Posted on 06/09/2006 1:02:31 PM PDT by BJClinton
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 38 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A U.S. military search of the destroyed safehouse where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed yielded documents and information storage devices that are being assessed for potential use against his terror network, a military officer said Friday.
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because results from the safehouse search have not been announced, said an M-16 rifle and an unspecified number of grenades and AK-47 rifles also were found. The M-16 was fitted with special optics, the official said.
Also found were "media and documents," the officer said, adding that the term "media" as used in this context normally refers to information storage devices such as computer hard drives, digital cameras or other devices. The officer was unable to be specific in this case.
The material was being assessed for possible use, the officer added.
Earlier Friday, a senior U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said many items had been found in raids over the past two days based on intelligence gathered from Zarqawi's safehouse, which was flattened by two U.S. bombs on Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, speaking to reporters at the
Pentagon by video-teleconference from his office in Baghdad, said that after 17 raids in the immediate aftermath of the airstrike, more were launched on Thursday.
Caldwell displayed digital photographs of recovered items that he said included a suicide belt, a flak vest, passports and identification cards, vehicle license plates, ammunition belts, rifles and other guns and a night-vision device. He said they were found under the floorboards of a building; he did not identify the location.
Caldwell also said the man he thinks is a possible successor to Zarqawi as leader of the shadowy terrorist group known as al-Qaidi in
Iraq has been operating in Iraq longer than Zarqawi and that the two first met in . He was referring to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, whom he described as an Egyptian-born terrorist leader.
He said al-Masri has had "communications" with
Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He did not elaborate and would not say whether al-Masri also has been in touch with bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
The spokesman also disclosed that Zarqawi was still alive when U.S. troops arrived on the scene after Wednesday's airstrike by an F-16 fighter. The terrorist "mumbled a little something" and made an apparent effort to get away after being placed on a stretcher by Iraqi police, Caldwell said. On Thursday U.S. officials had said Zarqawi was dead when he was found. Caldwell said new information indicated that he survived a short time.
Caldwell also suggested the possibility that Zarqawi was not inside the safehouse when it was attacked. He said he spoke with several knowledgeable Air Force officers on Friday to learn how it was possible for Zarqawi to have survived, even for a short time, the devastating power of two 500-pound bombs.
"They assured me that there are cases when people, in fact, can survive even an attack like that on a building structure," Caldwell said. "Obviously, the other five in the building did not, but he did for some reason. And we do not know — and I've looked through the report — as to whether or not it was because he might have been right outside (the targeted building) or whatever. We just don't have that granularity."
On Thursday, Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., was asked about U.S. military photos that showed a dead Zarqawi with relatively little apparent physical damage to his face. She said the two bombs, which flattened the safehouse, "didn't hit directly where he was so he was probably killed by debris or the blast effect."
Wilson, an Air Force veteran, is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
In describing the military raids conducted based on intelligence from the Zarqawi safehouse, Caldwell said one targeted individual, whom he did not identify, was killed in the latest raids and at least 25 were captured.
Pentagon officials have refused to say whether U.S. special operations forces participated in the Zarqawi operation Wednesday, but a comment Friday by President Bush suggested that some of the military's most secretive units may have been involved on the ground.
Speaking to reporters, Bush mentioned that among the senior officers he called to offer congratulations for killing Zarqawi was Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of Joint Special Operations Command, whose forces include the Army's clandestine counterterrorism unit, Delta Force.
Asked whether Zarqawi was shot after U.S. ground troops arrived at the scene of the airstrike, Caldwell said he could not give a definitive answer based on what he had read in the latest official U.S. military report on the event. "I'll go back and specifically ask that," he said. "But no, there was nothing in the report that said he had received any wounds from some kind of weapons system like that."
Caldwell said the U.S. military was still compiling details of the event, including the exact amount of time Zarqawi was alive after the attack. He said an initial analysis of Zarqawi's body had been done but he was not certain whether it constituted a full autopsy.
In an interview earlier Friday with Fox News Channel, Caldwell was more descriptive of Zarqawi's actions before he died.
"He was conscious initially, according to the U.S. forces that physically saw him," Caldwell told Fox. "He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was U.S. military."
Caldwell indicated that U.S. troops "went into the process to provide medical care to him" before Zarqawi expired.
NICE. Get all the info you can, boys.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
I would have put him in prison in the US and into the general population.
At least the pig sucking scumbag knew who wasted him and that he was their prisoner. No martyrdom for you, swine. Don't collect 72 virgins and go straight to hell.
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi and US authorities vowed Friday to hunt down insurgency leaders after capturing a "treasure trove" of intelligence in the attack that killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in "The resources that were allocated to track Zarqawi will now be directed to chase other people," Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor, told AFP.
