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| Iraq |
| Al Qaeda in Iraq Died For Our Sins |
| 2006-06-16 |
| June 16, 2006: Al Qaeda in Iraq has been virtually wiped out by the loss of an address book. The death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi was not as important as the capture of his address book and other planning documents in the wake of the June 7th bombing. U.S. troops are trained to quickly search for names and addresses when they stage a raid, pass that data on to a special intelligence cell, which then quickly sorts out which of the addresses should be raided immediately, before the enemy there can be warned that their identity has been compromised. More information is obtained in those raids, and that generates more raids. So far, the June 7th strike has led to over 500 more raids. There have been so many raids, that there are not enough U.S. troops to handle it, and over 30 percent of the raids have been carried by Iraqi troops or police, with no U.S. involvement. Nearly a thousand terrorist suspects have been killed or captured. The amount of information captured has overwhelmed intelligence organizations in Iraq, and more translators and analysts are assisting, via satellite link, from the United States and other locations. Perhaps the most valuable finds have been al Qaeda planning documents confirming what has been suspected of terrorist strategy. Also valuable have been the al Qaeda assessment of their situation in Iraq. The terrorist strategy is one of desperation. While the effort continues, to attempt to trigger a civil war between Sunni and Shia in Iraq, this is seen as a losing proposition. The new strategy attempts to trigger a war between the United States and Iran. This would weaken the United States, and put the hurt on Iran, an arch-enemy of al Qaeda. Other documents stressed the need to manipulate Moslem and Western media. This was to be done by starting rumors of American atrocities, and feeding the media plausible supporting material. Al Qaeda's attitude was that if they could not win in reality, they could at least win imaginary battles via the media. Zarqawi considered al Qaeda's situation in Iraq as "bleak." The most worrisome development was the growing number of trained Iraqi soldiers and police. These were able to easily spot the foreigners who made up so much of al Qaeda's strength. Moreover, more police and soldiers in an area meant some local civilians would feel safe enough to report al Qaeda activity. The result of all this is that there are far fewer foreign Arabs in Iraq fighting for al Qaeda. The terrorist organization has basically been taken over anti-government Sunni Arabs. That made the capture of Zarqawi even more valuable, as his address book contained a who's who of the anti-government Sunni Arab forces. This group has been hurt badly by last week's raids. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 AQ and the media ally themselves like Stalin and Roosevelt. Not that either likes the other, but they both seek to destroy a common enemy, in this case the US as it currently exists. |
| Posted by: Hupitle Phereger1161 2006-06-16 18:59 |
| #8 Very interesting, indeed, Nimble Spemble. Thanks for sharing. :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-16 16:09 |
| #7 Interesting comments about our enemy the press (TIME) at This blog post. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-06-16 13:44 |
| #6 Pretty much tells the world what those of us inside and here onthe right have been saying all along: The terrorists are taking advantage of the press's anti-Bush tilt to win the war via propaganda, because they cannot win ti militarily nor philosophically. If we had a press that was muetral, that was as skeptical about terrorist claims as it was about our own, we'd not have the issues we have now - and AlQ and other terrs would not have nearly the impact they do. For example, note that they ate the terroists propaganda hook line and sinker on the "slaughters of innocnets", wheter real of fake, yet not one article was int he mainstream about a recent Navy Cross winner and his heroism in battle, and look at al the skepticism in the commentray and reportign of Bush's trip to Baghdad - "PR Stunt", etc. Where's that skepticism when it comes to questionable PR stunts by AlQaueda and terrorists? Our press, in their failure to report in a fair balanced and skeptical manner on ALL things from ALL sides has essentially become an ally of terroism, and their main weapon in the war onthe west. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-06-16 13:29 |
| #5 I think the whole tactic of using the US media to gin up anti-war support back in the States is the key, 6. THAT'S the ONLY way that AQ would "win" in Iraq, and they know it. Even binny boy's gotta wonder if the Vietnam comparisons are just nonsense any more. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-06-16 10:45 |
| #4 There's a strangeness about the translation of the strategy docs. I can't see why they were released. Don't know what it is, but something isn't dissolving. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-06-16 10:12 |
| #3 Other documents stressed the need to manipulate Moslem and Western media. This was to be done by starting rumors of American atrocities, and feeding the media plausible supporting material. Huh. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-06-16 09:49 |
| #2 The same BS worked in Vietnam, thanks to Uncle Walt and his asshole ilk. |
| Posted by: Cleting Graque6012 2006-06-16 09:16 |
| #1 Al Qaeda's attitude was that if they could not win in reality, they could at least win imaginary battles via the media ah yes, keep winning those imaginary battles while we keep winning the real ones. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-06-16 09:09 |