In there somewhere (may have to follow other text links):

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Despite its fortuitousness, the reputed death of the multi-legged brigand came as no real surprise. After all, approximately 376 of his "top lieutenants" had been killed or captured by Coalition forces in the past three years, according to press reports, and some 5,997 lower-ranking "al Qaeda terrorists" have been killed in innumerable operations during that same period, according to Pentagon press releases. With the widespread, on-going, much-publicized decimation of his group, Zarqawi had obviously been rendered isolated and ineffective – except of course for the relentless series of high-profile terrorist spectaculars he kept carrying out, according to other Pentagon press releases

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It is quite easy to see that Zarqawi was a scape goat for the Bushites. Zarqawi's group wasn't originally known as AQ' in Iraq... It was originally "The Monotheism and Holy War Group". Speculation... But it's up in the air as to who first referred to the as Al Qaeda in Iraq, Zarqawi himself or the Bushites. Either way, it was a public relation godsend for without Zarqawi, there was really little to link the war on terror to the war in Iraq.

The big question to ask is why now? Why did the Bushites suddenly feel the need to eliminate their man whose constant terror videos drove support at home for the war? Big spotlight events in the past have allowed the Bushites to get some pretty obscene crap go under the radar, so what exactly are they trying to divert the spotlight from.

Can anyone say Haditha? The CIA has recently classified most of the pics to come out of Haditha (and potentially other civilian execution cover-ups) as a threat to national security. And I don't blame them... Rumoured to be amoungst these pics includes several children age 1 through 5 that were executed by automatic weapon fire to the head. Talk about a threat to national security, think of the uproar these would cause.

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I expect this will not help CheneyBushFeld & Co.

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Edit to add:
Thats one long read lance! Thanks for it!

[ 09 June 2006: Message edited by: Noise ]

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Reports from April indicate that Zarqawi had been “demoted” within al-Qaeda. Huthayfah Azzam, son of Abdullah Azzam, the mentor of both Osama bin Laden and Mr. Zarqawi, said Zarqawi was stripped of his political duties two weeks ago due to concerns that his actions were hurting the Iraqi insurgency’s support in the Arab world.

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And:

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On Wednesday, June 7, a mere 24 hours before the announced killing of al-Zarqawi, this piece was posted on Strategypage.com:

Given that Zarqawi has become a loose cannon and that his actions are handicapping Al Qaeda’s efforts, it seems reasonable to expect that an accident may befall him at some point in the near future. If handled right it can be made to look like he went out in a blaze of glory fighting American troops or that he was foully murdered. Either way, al Qaeda gets rid of a problem and gains another "martyr."

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In fact there is already a lot of it, even from mainstream sources, either playing down Zarqawi's role our mentioning the Pentagon's repeated use of Zarqawi as the usual suspect for all sorts of bombings. Here's the Washington Post article, as well as some speculation from a right wing blog linked off the antiwar site. Interestingly, this was posted 24 hours before Zarqawi's death -- oop, drgoodword beat me to the punch!

[ 10 June 2006: Message edited by: ceti ]

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"Zarqawi. Zarqawi. Zarqawi. That's all we hear about. Zarqawi was not here. This home belonged to displaced people," said a village resident, holding up a teddy bear and a child's knapsack buried in the destruction.

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Reuters

[ 10 June 2006: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]

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No one remembered or mentioned an NBC story aired on March 2, 2004 that reported the Administration had three opportunities to kill Zarqawi and didn’t. NBC Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski revealed back then:

"NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.”

Hmmmmm,…

The unquestioned assumption in the mainstream is that Zarqawi is Al Qaeda and since, everyone hates Al Qaeda, with him out of the way peace is at hand, the insurgency will be history and Iraqi Freedom will arrive at last.

Not so fast.

Professor Juan Cole who knows more about Iraq than any TV journalists was quick to point out :

"There is no evidence of operational links between his Salafi Jihadis in Iraq and the real al-Qaeda; it was just a sort of branding that suited everyone, including the US. Official US spokesmen have all along over-estimated his importance. Leaders are significant and not always easily replaced. But Zarqawi has in my view has been less important than local Iraqi leaders and groups. I don't expect the guerrilla war to subside any time soon.”

The key words again: “just a sort of branding,” just another way of saying that show biz has infiltrated news biz with Zargawi playing the role of the evil pirate that everyone can blame for any crimes they want. In fact, as Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Middle East Human right activist points out, the press has distorted his relationship to the resistance:

"Zarqawi was not a leader of the Iraqi resistance/insurgency. In fact, the leadership of the Iraqi resistance condemned Zarqawi and company. US intelligence itself believes that most of the resistance is home grown and not linked to Zarqawi/Al-Qaeda. This was intentionally obfuscated in the media parroting of government triumphalist PR." Source

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My theory is that agents of the US government colluded with locals to locate Mr. Zaekawi, and then executed him with aircraft lanuched missiles.

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CNN was showing the video of the strike on it's front page a bit ago... Probably moved, but it should still be there. It was a 500 lbs bomb that was dropped. After it hit, the commander in charge thought it wasn't enough and they dropped a second one.

It certainly succeeded in removing Haditha from the hot topic list

addit:

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My theory is that agents of the US government colluded with locals to locate Mr. Zaekawi, and then executed him with aircraft lanuched missiles.

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[ 12 June 2006: Message edited by: Noise ]