[Obi Wan's Ghost]

Don't move this to the politics forum. This has to be read by all:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5058304.stm

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13195017/

[abe]

Originally Posted by Obi Wan's Ghost

Don't move this to the politics forum. This has to be read by all:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5058304.stm

WOW!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

[abe]

Zarqawi Scheduled for Martyrdom

June 7, 2006: The relationship between terrorist leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi and and the mainline al Qaeda leadership continues to deteriorate. Zarqawi's recent audio messages have not only attacked the U.S. and the Shia-dominated government in Iraq, but also Iran. He's even claiming that the U.S., Iran, and Shia in general, are in cahoots to destroy Islam. He has also called for continued attacks against Shia.

Except for his verbal attacks on the U.S. and the Iraqi government, he is almost totally distanced himself from the central leadership. Other al Qaeda leaders have been trying to down play anti-Iranian and anti-Shia rhetoric, and have been strongly discouraging attacks on civilians.

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."

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htm.../20060607.aspx

This was originally posted 22 hours ago. Almost a day before his announced death. VERY interesting.

[Obi Wan's Ghost]

Someone gave him away finally.

[abe]

Don't let Zarqawi get away with genocide

06-06-2006

By Raj Purohit and Golzar Kheiltash

Daily Star:

The recent string of attacks in Iraq by suicide bombers targeting Shiite mosques and holy shrines are the latest in an aggressive campaign orchestrated by Iraq's Al-Qaeda pointman, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

For months Zarqawi has been coordinating attacks on Shiites in Iraq. Zarqawi's intent is to spark a broader sectarian conflict that could trigger a US military pullout. But something more sinister lies below: a campaign of genocide.

Genocidal intentions were apparent as far back as September 2005. On September 14, after the bloody attacks aimed at Shiites that killed 150 people, Al-Qaeda in Iraq issued a statement that declared "all-out war" against the Iraqi religious majority. Since the statement, attacks have escalated - at least 1,200 Shiites have been killed and over 1,600 have been wounded.

Zarqawi's declaration raises significant long-term concerns, for it suggests that recent violence may in fact foreshadow a widespread targeting of Shiites - and ultimately genocidal intent.

Zarqawi's contempt for Shiites has been no secret. He has, along with other members of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, repeatedly referred to Shiites as "rafidha" - i.e. rejecters of Islam. This term is particularly damning in Islam, punishable by death. In addition to declarations of all-out war, by calling Shiites rafidha, Zarqawi is culpable for dehumanization - one of eight stages of genocide identified by Greg Stanton, president of Genocide Watch.

Genocide as defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" including subpart (a), "killing members of the group." Article 3 of the Convention lists the acts that are punishable, which include "genocide; conspiracy to commit genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide."

At minimum, a case can be made that Zarqawi should have to defend charges of conspiracy to commit genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide. Zarqawi's intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a specific religious group - i.e. Shiites - has been public since September 2005.

Some policymakers, however, are cautious to do this, recognizing the specificity of the genocide charge and the relative difficulty of proving it.

Since Zarqawi is a terrorist facing numerous criminal charges if captured and tried, policymakers cite limited significance in a genocide charge. This thinking, however, does not give sufficient weight to the seriousness of genocidal intent from both a legal/political and an "on the ground" perspective.

First, it is possible that Zarqawi is receiving financial aid from external benefactors who sympathize with his ideological agenda. Donors may be given pause if confronted with the possibility of a charge of complicity in genocide. Furthermore, it is important to note that while no international definition of terrorism exists, the global community does recognize genocide as a crime against humanity.

Second, a credible charge of genocide may shift thinking within individual members of the Sunni minority. Unhappiness with the political trajectory of post-Saddam Iraq has made them reluctant to criticize or oppose Zarqawi. They may confront him more openly if they are forced to confront a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Shiites.

At minimum, the secretary general of the United Nations should authorize Juan Mendez, the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, to investigate - with the assistance of UN Special Representative for Iraq Ashraf Jehangir Qazi - and issue a public report with specific recommendations.

