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Iraq
More Background on the Offing of Charlie the Tuna
2007-09-29
The U.S. military released a handwritten note that it said was found on the site where Tunisi was killed in which he describes himself as being "surrounded" for 2 1/2 months. Anderson said the note was indicative of an organization in disarray.

"They are very broken up, very unable to mass, and conducting very isolated operations," he said. "And I think what that little note says is that he was very desperate; he wasn't getting the materials, the supplies, the guidance information; anything he needed."

Tunisi -- one of about six to 10 top leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq -- oversaw the movement of foreign fighters into Iraq as well as their operations, which account for more than 80 percent of the suicide bombings in Iraq, Anderson said. But he added that the flow of fighters -- until recently between 60 and 80 a month -- had been cut in half because of tighter controls by Iraqi border guards working with U.S. teams.

The military said Tunisi's group was responsible for capturing and killing Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker south of Baghdad on June 16, 2006. The bodies of the two soldiers were found mutilated and booby-trapped three days later along with that of Spec. David J. Babineau, who was killed at a checkpoint

Note the mastery of WAPO turning good news into a giant BUT!
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#1  Counter Terrorism Blog has more insight:

Oddly enough, this is not the first time that Abu Usama al-Tunisi has been reported killed. Over a year ago (in May 2006), Al-Qaida supporters posted online announcements declaring the "martyrdom" of Abu Usama al-Tunisi. The news of al-Tunisi's death was distributed on, among other places, the highly credible Al-Hesbah Islamic Network--which has been directly endorsed in past propaganda films produced by Al-Qaida in Iraq. According to that announcement

[..]

This naturally leads us to the problem of addressing this obvious discrepancy. Is it possible that there are two separate Abu Usama al-Tunisis serving as commanders for Al-Qaida in Iraq? Perhaps... but the likelihood of this incredible coincidence rapidly plummets when one considers that both of these men have been identically described as the commander of Al-Qaida's Aeisha Brigade and active in the area of al-Yusifiya. If we put aside this theory, we are left with quite limited possibilities. It would seem that either Al-Qaida supporters were engaged in a deliberate misinformation campaign on their own password-protected chat forums, or else the U.S. military has potentially been the victim of questionable intelligence. It should be further noted that Al-Qaida has prided itself in the past on providing accurate and timely information concerning the "martyrdom" of its military commanders. When former Al-Qaida commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in mid-2006, the same Al-Hesbah Network was one of the first sources to correctly confirm the news of his death on behalf of Al-Qaida.
Posted by: 3dc   2007-09-29 10:12  

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