"Today Is A Good Day"

Al-Zarqawi Killed in Air Raid

From the AP:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face. It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, al-Maliki said.

Loud applause broke out among the reporters and soldiers as al-Maliki, flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a news conference that "al-Zarqawi was eliminated."

CNN:

Terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, was killed in a coalition airstrike near Baquba, jubilant U.S. and Iraqi authorities announced Thursday.

The 3-year-old insurgency has "lost its leader," Gen. George Casey, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, told reporters.

Details are still emerging of the operation against the self-proclaimed leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. (Watch how al-Zarqawi's body was identified -- 2:28)

But the killing of al-Zarqawi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, is a major coup for the embattled coalition forces.

"Today is a good day," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told a news conference soon after cheers and applause broke out when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced: "Zarqawi has been killed."

Well, we aren't exactly awaiting official confirmation.  Tony Blair opines:

Tony Blair has hailed the killing of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq as "a very important moment for Iraq".

In a short statement released this morning Mr Blair said the US air raid that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would deal a severe blow to al-Qaida.

"A blow against al-Qaida in Iraq is a blow against al-Qaida everywhere," he said.

Throw in the *POSSIBLE* breakthrough with Iran on its nuclear program, and we might actually be reviving that old spirit of optimism around here.  In fact, I like this 9 hour old Bloomberg story with the BBC follow:

Bloomberg:

Oil fell for a third day in New York after a report showed U.S. oil and gasoline stockpiles increased and as Iran considered incentives to end its nuclear research.

BBC:

Oil prices have dropped sharply to below $70 a barrel on news of the death of the militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq.

Two key oil prices, for July delivery of US light sweet crude and UK Brent, fell to $69.54 and $68.35 respectively.

Prices had already been on the slide because of healthy oil stocks in the US and an easing of tensions with Iran.

Well, capturing Saddam had less impact than expected.  But today is a good day.

UPDATE:  The Captain has lots, and will no doubt have more.

MORE:  The tinfoil crowd should explain that this announcement is a transparent attempt to overshadow something else, but what?  The "Waiting for Fitzgerald" indictment of Rove?  The opening of the Yearly Kos?  C'mon, what is the story behind the story?

Comments

[clarice]

Iowahawk's racy take on Z:
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2006/06/paradise_blows.html

[Jane]

BTW has anyone read Jim Miklaszewski's piece for MSNBC today?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4431601/

Predictably he blames Bush for the victims of Zarqawi, but amazingly he admits:

1. Al Qaida was in Iraq prior to the start of the war, and

2. They had WMD!

From the link: "In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide."

[clarice]

Update:Our forces raided 39 locations last night and the last thing Zarqawi saw was our special forces. http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/06/09/was-zarqawi-alive-when-us-troops-got-there/

[lurker]

39 more locations last night? Great! Hope that will slow down the insurgency dramatically. Think Iran and Syria will try and send more of their fedayeens and suicide bombers across the border? Hope those borders are not as porous as ours.

Tehehe, loved Rick Moran's post about Bolton. Will UN collapse like the League of Nations did? Apparently, UN hasn't learned from the collapse of League of Nations.

[lurker]

Clarice, you're mentioned at strata-sphere. Loved his response. Ain't Rick Moran and strata-sphere great?

[lurker]

crosspatch over at strata-sphere found this article:

US father visiting Haditha saw no sign of massacre

God bless our troops.

[lurker]

Wow, what an article from Andrew McCarthy regarding intelligence with its leak record. Check wizbang and NRO.

[clarice]

S & L notes Time has made some corrections to its original story and left some big lies in. http://www.sweetness-light.com/

[cathyf]

I read the McCarthy article. He's complaining that leakers bragging about our intelligence coup gave enough details that AQ will be able to figure out who our friend is. And even if they don't kill our asset, we'll have to extract him and spirit him off somewhere safe.

Well, uh, sure, maybe. Or maybe what we've been told about who ratted the Z-man out is clever disinformation. And AQ is being set up to go on a paranoid spy hunt and purge in their own ranks. Just remember -- every resource that AQ spends killing their own (real or imagined) traitors is a resource that they are not using to kill coalition soldiers or Iraqi civilians. And every AQ agent killed by their own side is one fewer scumbag that we have to kill.

cathy :-)

[clarice]

Yeah, Cathy, I'm with you on that one.

[clarice]

Yeah, Cathy, I'm with you on that one.

