass; nicmarlo
Very flattering photo. I always knew he would look far better dead.

I was right.

He looks real good.

46 posted on 06/08/2006 4:31:32 PM PDT by Czar (StillFedUptotheTeeth@Washington)
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To: MikeA; SJackson; yonif; Simcha7; American in Israel; Slings and Arrows; judicial meanz; ...

AMERICA AT WAR
At Salem the Soldier's Homepage ~
Honored member of FReeper Leapfrog's "Enemy of Islam" list.
Islam, a Religion of Peace®? Some links...  by backhoe
Translated Pre-War IRAQ Documents  by jveritas
Mohammed, The Mad Poet Quoted....  by PsyOp
One FReeper On The Line  by SNOWFLAKE
The Clash of Ideologies - A Review

American Flag

47 posted on 06/08/2006 4:33:35 PM PDT by Salem (FREE REPUBLIC - Fighting to win within the Arena of the War of Ideas! So get in the fight!)
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To: edpc

Meanwhile, there was a little "Chicago justice": Zarqawi survived the bombs, was turned over by US forces to Iraqi forces, and "succumbed to his injuries." Aww.


48 posted on 06/08/2006 4:38:18 PM PDT by karnage
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To: MikeA

You just confirmed my analysis of the various photos of the site.

The slab was resting very near the gound, there was concrete block rubble all around where the blast blew it outward. there was a hole in the slab. there was a mangle of rebar, clean to the steel evidencing finely fragmented concrete.

There is also a photo of troops in the palms with a big hole...... the first bomb missed? The pilot elected to hit it a second time.

My thought is the first bomb missed the house and made a hole and a mangled truck. The second penetrated the roof and blew the wals outward collapsing the slab.


49 posted on 06/08/2006 4:39:14 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Slay Pinch)
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To: MikeA
He was featured in Arabic-language pop songs and feted on Arabic soap operas.

Charming. Those Arabs sure know how to entertain a person. (Barf!)

50 posted on 06/08/2006 4:44:41 PM PDT by Wolfstar (So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn, There's vultures and thieves at your back...)
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To: coconutt2000; MikeA
I like how the Dems are saying that now that Zarqawi is dead we can start bringing the troops home...

If we had listened to the Dims and done what they wanted, Zarqawi would still be alive and playing at his favorite sport -- beheadings. It's only because we didn't listen to the Dims that we can celebrate these images:


51 posted on 06/08/2006 4:50:31 PM PDT by Wolfstar (So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn, There's vultures and thieves at your back...)
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To: coconutt2000

Just saw Murtha on with Wolfe Blitzkreig. This person is just without concern for the troops. It is his way or the highway.....He said, "The military, they did ok, but this killing of az Zarqari will mean nothing but more problems. The explosions of IED are the only problem in Iraq," ....or something to that effect.


52 posted on 06/08/2006 4:57:53 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter
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To: Texas Songwriter

Murtha, is a 250 # turd that just won't flush...


53 posted on 06/08/2006 5:01:33 PM PDT by ThreePuttinDude ().....Zarq down, ..Binny's next .....()
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To: MikeA
I heard on the radio this morning that he was still alive when troops secured the area, but that he died 10 minutes later.

I hope it was a long and excruciatingly painful 10 minutes.

54 posted on 06/08/2006 5:03:18 PM PDT by Alouette (Psalms of the Day: 66-68)
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To: MikeA

Look at the moonbats mourning Al-Zarqawi's death:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/8/19125/62590


55 posted on 06/08/2006 5:05:12 PM PDT by Chucky is a girlie man
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To: ThreePuttinDude

You see, it's gone beyond political discourse. Murtha has vested his personality, his credibility, and his identity in a view of the world which is parallell to reality. He offers the MSM a face to propound the course they want to take, but are too chickenshit to run for the presidency so they will be constitutionally vested. Before his eruption last year, I had never heard of Jack Murtha. Pride is an awful thing to order ones existence.


56 posted on 06/08/2006 5:07:21 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter
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To: Redbob

Satan reclaims one of his own!

Imagine Zarqawi looking around for his 72 virgins only to find he is to be beheaded by demons over and over for the rest of eternity.


57 posted on 06/08/2006 5:57:37 PM PDT by brwnsuga (Black, Proud, Conservative!)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

I wonder if that is all that is left of him. Fitting end for someone who liked to dismember people.


58 posted on 06/08/2006 5:58:29 PM PDT by brwnsuga (Black, Proud, Conservative!)
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To: Wolfstar
"He was featured in Arabic-language pop songs and feted on Arabic soap operas. Charming. Those Arabs sure know how to entertain a person. (Barf!)"

What can be expected from those who worship the Father of Lies.

59 posted on 06/08/2006 6:06:06 PM PDT by TheClintons-STILLAnti-American
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To: Alouette
"I heard on the radio this morning that he was still alive when troops secured the area, but that he died 10 minutes later. I hope it was a long and excruciatingly painful 10 minutes."

Exactly the fate that should have been Saddam Hussein's when he was found in his rat hole.

60 posted on 06/08/2006 6:07:25 PM PDT by TheClintons-STILLAnti-American
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