"Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out."
William Makepeace Thackeray
Captain Zarqalet And The Mysterons
Written by Jim - PlanetQuo - June 2006
In Gerry Anderson's cult 1960's television series, 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons', the central character was a rugged individual who after becoming 'Mysteroned' developed powers of indestructiblity. Each episode would end with our robust hero being killed in the line of duty but safe in the knowledge that he would ultimately cheat the grim reaper and rise from the dead to once again do battle with Mars' most deadliest terrorist organisation, and sworn enemies of earth, the Mysterons.
Bullets and bombs were utterly useless against Captain Scarlet, and no matter what weaponry the Mysterons deployed, their attacks could not induce a permanent state of death for Spectrum's finest and bravest agent. Captain Scarlet was to Spectrum what Abu Musab-al Zarqawi was to 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq'. Both men were completely dedicated to their respective cause, and both were more than willing to lay their lives on the line on a regular basis. Dedication to the cause and astounding powers of indestructibility aside, Scarlet and Zarqawi had something else in common. Both were puppets. Scarlet had his strings pulled by employees of Gerry Anderson while Zarqawi had his strings pulled by employees of the CIA and the Pentagon.
Captain Scarlet communicated via an electromagnet located in his mouth that allowed him to lip-synch rather convincingly with the voice of his operative. Zarqawi's puppet-masters preferred 'militant Islamic websites' whenever they wanted him to speak to the masses. Should Captain Scarlet ever become a convert to radical Islam, the personnel directors at CIA headquarters and the Pentagon might consider recruiting him as a replacement for the other puppet that the psy-ops people in Washington and Langley finally decided to take out of commission. Spectrum couldn't possibly object to their top agent being poached by the US government as they would surely agree that the threat posed to planet Earth by Al-Qaeda is much deadlier than that of the Mysterons.
The Mysterons possess the extraordinary ability to re-create an exact likeness of any person who they have first destroyed, and it would appear that the US military is also blessed with the same extraordinary, out-of-this-world powers - although not to the same degree of perfection. If the official story regarding the circumstances of Zarqawi's 'death' is to be believed, then the US army has apparently succeeded in performing a remarkably quick Mysteronesque rebuild of Zarqawi.
Whoever is responsible for the botch-job that was done on Zarqawi after his 'safe-house' was decimated ought to be sent to Mars to study the Mysterons' advanced techniques so that lessons can be learned in the re-creation of an exact likeness rather than a mere resemblance. Zarqawi's reconstruction is, however, a marked improvement on the surgical rebuilds of Uday and Usay Hussein.
Gentlemen, we have the technology...oops...sorry...wrong TV show.
Did The Mysterons Get To Zarqawi Before The US Miltary?
Imagine for a moment that you are a shrewd bookmaker then take a look at the video below. Next, decide the realistic odds that you would be prepared to offer anyone psychologically impaired enough to want to place a bet with you on survivors emerging from the explosion with their head and limbs still attached to their torso, and without even their beard being singed.
Would you offer 100-1? 1000-1? 10,000-1? 100,000-1? You are the bookie, you decide. When forming your book please bear in mind that the F16 responsible for the carnage that you have just witnessed in the video returned shortly afterwards and dropped another 500-pounder on Zarqawi and entourage. Even if you were to offer me odds of 1,000,000-1 or higher, I still wouldn't wager a single penny. I'd laugh at you for being such a silly bookie but applaud your effort in trying to make some easy bucks. Using only the visual evidence provided by the video recording of Zarqawi having his lungs 'shock-waved' as my form guide, I would consider anyone placing a wager on there being survivors to be a bookmaker's dream customer - the 'mug punter'.
Bookmakers love 'mug punters'. They are the bookies bread and butter - fools eager to be parted from their money. Gluttons for financial punishment. The 'mug punter' has no equal amongst idiots other than the 'mug viewer'. The 'mug viewer' is the US Government's dream customer - unthinking, uncritical morons with an insatiable appetite for being deceived time and again. On the basis of the video evidence, I'd sooner bet on the USA winning the World Cup or on George W. Bush admitting on live TV that he chickened out of going to Vietnam, and is a member of Skull and Bones who likes to blast regular amounts of Colombian marching-powder up his bugle and entertain homosexual male prostitutes in the White House well after midnight.