The more ideal response, however, would be to invoke international criminal law and establish an international criminal tribunal - akin to the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals - to try Zarqawi. Equally compelling would be the International Criminal Court, a permanent court that has explicit jurisdiction over the crime of genocide.


Raj Purohit is an attorney and senior fellow in International Law and Justice at Citizens for Global Solutions. Golzar Kheiltash is an attorney and legal analyst at Citizens for Global Solutions.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article....ticle_id=72954

[abe]

Originally Posted by Obi Wan's Ghost

Someone gave him away finally.

That's what I read here. Especially if the insurgency could use the funds that MIGHT be forthcoming from the reward for info leading to his death.

Worth more to the cause as a dead man than a live man.

Maybe.

Key Zarqawi aide captured
Thu Jun 8, 2006 8:33 AM BST

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior aide of al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in Iraq with crucial information on Zarqawi and his organisation, an Iraqi government source said.

The source did not confirm a report on Iraqi state television that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would soon announce that Zarqawi was dead.

Al-Zarqawi lashes out at Shiites in tape

Updated 6/2/2006 10:15 PM ET

CAIRO (AP) — The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq railed against Shiites in a four-hour-long audiotape harangue posted on the Internet on Friday, saying militias are raping women and killing Sunnis and the community must fight back..
The tape by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appeared aimed at sabotaging the Iraqi government's efforts to name a unity government — but was also intended to enflame rising Shiite-Sunni tensions across the Arab world.

"There's a civil war going on in Iraq, but it will not become truly fierce until it's exported outside Iraq. This tape is trying to do just that," said Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi political commentator.

The No. 2 man in al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, chastised al-Zarqawi last September for attacking Shiites, recalled Bruce Hoffman, a RAND Corp. terrorism expert.

"Obviously, he (al-Zarqawi) is thumbing his nose at the al-Qaeda central leadership," Hoffman said. "That's significant."

A written statement said the audiotape was made two months ago. The CIA said Friday that technical analysis of the tape confirmed it was al-Zarqawi's voice.

Al-Zarqawi's Sunni insurgent followers have carried out some of the deadliest suicide bombings in Iraq's conflict and have frequently targeted Shiite civilians and mosques in an attempt to spark civil war. In his statements, the Jordanian-born militant often vilifies Shiites as infidels.

But the tape posted Friday was an unprecedented screed that chronicled what al-Zarqawi said was a Shiite campaign throughout history to destroy Islam and help foreign invaders of Muslim lands.

"Sunnis, wake up, pay attention and prepare to confront the poisons of the Shiite snakes," al-Zarqawi said. "Forget about those advocating the end of sectariansim and calling for national unity."

He pointed to two Shiite militias with links to parties in the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, accused by Sunnis in Iraq of running death squads in a recent wave of sectarian violence.

"They kill men and arrest women, put them in prison and rape them and steal everything from the houses of the Sunnis," he said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi expressed "a futile brutality, depraved mentally and morally."

"I believe the Iraqi people won't listen to such miserable words," he told a news conference in Baghdad. "Reconciliation is the hope for all Iraqis, and all Iraqis welcome it".

Al-Maliki has put together a government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds that U.S. and Iraqi officials hope will be able to ease spiraling sectarian violence in the country. But al-Maliki has struggled to get the parties to agree on key security posts that would lead any effort to bring stability — the interior and defense ministries.

He said Thursday he intends to announce names for the posts even without an agreement between his government partners in an attempt to force a resolution to the continuing differences.

Al-Zarqawi appeared to be aiming at a wider audience, seeking to rally Sunni radicals by tapping into mistrust of Shiites and non-Arab Shiite Iran.

He denounced Shiites across the Mideast, saying they were "the same as Jews, with secret meetings" and loyalty to a "mother country" — Israel for the Jews, Iran for the Shiites.

He called the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah the "enemy of Sunnis" and accused it of working to protect Israel from Lebanon-based Palestinian guerrillas.

