Word: zarqawi
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...Mousab Al-Zarqawi didn't have to be in a room to silence it. Dozens of times in the past three years, I have sat with insurgent leaders, listening to their bombastic pronouncements and boastful tales of "victorious battles" against U.S. forces, complete with verbal sound effects of gunfire and explosions. On such occasions, there was only one sure way to quiet them down: ask about al-Zarqawi. Suddenly, they would begin talking in hushed tones, almost whispers--as if saying his name out loud might conjure him like a malevolent spirit...
...interrogations were suitably aggressive - the let's-pretend network must have been Fox News - though only a few newbie talking heads were rattled. One gentleman who came forward to playact a Q&A on the war in Iraq was asked if the recent capture and killing of terrorist al-Zarqawi showed that the Bush war was, in fact, working. Reviewing the tape afterwards, one of the workshop leaders complimented him on his quick recovery. He allowed that the feat was all the more impressive considering that he didn't even know Zarqawi was dead until he was asked about...
...fact that intelligence agencies were able to close in on a man who had eluded capture for three years, during which his terror operations left thousands of Iraqis dead, suggests that some of those close enough to know Zarqawi's whereabouts and connections may have been ready to shop him to his enemies. Not necessarily, of course: The intel services could have simply gotten a lucky break through the slow but steady gathering of information, or Zarqawi could have made a mistake. Either way, a key agent in the chaos gripping Iraq has now been taken out of the equation...
...ability of the U.S. and its allies to isolate and eliminate Zarqawi may be a reflection of the Qaeda leader's growing isolation within Iraq. Six weeks ago, Zarqawi released an unprecedented video showing himself walking around Iraq, unmasked and in daylight, firing weapons and boasting of his continued primacy in the fight against the U.S. But that video itself may have been a response to growing rumors that the 38-year-old Jordanian was being marginalized within the insurgency out of concern by other leaders that his televised beheadings of helpless hostages was alienating even many Iraqis sympathetic...
...Back in his home town, Zarqa, in Jordan, a 12-foot banner was erected Thursday outside the home of Zarqawi?s brother, Sayel "Abu Omar" al-Khalayilaht. In blue letters on white, it proclaimed "the wedding of the hero martyr Abu Mousab al Zarqawi," a reference to the belief among his supporters that his "martyrdom" in the jihad against America has set him on a wedding-like procession to paradise. Veiled women weeping near the house were admonished by al-Khalayilaht, who said "Don't cry, but ululate, for he is a hero and a martyr." That sentiment is unlikely...