Anyone who truly believes that Zarqawi survived the two 500-pound bombs dropped on his 'safe-house' is strongly advised to consider reducing their intake of hallucinogenic drugs and seek psychiatric counselling. I have a sea-front property in Sheffield to sell to anyone who believes that Zarqawi was still alive after two 500-pounders pulverised his 'safe-house'. How could anyone possibly have survived bomb blasts that vapuorised the walls and the foundation of the target, hurled concrete blocks 300 feet, and left behind a 40 foot deep crater and five dead bodies in its wake?
My first thought on learning that Zarqawi had survived the bombings was 'lying bastards'. My second thought on the matter was that the Mysterons had shone their Martian light over his corpse and re-created him but I dismissed that notion entirely when I saw the gigantic photograph paraded at the press conference by Major General William Caldwell IV. Having watched every single one of the thirty-two episodes of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons when I was a kid - and, I confess, several times more when I was a grown-up! - I can state unequivocally that when the Mysterons do someone in, they always re-create an exact likeness of whoever it was they did-in.
Perhaps I may have overlooked something but the Zarqawi who had two 500-pounders dropped on him looks different from the Zarqawi who made his video debut in April.
Is the US military, the US government and their butt-licking, lapdog media whores seriously telling us that the two guys pictured above are one and the same man? Do the media think that we are all complete idiots? Alas, the answer to both questions is in the affirmative. That is precisely what they are telling us.
And who can blame the media for assuming that we are all unthinking, unquestioning imbeciles devoid of any semblance of critical-analytical ability when the incredulous stories the presstitutes print and broadcast are being believed en-masse? Not only do millions of people believe that it is possible for a man to have two 500-pound bombs dropped on him from a great height and survive but millions of people are also easily persuaded that the two guys in the photographs above are identical in every way.
Having discarded any possibility of Mysteron involvement in the Zarqawi bombing raid, I then considered other plausible alternative explanations as to how the world's second most dangerous terrorist emerged from the rubble of his 'safe-house' still drawing oxygen through his 'shock-waved' lungs, and after about 10 seconds of deep-thought and analysis, I reached the only possible conclusion - Major General Bill Caldwell IV is a lying toad. The Zarqawi that Caldwell claims tried to roll off a makeshift stretcher and escape the clutches of his troops is NOT the same Zarqawi who recently appeared in a video struggling with his machine gun in the middle of the desert.
I had a good laugh at that video - as I do with all other propaganda videos that the jokers within the CIA and the Pentagonproduce for our entertainment. Although not as side-splitting as the 'Fat Osama' video, the 'Zarqawi' video is still amusing in its own right - and not only because Iraq's most dangerous man couldn't fire his weapon. The chuckle-factor here is that the supposedly fanatical terrorist who despises the Great Satan with such a vengeance was filmed wearing a pair of US-manufactured 'New Balance' training shoes. Charlie Chaplin - eat your heart out.
Zarqawi, Roosevelt, Skimpy Lingerie And Black Lies
Having survived the trauma of having two 500-pound bombs dropped on him by the US Air Force, Zarqawi nonetheless remained determined not to be captured by infidel forces. According to the official narrative of events, the battered but still-breathing terrorist-mastermind was discovered at the scene of the bombing raid by Iraqi security forces who placed his bomb-proof body on a makeshift stretcher. US forces then appeared on the scene "very shortly thereafter", and one compassionate American soldier administered Zarqawi first-aid before the resilient terrorist launched one final bid for freedom by attempting to roll off his stretcher and escape. All the while the good Samaritan's colleagues sought to establish Zarqawi's identity. This they subsequentlty did by the scars on his body, his fingerprints, and...erm...his tattoos. Peculiar indeed - Islam forbids tattoos.
Also forbidden by Islam is the wearing of gold rings yet Zarqawi wore a large gold ring on his right hand when he gained notoriety by allegedly beheadingNick Berg - although there is no concrete evidence to substaniate this allegation other than the say-so of the US government, the CIA and the American media. Curiously, 'Osama bin Laden' was also filmed wearing a gold ring when he appeared in a video released in 2001. Peculiar, is it not?, that bin Laden and his 'number two in Iraq' are supposedly both followers of the ultra-orthodox Wahhabi brand of Islam yet both see fit to contravene the prophet Mohammed's forbiddance of the wearing of gold rings?