Hezbollah gained widespread popularity among both Sunnis and Shiites for its fight against Israel. But its support at home has waned amid resentment by anti-Syrian Lebanese for its alliance with Damascus and Tehran.

The head of south Lebanon's Shiite religious scholars, Sheik Afif al-Naboulsi, said the militant leader was seeking to "incite sectarian sentiments" and "name himself the leader of the Sunnis."

The conflict in Iraq has reopened the long dormant fault lines between the two communities across the Arab world, where Sunnis form the vast majority.

Sunni-led governments have shown increasing fear of restiveness among their Shiite populations. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak enraged Shiites earlier this year when he said they were more loyal to Iran than their own countries, and Jordan's King Abdullah has warned of a "Shiite crescent" of power.

It was al-Zarqawi's first message since an April 29 videotape that seemed aimed at creating a hero's image of himself in the eyes of extremists after criticism over Muslim civilian deaths in some of his attacks — particularly hotel bombings in the Jordanian capital that killed 63 people.

The video was the first to show his face and had images of him firing a machine gun in the desert and consulting with mujahedeen leaders, apparently to emphasize his control.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...awi-tape_x.htm

[Obi Wan's Ghost]

Originally Posted by abe

That's what I read here. Especially if the insurgency could use the funds that MIGHT be forthcoming from the reward for info leading to his death.

Worth more to the cause as a dead man than a live man.

Maybe.

If anyone got a reward it won't go to any movement. They'll take the money and run somewhere civil, clean and free.

[abe]

This may have been a key to locating him, pinpointing him at this location on this date, according to CNN International.

Jordan announces arrest of al-Qaida in Iraq leader
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMMAN, Jordan


Jordan announced Monday the arrest of an unidentified leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, saying the man was responsible for kidnapping and killing Jordanians and Arabs and robbing commercial trucks driving between the kingdom and Iraq.

"Jordan's General Intelligence Department revealed today that it has arrested an official with al-Qaida in Iraq who has committed several crimes that included robbing trucks, kidnapping and killing Jordanian citizens and other Arabs," the announcement on state television said.

The suspect was an Arab, most likely from Iraq, where he was arrested, said Jordanian security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraqi Interior ministry Lt. Col. Ali Rashid said that his ministry had no information about the arrest and was not involved in the operation.

Jordan's intelligence department is known to be one of the most efficient security agencies in the Arab world. It coordinates closely and shares intelligence data with the United States, including US forces in Iraq.

In the past, Jordanian agents have teamed with their American counterparts on interrogations of insurgents in Iraq. But the latest arrest was the first confirmation by the Jordanian intelligence agency that it has agents operating independently in Iraq.

The announcement on Jordanian television said more information, including specifics on al-Qaida plots, would be broadcast in a special program Tuesday night.

The top leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for several terror attacks against his native country, including triple hotel blasts last November 9 in the Jordanian capital which killed 63 people, including three Iraqi suicide bombers.

Al-Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for scores of kidnappings, beheadings and suicide bombings in neighboring Iraq.

The group opposes Jordan's moderate stance on Islam, its longtime alliance with the United States and the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1994.

A Jordanian military court has sentenced Al-Zarqawi to death three times for terror attacks, including the October 2002 slaying of US official Laurence Foley, who was gunned down outside his Amman home.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

[Obi Wan's Ghost]

The sooner it is learned that Islamists are not religious and are just people trying to make money out of arms and drugs and kidnapping the better. The problem is massive illiteracy and poverty that has always existed in those parts of the world. Most people like that aren't intelligent enough and have nothing better to do so they are easy for a criminal leader to make a terrorist out of.

[von Wrangell]

ps. interesting timing though.......

[blackbird_1.0]

Wooo!!!

[Obi Wan's Ghost]

Originally Posted by von Wrangell

ps. interesting timing though.......

The ****er gave his location away leaving all those heads lying around in fruit boxes.

[national12345]

what fun

[Spliff]

[tooki]

This squarely belongs in the Poli lounge.

tooki