"The plan is to go after secondary targets," he said.
On Friday the security forces arrested eight people in the village where Zarqawi was killed, including Aziz Ali, the owner of the "safe house" where the militant met his end, security officials said.
During initial questioning, Ali said he thought he was renting the house to a family forcibly displaced by sectarian violence, the officials said.
On Thursday Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that Zarqawi was killed in a joint US-Iraqi raid a day before in the village of Hibhib near the restive city of Baquba.
US F-16 warplanes had dropped two 500-pound bombs on the house, killing Zarqawi and five others.
US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said in a video conference Friday that Zarqawi survived the air strike, but died of wounds a few minutes later.
"From the debrief this morning, which gave us greater clarity that we had before, Zarqawi in fact did survive the air strike," said Caldwell.
Iraqi police, the first on the scene, found Zarqawi alive and put him on a stretcher, he said.
The US forces "went immediately to the person on the stretcher, were able to start identifying him by some distinguishing marks on his body. They had some kind of visual facial recognition."
"According to the person on the ground, Zarqawi attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher. Everybody resecured him on the stretcher, but he died immediately thereafter," Caldwell said.
US military officials had said on Thursday that Zarqawi had not survived the attack.
On Thursday Caldwell said the raid was launched after coalition forces were tipped off by an Iraqi from within Zarqawi's network.
He said the raid came after a painstaking search for Zarqawi since December 2004 and particularly in the past six weeks, which involved tracking the movements of his associates to reach the leader himself.
"Now that we have got him, it allows us to go after the other targets we have been using to track his movements," the general said, adding that a "treasure trove" of intelligence documents related to the insurgency had been found in the house after the air strike.
Another 17 operations against Al-Qaeda militants were carried out in and around the Baghdad area on the same night that Zarqawi was hit, Caldwell said.
"Those 17 focused ones were directly related to the intensive intelligence effort that had been going on in tracking Zarqawi," Caldwell said Friday.
"There were certain personnel that we have been watching and monitoring that coalition forces had made the decision not to take down because they had given key indicators at different points of time where Zarqawi might be so they were monitored, watched and tracked."
"When Zarqawi went down that enabled us to go in and conduct those operations," he said, adding 25 people were detained and one was killed in these raids.
The general singled out the tracking of the man he described as Zarqawi's spiritual advisor, Sheikh Abdel Rahman, as the key to reaching the insurgent leader himself.
"Zarqawi's whereabouts and his movements and things came about through, obviously, Sheikh (Abdel) Rahman, through various means of other intelligence over the last couple of weeks," Caldwell said Thursday.
Abdel Rahman "was brought to our attention by somebody within the network of Zarqawi's," said the military spokesman.
One possible new target could be Egyptian-born militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri, whom the US authorities expect to take over from Zarqawi.
Meanwhile, analysts said Zarqawi's death will not end Iraq's insurgency.
"Zarqawi is gone but his legacy will continue," Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director for International Crisis Group, told AFP.
"His killing will not erase the insurgency, as the insurgency in Iraq has a powerful national following from the Sunni Arabs."
According to online statements on an insurgent website, whose authenticity could not be verified, Al-Qaeda in Iraq carried out 50 operations since Zarqawi's death, mainly against "crusader patrols" and interior ministry forces.
Yeah, I kinda feel all warm and fuzzy knowing he lived for a bit after the attacks and new we had gotten him.
If I had to bet, Zawahiri and bin Laden are not at the same location and rarely meet in person.
It would be great to get them in a single strike, but I doubt that is very likely.
Also found were "media and documents," the officer said, adding that the term "media" as used in this context normally refers to information storage devices such as computer hard drives, digital cameras or other devices. The officer was unable to be specific in this case.
***
Is this the "treasure trove" to which the one military guy (name escapes me) referred to in the early days after the air strike?
Whatever....this is indeed good news. This strike was a job well done despite what the naysayers have indicated. And it looks like whatever intelligence has been found will prove very useful in the future. Bravo!
Prolly. I would bet ObL is tucked away in the mountains and only Zawahiri travels outside of the caves.
I hope he died as slowly and painfully as the worst of his victims, with the full knowledge that we fried his a$$.
Yup, but that won't stop the DUmmies from believing it was an illegal war for oil.
So much for the Dimocratic talking point about AQ only being in Iraq because our invasion brought them. Zarqawi is known to have been in Iraq from before the invasion (Hussein seeking his assistance to help build an insurgency - late 2002 to early 2003). That means that al-Masri preceded even that.
Good for you! You posted it 3 posts ahead of me (#15).
"media" includes his stash of Zark-on-goat porn.
The exact facts will not be revealed for about 20 years. The Pros do not talk.
Way too stupid a question to even acknowledge, never mind answer...
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