[cathyf]

Oops, shoulda put up the link: No Wonder Our Intelligece Is So Sparse [Andy McCarthy]

cathy :-)

[Extraneus]

I'm with Cathy, too. Maybe the guys in theater are good enough to disinform the bad guys and the NY Times (and maybe even their sources at Langley) at the same time.

[cathyf]

If I was going to list most-to-least gullible, the bad guys have to be least. Not sure whether the NYT or CIA wins the Most Gullible award, though. They are both pretty formidible competitors for the title.

[Syl]

That was my first thought, too, Cathy.

And my second. And third. ;)

[Lurker]

In reference to the Haditha articles, anyone happen to see the cartoon at lucianne.com?

[Lurker]

UGH!

Can you imagine this guy running the house?

[Lurker]

Another link about this guy

[Lurker]

The dems are planning to submit resolutions to pull troops out:

Troop Bills

[clarice]

Did you notice in the first shots of locals climbing over the rubble, one of the kids picked out a brand new teddy bear and held it up for the photographer? How often will the press be complicit in this propaganda?

[Syl]

The American citizens may be tiring of the war but as a whole, they're not ready to pull troops out yet.

The seem to understand the implications. Just like the Iraqis do.

The Dems are committing suicide with these proposals.

[Lurker]

Yeah, I saw that. With this teddy bear AND an attempt to show Zarqawi's bloody face before he was cleaned up. I thought it was mighty nice of our troops to make an effort to clean him up, remove him as quickly as possible; yet, our media HAD to ask Caldwell if showing that face was a violation of the Geneva treaty. Reading about how they felt our hated terrorist had to be cleaned up, would they do the same in reverse. No, they have not and will not ever. Our terrorists do NOT recognize the Geneva treaty and our media having the gall to ask this stupid question. I wonder what Caldwell thought about this particular question, in spite of the answer he gave.

Geeach, our favorite media continues to screw us and our troops.

And other bloggers are upset that ABC showed a photo of the captured guy that rattled on Zarqawi.

Anyone find any transcripts or comments to that YKOS's CIA leak investigation panel?

[Lurker]

"The American citizens may be tiring of the war but as a whole, they're not ready to pull troops out yet.

The seem to understand the implications. Just like the Iraqis do.

The Dems are committing suicide with these proposals."

Actually, I'm tired of the over-hyped, negative reporting by our favorite media. Wouldn't a more positive and accurate reporting boost the morale of our troops, speeding their return home?

Pulling the troops out before the "job is finished" is going to harm our troops in the long fun, especially after Vietnam War (won but lost later), Desert Storm (incomplete - boy, were people furious we pulled back on this one), Desert Fox (incomplete), and this war, if incomplete.

[Cecil Turner]

Better example is Mogadishu, which emboldened Osama and Al Qaeda. His first (and last) post 9/11 TV interview stressed it as a goal worthy of emulation:

"Our brothers with Somali mujahedeen and God's power fought the Americans. God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin," bin Laden said.

[maryrose]

Thanks to Clinton Cutting and Running in Mogadishu the terrorists were emboldened. Later Clinton had Monica fever. The rest as they say is history.

[Extraneus]

Speaking of General Caldwell, I think one of the biggest mistakes Bush has made is to ignore the value of a charismatic theater commander. Like the "stuck on stupid" guy in New Orleans, Shwartzkopf last time and even Tommy Franks this time were able to keep the media at bay and the military focus on military events. (Who wasn't impressed by those beret-wearing body guards that used to escort Shartzopf to the news conferences?) Without people like them, it all too easily sinks into the muck of politics.

[maryrose]

loved the "stuck on stupid" guy in New Orleans, General Honore's dismissal of reporters who couldn't get their facts straight and insisted on beating a dead horse was classic.

[windansea]

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qa'eda leader in Iraq who was killed in a US airstrike this week, liked to start the day by reading the online version of The Daily Telegraph.

His hatred of the United States meant he did not trust American media reports, those close to the terrorist organisation say, so instead preferred British ones to gain a Western perspective on the war in Iraq.

In particular he tried to regularly read The Telegraph and The Guardian, either through satellite technology or through articles printed and delivered to him.

"Often instructions passed to his supporters included facts about the West that had come from these two papers," said Majed Hamid, an Iraqi reporter for Al Arabiya TV, who was detained by the US military for three months after coalition forces became suspicious of his close ties to members of Zarqawi's group in western Iraq.

"He considered both papers very authoritative."

bipartisankiller

[windansea]

got to agree with Zarq...I don't trust the US media either....

he would have gotten the impression he was winning