Zarqawi Found Alive After Bombing

[Tab]

Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was found alive by Iraqi police and U.S. forces who arrived at the scene of the bombing raid near Baqouba, a U.S. official told FOX News on Friday.

"Zarqawi was alive when U.S. forces arrived on the site," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said in a satellite interview from Iraq. "The Iraqi police arrived first, they found him in the rubble, put him on a gurney of some type."

Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said Zarqawi tried to roll off the gurney to escape once he became aware of the fact that he was being taken into custody by coalition troops Wednesday night after two 500-pound precision guided bombs blew up his safehouse near Baqouba.

U.S. forces immediately identified him as Zarqawi but were unable to interrogate him because he died "shortly after" being pulled from the rubble, Caldwell said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198850,00.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. Dead Men Tell No Tales

Nor do they wear plaid.

[robcon]

2. If true, the story is reassuring.

It doesn't bother me - it rather delights me - that he suffered before he went to hell.

[natrat]

19. i feel so much better now that glorious leader has triumphed

[anotherdrew]

26. oh yeah

didn't jesus say, "rejoice in the suffering of your enemies, for your enemy is my enemy?"

no - of course not

[cynatnite]

3. First they said he was killed instantly...

what's the deal here?

:shrug:

[Drum]

5. Next the Pentagon will release

the "fact" that he made a deathbed confession: praising W and announcing he wanted to die as a christian and a Republican....

[MrPrax]

16. Rolf...

Too early too funny...

The Zman even filled out a Pioneer pledge before he died, so proves it...!!

[plasticsundance]

37. Good one!! Thanks!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Blue_Tires]

65. no, the papers will show he "confessed" to

personally planning and carrying out 9-11

hiding Iraq's WMD's

bankrolling Michael Moore

serving as Kerry's campaign manager
:sarcasm: :nuke:

[Posteritatis]

51. That's a safe assumption, with two 500-lb bombs.. *shrug* (n/t)

[zreosumgame]

63. lots of room for doubt in this

nt

[leveymg]

4. How did this guy survive two 500 pound bombs in the next room?

Even for a minute? The things have a lethal blast radius of 300 feet.

Guess the targeting was a little off.

[Skink]

6. Missed him by that much.

[Wilms]

10. .

[BFBILLER]

28. It is possible

A lot of houses in that part of the world are made of steel reenforce concrete. Walls are often over a foot thick.

[leveymg]

32. What, were they expecting a hurricane or a war, or something?

Welcome to DU.

[daleo]

69. We usually hear the opposite after earthquakes

That's why the death tolls are so bad - lack of rebar, etc.

[Patsy Stone]

39. Not only survived

But all in one piece, too...

[jobycom]

43. Angels protected him

Like that school in Wyoming?

Who knows? Next we'll hear the bomb struck five doors down and he actually died when he ran out into the street to shout "Nanana!" at the planes and was struck by a beer can one of the pilots tossed out the window after dropping the bomb.

He's dead. Whether he died yesterday or a week ago, and whether he was a bloodthirsty murderer or a freedom fighter or just some poor shopkeeper who went Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn, who knows? If we're lucky, the historians will find out part of the truth in thirty years or so.

Meanwhile, Iraq is still occupied, people who shouldn't be are still being slaughtered, and Bush--who has a lot more bodies notched on his belt than Al-Zarqawi--is still free. So there's plenty of work to be done, and not much to feel any different than we felt three days ago about.

[Blue_Tires]

66. well said n/t

[shain from kane]

7. Did the attack blow off both his legs, or just the other one? n/t

[robbedvoter]

8. Cadaver face on all tabloids in my city - bad supermarket display

I almost dropped my shopping and ran to barf. Someone remind me: Why is this an event again?

[Roland99]

27. And they've only shown his face, eh? Interesting. And no cuts/bruises

from what I saw.

[librechik]

9. It's a Monty Python Holy Grail bit--legless, armless, still fightin'

incredible...I mean literally.

[LifeDuringWartime]

14. Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords.

:puke:

[adigal]

29. It was just a flesh wound!! n/t

[Patsy Stone]

40. What are you gonna do?? Bleed on me?

[MisterP]

58. see, he's getting better already

[Javaman]

11. So he had enough energy to try and roll off the gurney, but...

then "died" shortly after?

Me thinks, it's better to have a dead fake then a live one to blab.

[Tesla]

13. I've heard this story before......

[Spazito]

12. The story keeps 'evolving', changing....

He was killed in the bombing....no, he was alive but died shortly after

He was found by US troops, handed over to the Iraqis....no, he was found by the Iraqis, handed over to the US troops

and on and on

Interesting, to say the least.