Another peculiarity. Why would an American soldier try to save the life of a most-wanted and universally despised terrorist? On the one hand we have US military commanders desperately trying to eradicate Zarqawi, yet on the other we find a humanitarian US soldier giving the Al-Qaeda (in Iraq!) chief first-aid. I see no logic but smell the strong and unmistakable whiff of bovine excrement. There seems to be no logical reason why US forces should need to confirm Zarqawi's identity when Major General Caldwell is on the record as saying that US forces had "definite unquestionable information" they could take-out Zarqawi's 'secret' hideout without causing collateral damage to civilians, and, that "we had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Zarqawi was in the house."
Zarqawi was not alone in his 'secret' hideout. Also present were Zarqawi's supposed 'spiritual adviser', Sheik Abdel Rahman, a third - as yet unidentified - man, a girl aged between 5 and 7, and two un-named women with erotic tastes in lingerie. An intact magazine picture of former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt was recovered from admist the ruins of Zarqawi's 'safe-house' along with a leaflet said to identify a radio station in Latafiya. Also found were a woman's leopard-print nightgown and some 'skimpy' lingerie. Officials did not say whether the items of erotic lingerie belonged to Zarqawi, his 'spiritual adviser', or either/both of the two women. One thing we can be absolutely certain of though, is that none of the lingerie items belonged to the slaughtered 5-7 year-old girl.
Given the proven lies of the US government to date, I have no hesitation in extending the former 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq' number two the benefit of the doubt, and not tarnish his already-tarnished reputation any further by levelling unfounded accusations of Zarqawi being a cross-dresser. If the media were to come out and say that Zarqawi was a transvestite terrorist then rest assured that the gullable masses would believe it. One can almost envisage the headline on Fox News: 'Zartranny Blown Out Of The Closet By 500-pound bomb' - and Fox News ought to know a thing or two about transgenderism.
I have to admit that I am somewhat perturbed as to why Zarqawi had a magazine picture of Teddy Roosevelt in his 'safe-house'. Perhaps he admired Roosevelt's role in catapulting the United States into World War II. Contrary to the populist historical view, it has been established that not only did Roosevelt have advance of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but deliberately withheld that foreknowledge from US commanders in Hawaii. The nips duly blitzed Pearl Harbor and the rest is history - except for the real truth about what really happened on that fateful day in December, 1941.
The axis of evil - the US President, the US government, and the US media - are presenting what happened in the remote farmhouse in Baquba as a successful military adventure when, in reality, the whole episode is evidently nothing more than yet another staged psy-op executed upon an increasingly naive and unquestioning audience who seem obliviousto the blatant propaganda and deceptions being layed on them on a daily basis by their duplicitious government. They were fooled by the Pat Tillman cover-up, taken-in by the 'Saddam Statue' debacle, conned when they bought into the Jessica Lynch Scam, and completely hoodwinked by the staged capture of Saddam Hussein. Hardly surprising, then, that the latest batch of Pentagon lies are being believed by the misinformed masses, of whom many will be too young to remember the 'incubator babies' deception.
Wanted: Dead Or Not Alive
According to US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, US military officials did not consider capturing Zarqawi alive. Strange. Wouldn't there have been intelligence value in capturing him alive? Zarqawi's capture and subsequent transportation to Gitmo or another 'secure US installation' for interrogation would surely have yielded a mountain of information similar to that disclosed by former 'Al-Qaeda not in Iraq' number two - and alleged 9-11 mastermind - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Zarqawi, tough as he is, would not be impervious to having a pair of high-voltage conductors connected to his cajones. I doubt that even the great Captain Scarlet could endure 1000 volts flowing freely through his gonads.
Intermittent charges of alternating-current applied directly to Zarqawi's nuts would have had him singing like a canary. I imagine that such a brutal information-extraction technique would also have had him singing like a choirboy or a Bee-Gee. Zarqawi performing a rendition of Staying Alive for US interrogators would have been most appropriate indeed given the circumstances. A version of Status Quo's Crawling From The Wreckagefor an encore perhaps?
