WE WERE THIRSTY....:

Our Strategy for a Democratic Iraq (Nouri al-Maliki, June 9, 2006, Washington Post)

The completion of the national unity government Thursday in Iraq marks the starting point for repaying Iraqis' commitment to and thirst for democracy. We are at this juncture thanks to the bravery of the soldiers, police and citizens who have paid the highest price to give Iraq its freedom. Our national unity government will honor these sacrifices by pursuing an uncompromising agenda to deliver security and services to the Iraqi people and to combat rampant corruption.

This government will build on the additional momentum gained from the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in order to defeat terrorism and sectarianism and to deliver on the Iraqi people's hope of a united, stable and prosperous democracy by following a three-pronged strategy:

We will draw on the country's untapped workforce to kick-start extensive reconstruction, put into motion an initiative for genuine national reconciliation, and increase the intensity and efficacy of building the military and police. While some parts of the country have been very quiet and secure, this has not resulted in increased investment or reconstruction. Our government will correct this imbalance and develop the infrastructure and services in these more secure regions, making them a model for the rest of the country. We will mobilize the impressive energy and skills of Iraq's young population to invigorate the rebuilding effort.

This government will embark on a national reconciliation initiative, which is important if Iraqis are to begin to heal the divisions and wounds brought on by Saddam Hussein's dictatorial rule and further widened by terrorism. This, along with genuine cooperation among all of Iraq's ethnic and religious groupings in this national unity government, will allow us to pursue the terrorists with maximum force.

Baghdad is home to a quarter of Iraq's population and is its financial and political center. This government of national unity will launch an initiative to secure the capital and confront the ethnic cleansing that is taking place in many areas around it. We will meet head-on the armed gangs and terrorists who we believe constitute the main threat to security. Furthermore, we will develop and strengthen the country's intelligence services, which represent the best form of defense against terrorist bombings.

We believe we will soon reach a tipping point in our battle against the terrorists as Iraqi security services increase in size and capacity, taking more and more responsibility away from the multinational forces. Key to meeting this target is ensuring that current forces are properly equipped and competent to take over security, while at the same time enhancing and expanding the training program.

MORE:
Deputy Unwittingly Led Troops to al-Zarqawi (HAMZA HENDAWI and JIM KRANE, June 8, 2006, The Associated Press)

[White House Press Secretary Tony Snow :]

"Zarqawi moves into Baqouba, into an area called Hibhib. And what happens? Over the weekend, they found nine heads in a box. They beheaded people and left the heads in a box. They hijack a bus full of students and they slaughter the students.

"That's what Zarqawi brought to Baqouba."

Strangely enough, such is the contempt of the Left and the far Right for Muslims that they could imagine that would make Zarqawi a popular figure.
How U.S. Forces Found Iraq's Most-Wanted Man (Jonathan Finer, 6/09/06, Washington Post)

Earlier this year, al-Qaeda in Iraq recast itself as part of a coalition of insurgent groups called the Mujaheddin Shura Council. That move corresponded with a shift toward a more intense focus on attacks against civilians, most of them Shiites, and calls for civil war between Sunni Arabs and Shiites.

Sectarian violence has increased markedly nationwide since the bombing in February of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad. The Iraqi government pinned the attack on Zarqawi, though al-Qaeda in Iraq denied involvement.

In an audiotape released last week, Zarqawi called on Iraqi Sunnis to kill Shiites, including Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite cleric.

For years, Zarqawi and his top aides have been hunted by an elite and highly secretive team of U.S. Special Forces personnel known as Task Force 77. They nearly apprehended Zarqawi on several occasions, most recently in April during a series of raids near the southern city of Yusufiyah, according to a defense official familiar with the Zarqawi hunt.

A crucial breakthrough in the hunt came last month when Jordanian intelligence officers captured one of Zarqawi's mid-level operatives near the Iraqi border, according to the official. Employed by the Iraqi government as a customs clearance officer in Rutbah, along the main road from Amman to Baghdad, the operative identified himself as Ziad Khalaf al-Kerbouly. Kerbouly said in a statement broadcast by Jordanian television on May 23 that he used his position to help Zarqawi smuggle cash and materiel for the insurgency.

Under questioning, Kerbouly told Jordanian interrogators something that they did not broadcast: the identity and contacts for Zarqawi's new "spiritual adviser," Sheik Abdel Rahman. Task Force 77 located Abdel Rahman, kept him under surveillance and learned that there was "a very high probability" he would meet Zarqawi at the house on Wednesday.

According to a U.S. intelligence source, Abdel Rahman served as Zarqawi's liaison to Muslim clerics across Iraq, gathering recruits, funding and popular support for the insurgency. Unlike Zarqawi's previous spiritual adviser, Abdullah Janabi, Abdel Rahman -- a Sunni Muslim, as was Zarqawi -- supported al-Qaeda in Iraq's campaign of attacks against Iraq's majority Shiite population.

Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a U.S. military spokesman, declined to comment on specific Jordanian help. By his account, the capture or killing of several top al-Qaeda lieutenants in recent weeks, beginning with a cell leader in Yusufiyah on April 6, brought critical intelligence about the leader.

As expected, Abdel Rahman went Wednesday to the house in the village of Hibhib, north of Baghdad. "We knew exactly who was there," Caldwell said. "We knew it was Zarqawi, and that was who we went to get."

Despite previous reports of Zarqawi nearly being captured, Caldwell said, "last night was the first time we have had definite and unquestionable information about exactly where he was located, knowing that we could strike that target without collateral damage."

Shown from above in a military photograph, the house appeared to be a white, two-story structure with a verdant courtyard, located beside plowed fields and a paved road at the edge of a date palm forest. No other buildings were nearby.

The house was rented three months ago to a Sunni family that fled under threat from the predominantly Shiite Baghdad slum of Sadr City, according to Jumaa al-Ubaidi, the building's owner.

Two Air Force F-16C jets were brought into the attack while flying an unrelated mission, Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander of the Combined Forces Air Component, told Pentagon reporters by telephone Thursday. The pilots were told there was a "high-value target in the building."

Caldwell showed a grainy, black-and-white video of the attack, shot from one of the F-16s. A bomb dropped by the other jet is seen detonating in white cross hairs that mark the house. A plume of smoke billows. Moments later, another bomb explodes on the site.

Iraqi police soon arrived on the scene, followed by U.S. forces, Caldwell said.

In two photographs released by the military Thursday, Zarqawi's face appears bulbous and bruised, with a red welt on his left cheek, a few minor cuts and blood clotted in his nose. His body cannot be seen. Caldwell said his face was cleaned before the photographs were taken.

Several discrepancies emerged in various accounts of Wednesday's events. Police and witnesses at the scene told a Washington Post special correspondent that Zarqawi was only wounded in the attack and was whisked away by U.S. forces, dying in their custody. Caldwell said he was killed instantly.

If we had intelligence services they'd be the ones spreading the rumor that he was alive and Iraqis killed him themselves.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 9, 2006 8:12 AM