[shadowknows69]

17. It's like they throw every possible story out there

and see what people will buy and then retract everything else or just never mention it again.

[Spazito]

25. Yep, they throw out the first 'official' story then they....

wait to see what the media reports via witnesses, etc, then 'evolve' the story to cover the inconsistencies uncovered by the media, wait again, rinse, repeat.

The 'evolving' will continue only as long as the media doesn't have a missing blonde, caucasian woman to obsess over.

[Patsy Stone]

41. True.

I also wonder if the "autopsy" was actually performed after he was dead. :tinfoilhat:

[IndianaGreen]

62. I wonder if he was actually captured and interrogated

before he was executed. Blowing up houses with air strikes is SOP for US troops to cover their tracks.

Now that Zarqawi is dead, Ann Coulter is back to the top of the list of insane people that must be neutralized.

[bigbrother05]

15. Just on CNN from Pentagon brief.

Wouldn't speculate on whether he died from blast injuries or maybe a bullet after the event.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. My first thought was that he needed to be dead, not captured,

because the dead Zarqawi couldn't tell who really blew up the Golden Mosque.

Then I saw the source was Fox News, and have to wonder -

Why does the administration want us to believe Zarqawi survived the bombing?

Another thought occurred to me last night as I was channel flipping past Faux - someone mentioned he'd claimed responsibility for 250 terrorist attacks.

250. Sounds like a lot.

250, in a country where there are 50 attacks a day.

Five days worth of attacks, over three and a half years.

How important was this guy, really?

[heliarc]

35. Not very important at all

I just heard a report yesterday on NPR that said his fame stems from the infamous and truth-challenged Colin Powell presentation before the UN Security Council. Apparently at that time he was a small-time gang leader of little import, and no connection to anybody. When he was elevated in importance by the circumstance of this theatrical stunt, he got paraded before the Al Qaeda big wigs, and its reported that none of them liked him very much. But by that time he was a celebrity...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5472135

[bigbrother05]

20. al-Zarqawi was alive!

Just breaking on CNN, Pentagon admits he survived, but died in captivity.

Edit: sorry for the repeat. CNN report from Pentagon brief.

These guys will lie when the truth would sound better.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. He was probably tortured for information.

[zann725]

23. He was alive MANY times, after he was allegedly killed MANY times in past

Give us a DNA test, some more definite proof 'this' is it. And IF it is, US forces could also find and kill Bin Laden today if they wanted...IF Shrubco wanted. But, as we know, Buscho family friends/business partners never meet their demise, or are ever "found."

[FreeStateDemocrat]

22. The kind of story that creates religious martyrs. can Fox News

be supporting our troops when printing stories that will inflame and aid the insurgency? Aid and comfort to the enemy by Fox News, don't theylove America?

[Barrett808]

24. I've been discussing the "death" of "Zarqawi" with friends

How can we believe any claims from this Bush cluster-fuck?

[Eurobabe]

30. We can't. Al-Z looked bloated:

he's been in morgue locker 221-C waiting for the right moment to appear in a gold-leafed frame. Just like they had the names and addresses of all 19 9-11 hijackers for a photo spread the day after WTC bombings.

It's a fucking set-up.

[georgiagirl]

31. Typical Bush 'story'

Keeps changing doesn't it? Typical. Have they ever heard of the truth? I never believe one word this adm. says.

In the picture (which strangely was framed yet the event was supposedly only a few hours before) his facial injuries look amazingly like Chimp's when he falls swallowing a pretzel or from his mountain bike. I'd like to see the rest of the body- this doesn't look like someone hit by a 500 lb. bomb.

Wonder when he really was captured and died- months ago, years?

[rocktivity]

33. SO THEY LIED AGAIN!!!

They had no choice but to come up with an explanation as to how his body survived being hit with a pair of 500-pound bombs. And I'm not about to buy that crap about him trying to escape and dying minutes later. What I WOULD buy is that they've either had his body on ice, or knew where he was all along and bombed him at the most politically appropriate time!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Jose Diablo]

34. He'll be back n/t

[Spinoza]

36. We can only hope

that that murderous, sadistic SOB knew what had happened and suffered (though probably only 1/100th of what his thousands of victims suffered) before his so well deserved death.

[sutz12]

38. Sounds a lot like they wheeled him in after the bombing....

Oh shit, someone's knocking on my front door. :hide:

[Patsy Stone]

42. Um, I'm sure this has been asked,

and I admit I haven't read all 900 threads about this, but where did we get his fingerprints to compare these to in the first place?

[mike923]

45. He was in jail in Jordan for many years

[Patsy Stone]

49. Thanks for that.

:thumbsup:

[JCMach1]

44. BBC is also reporting this now

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5064590.stm

Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive when Iraqi police got to the scene of the air strikes that targeted him, the US military says.

