U.S.: Zarqawi's Connections Grow Globally

[ECH1969]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence officials say Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has expanded his terrorism campaign in Iraq to extremists in two dozen terror groups scattered across almost 40 countries, creating a network that rivals Osama bin Laden's.

In figures not made public before, counterterrorism officials say that Zarqawi's network of contacts has grown dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and now includes associates in nearly 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Al-Zarqawi is now seen as the top general who is putting in place al-Qaida's long campaign to establish an Islamic society throughout the Middle East, with Iraq at its heart.

He also is helped, said one U.S. intelligence official, by the fact that there is not a large, constant American military presence in Anbar, but rather pockets of forces that are bolstered during operations. Iraq's largely Shiite security forces do not want to go to the Sunni-dominated area, either.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/22/AR2005102200562.html

[Missy M]

1. Wow, he's quite the man. Can you imagine how many number...

2's he must have by now.

[rodeodance]

4. Kerry always said this war needed a huge crime fighting focus-not just

a military focus!!!--a legal arm that would aggressively go after terrorits--and funding for this element.

[leesa]

23. The funding involves the Bush Crime Syndicate which involves most

of our government...now you don't think they are serious about busting themselves, do you?

[AlCzervik]

2. i wish i had a dollar for every Zarqawi bogeyman story, if i did

i would have enough to be eligible for Bush's tax cuts for the rich.

[afdip]

3. in other words, amerika

has provided the biggest boost to his 'career.' hey, that's amerika, an equal opportunity booster. using the american business model, al-zarqawi's "McQaeda" franchise is now in 40 countries.

[ECH1969]

7. You hit the nail on the head

This article is all but saying the world is much less safe today because of the Iraq War.

[hippiechick]

5. Wow, so now we'll have to invade the entire planet !

Think of all the bling bling for Halliburton and the other Military Ops Contractors !!!

[tularetom]

6. Whatever happened to that letter to zarqawi

purported to be from some al qaeda muckety muck asking for money? I thought it was bullshit from the getgo but was it ever debunked? Or was it so obviously a fake that even the librul media refused to get taken in by ot?

[Old and In the Way]

8. Does Osama report to him now?

nt

[ECH1969]

9. The article says Osama gets money from him

[pschoeb]

13. Who is this Osama you speak of?

The War on Terror has always been against Zarqawi.

[SittingBull]

10. Fits to * latest speech

what a coincidence- remember the new arguemnt of terror imperialism from spain to south-east-asia?

No, after all I've read I can strongly maintain: Zarkawi is a myth, a dead man, the new Emanuell Goldstein...

[ECH1969]

11. If you want to spin it that it fits Bush's last speech you can

But, it is far easier and more effective to spin as the Iraq War has made the world much less safe.

[SittingBull]

21. That's also true

but don't depend on myth Zarkawi...

[No Exit]

12. Coming soon: The Zarqawi video game!!

YOU can rock and sock those evil terr'ists now! Rev up your PlayStation! New terr'ists pop up constantly (and old ones come back to life) in the new Grand Theft Zarqawi video game!

(Check our previous swell products, such as the 2000 "Grand Theft Presidency" video game!)

[spooked911]

17. I bet such a game is coming.

I like the "2000 "Grand Theft Presidency"" game. :)

what about the 2004 "Grand Theft Presidency" game?

[No Exit]

26. LOL!! Touche!

[K-W]

14. Nothing like a big spoonfull of bullshit for lunch. EOM

[wookie294]

15. Media needs to DOUBT Pentagon assertions

When will the Post or the Times do a front-page story that looks like this....

How US fuelled myth of Zarqawi the mastermind

By Adrian Blomfield outside Fallujah
(Filed: 04/10/2004)

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader believed to be responsible for the abduction of Kenneth Bigley, is 'more myth than man', according to American military intelligence agents in Iraq.

Several sources said the importance of Zarqawi, blamed for many of the most spectacular acts of violence in Iraq, has been exaggerated by flawed intelligence and the Bush administration's desire to find "a villain" for the post-invasion mayhem.

US military intelligence agents in Iraq have revealed a series of botched and often tawdry dealings with unreliable sources who, in the words of one source, "told us what we wanted to hear".

"We were basically paying up to $10,000 a time to opportunists, criminals and chancers who passed off fiction and supposition about Zarqawi as cast-iron fact, making him out as the linchpin of just about every attack in Iraq," the agent said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml

Or, how about this....

Experts: No single al-Qaida mastermind
7/23/2005, 5:28 p.m. PT

Experts searching for common threads behind the attacks suggest that the war on terror is being waged against an ever-increasing well of recruits, bound together by motives and cause — rather than a single al-Qaida mastermind.

With havens in Afghanistan under pressure and their finances under scrutiny, militants may take philosophical guidance from the likes of Osama bin Laden but are largely relying on their own resources in carrying operations, experts interviewed by The Associated Press said Saturday.

"They all want to be part of this phenomenon," said Loretta Napoleoni, author of "Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks," as she explained the terror wave. "It's not like someone is telling (the militants), `You bomb on the first of July.'"

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050724/D8BHE1J00.html

[spooked911]

16. what a huge load of crap.

don't believe anything any intelligence officials say about terrorism.

[LynnTheDem]

18. grown dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq

grown dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq

Exactly.

[reprobate]

19. The Zarqawi stories are actually talking about a Wack-a-Mole game.

He just keeps popping up whenever the Neocons need to bump up Caligula's numbers.

I heard that Zarqawi is actually a character invented by Hasbro.

[EFerrari]

33. Who was the marshmallow monster in Ghostbusters?

The StayPuft guy maybe? He's on the runway.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. Not bad for a dead guy, several times over.

[ck4829]

22. But. But. "WE'RE FIGHTING THEM OVER THERE SO WE DON'T HAVE TO OVER HERE!!"

[leesa]

24. Goldstein...he's everywhere! Just like the communism scam...we can

invade any country we choose and rob em blind in our pursuit of phony terrorists

[pinniped]

28. They did a good job at it, too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5136013

[nookiemonster]

25. Jeebus! He's a friggin Cyborg.

All those detachable limbs and such.

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

34. Bionic detachable limbs.

:rofl:

[pinniped]

27. How the F do they know? Did they intercept his super-secretive letters...

again?

Did they shake the info out of the www.Islamic-Militants.iq webmaster they allegedly caught?

I thought al-Zarqawi's power and influence was waning?

Last throes?

B.S.

[Ignacio Upton]

29. Didn't we have a chance to kill him before the invasion?

I thought he was hiding in Kurdish-ctrolled area.

[MGKrebs]

30. Self delete.

[No Exit]

31. ... and he wants to talk to Judy Miller about career opportunies! n/t

[IndianaGreen]

32. I don't believe a word of it!

Bush needs another bogeyman to replace Bin Laden. This bullshit story doesn't equate with the many claims made by the Pentagon that we have killed al-Zarqawi's number two man at least a dozen times.

I expect Condi Rice to say shortly that al-Zarqawi is in cahoots with Chavez in Venezuela, or Morales in Bolivia, or the FARC in Colombia, or Fidel in Cuba, or Dennis Kucinich in the US.

DU should start putting all the pronouncements of the Bush regime in The Lounge, because that is where their fictional press releases belong.

[tatertop]

35. Yes, it would be a relief if Zarqawi propaganda went to the lounge