But the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq died of his wounds shortly afterwards, Major General William Caldwell said.

US planes dropped two 500lb (230kg) bombs on Zarqawi's safe house near the city of Baquba on Wednesday.

After US troops arrived, Zarqawi tried to move off the stretcher where he had been placed, Gen Caldwell said.

"Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he had received from this air strike," he said...

[JCMach1]

46. Let's see it took 500lb bombs, yet after the ineffective Iraqi

police were completely capable of going into this area after the bombing with no trouble?

This story has more holes and questions then that piece of Swiss cheese you found under your sofa but ate anyway!

:wtf:

[Tanam]

55. If they would have tryed to move in on foot

he would have caught wind of it and beat feet. Much easier to take out your target when they dont know its coming.

[daleo]

70. What if there's a child in the house?

Which there was.

[reprobate]

47. Isn't it interesting that nobody trusts a word Bushco says anymore?

[YankeyMCC]

48. I mentioned this yesterday...

Found it in the first report I read in the Boston Globe: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1379187&mesg_id=1380770

[Left Coast Lynn]

50. Dead is dead

Enjoy hell.

[texastoast]

54. Bush will be joining him someday

It's nice to know they will be together.

[Left Coast Lynn]

64. Heh

A comforting thought.

[kurth]

52. He sat up and asked for a ham sandwich

thereupon the Iraqis dispatched him to his honeymoon with the 72 virgins.

[daleo]

53. From Fox news?

What angle is being played, I wonder?

On edit - I suppose it must be necessary to explain how the presumed body was still in one piece after 1000 pounds of high explosive went off 10 feet away.

[Tanam]

56. A 500 pound bomb actually only has about 250 pounds of

High explosive in it.Who knows exactly where he was located in the house. Maybe he was in the basement, or in a tunnel, who knows. The shockwaves from a bomb can kill you just as well as any shrapnel. We have only got views from the neck up. Kinda tough to say he was still in one piece as we dont know.

[daleo]

67. A few points about the photos

As you say, it was only head up. I think that was to remind people of the beheadings he was supposed to have committed (no, I didn't watch the movie, and I am saying "supposed to" in the legal sense of the term, like "alleged to have").

The photo looked to me to have plenty of martyr potential. The head showed some damage, but nothing brutal. This is in line with typical martyr imagery of classical painting (think of all the pictures of Christ from the Renaissance and Middle Ages). I know it was supposed to have gloating potential from the Pentagon's point of view, but I don't think they understand the archetypes they are dealing with.

Remember, there were actually two 500 pound bombs. I believe the remaining 250 pounds of a 500 pound bomb is mostly iron jacketing, and that flies around at high velocity, so it's pretty lethal and destructive itself.

[demgrrrll]

57. This just in........General Francisco Franco is still dead. I don't know

that I am "glad" anyone is dead. That isn't how I think. I would probably say I am not sorry someone who harmed others is dead. I do think that this sets up expect ions that things are going to "turn around" in Iraq. If that magical turn around does not occur I think this will cause people to look harder at the civil war that George Bush has brought to Iraq.

[IndianaGreen]

59. There are 3 versions to this story

Version #1: Zarqawi was killed when the US dropped 2 500 pound bombs on the house in which he was meeting.

Version #2: Zarqawi was barely alive when pulled from rubble, he mumble something unintelligeble, and then died. (this is the OP version)

Version #3: This version just came out this evening, in it, Zarqawi regained consciousness while in a stretcher and attempted to flee, but died shortly afterwards.

Version #4: ??????? (to be determined)

[DoYouEverWonder]

60. Heck at this rate,

by tomorrow he'll have risen from the dead and they'll be calling him the Second Coming.

[daleo]

68. Version 4 - A deathbed conversion to Baptist and eternal love for Bush

Someone else said something like this, but it's worth repeating.

[tanyev]

72. Somebody better make sure he doesn't resurrect on the third day.

[IndianaGreen]

73. Ahhh, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour...

and changed his name to Jose Maria Zarqawi, then he croaked. He will then return with Jesus on the Second Coming to slay all the Jews that reject Christ.

I think that's how the theology of the Apocalypse is laid out.

[DoYouEverWonder]

61. Gosh, last night in GD

we were being discredited has conspiracy theorists for claiming he was alive when they found him.

[spacelady]

71. Idiots! WHY do they keep changing the story?

And here we were all convinced he was DEAD. Now they have to go and FINESSE it alll!!ll!

Is there no END to his absolutely DEADNESS??

And here Skinner told us to quit our denial. They are not letting us have closure, HALP, SKINNER!