Why, then, was Zarqawi not taken alive, and summary justice dispensed instead?
It can be seen from the evidence that the US managed to get plenty of mileage out of their agent provocateur in the period between former US Secretary of State Colin Powell first introducing him to the world in February 2003 during an address to the UN Security Council, and the Baquba assassination. There was further mileage still to be squeezed from his 'death'.
Zarqawi was not taken alive like Saddam because there was more propaganda value in killing him. Zarqawi was not taken alive because the US badly needed him to help deflect the eyes of the world away from the Haditha atrocities, and Zarqawi, right to the very end faithfully serving the purpose for which he was created, provided that much-needed distraction with his 'death'. Zarqawi was not taken alive because he wasalready dead!!!
How many times can a dead man be killed? As often as imbeciles are prepared to believe so.
We were initially informed by Major General Caldwell that Zarqawi had been killed outright by the bombing raid but within a matter of days, the Major General had changed his mind about the circumstances surrounding Zarqawi's 'death'. Which version is true Major General? Are either of your accounts the truth or are both just further examples of the US government's lie-machine operating in hyperdrive mode?
The Major General states that US forces were, until the night before they killed him, uncertain of Zarqawi's whereabouts, and, that with no "heavy concentration of troops in the area," US military commanders chose to attempt an assassination bid on Zarqawi with an airstrike "rather than wait to muster a ground assault to capture him, and risk his escaping." Ahem...jJust how many troops are required to capture one man? Is Major General Caldwell seriously expecting us to believe that it would require a "heavy concentration of troops" to capture a solitary wooden-legged man? I'm afraid he is.
Rather than take Zarqawi alive, the US military decided that it would be better to once again kill him. An MSNBC article of March 2004 reports Zarqawi as having been killed during a US bombing raid on the strongholds of Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq in April 2003. This is when Zarqawi was 'Mysteroned'...or rather...'Pentagoned', and developed his Captain Scarlet-like powers of regeneration and subsequent indestructibility.
If Bush thought that he could wring political capital from Zarqawi's death then he thought wrong. Nothing new there folks! A CBS News poll demonstrates that the terrorist-in-chief's low approval ratings will not improve on the back of Zarqawi's 'death'. Welcome to the world of bizzaro Bush where up is down, black is white, war is peace, and falsehood is truth.
Impropmtu visits to Baghdad in search of publicity will be of no help either. Bush's Machiavellian effort to re-shape public opinion ahead of the November elections are destined to meet with failure, and his desperate attempt to galvanise his approval ratings will not prevent a Democrat victoty.
9-11 Revisited - Fireproof Passports And Incriminating Documentation
In a statement issued by the Iraqi national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a week after Zarqawi's 'death'. We are told by al-Rubaie - an anagram of 'U Be A Liar' - that "a pocket hard-drive, a laptop and documents were found in the debris after the strike." All the while, al-Rubaie managed to keep a straight face. These bombproof items of computer equipment and documents revealed, according to al-Rubaie, the names and whereabouts of other 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq' leaders. Dead terrorists tell no tales but the incriminating, fireproof documents that they always seem to leave for the US to find speak volumes. How thoroughly convenient. How thoroughly unbelievable.
The Iraqi national fairy-tale adviser went on to say that "more information has since been found in raids on other insurgent hideouts." Surpassing the level of bovine excrement already excreted from the filthy, lying mouth of Major General Spinwell...oops...sorry...Major General Caldwell, the Iraqi prime minister's office claimed that one of the documents found among the ruins of Zarqawi's 'safe-house' showed that the dead terrorist "was planning to widen the rift between the US and Iran by carrying out attacks on US interests falsely attributed to Iran."
Major General Bill Caldwell, without once bursting into laughter, attempted to substaniate the astounding claims proffered by the Iraqi national propaganda adviser when he announced that he had 'digital photographic evidence' of the latest inventory of 'recovered items'.
In addition to skimpy lingerie, a magazine picture of Teddy Roosevelt, a map of a radio station in Latafiya, a pocket hard-drive, a laptop and documents 'showing' Zarqawi's dastardly plan to play the US and Iran off against each other, the Major General claimed that a suicide belt, a flak vest, passports, ID cards, vehicle license plates, ammunition belts, rifles, guns, and a night-vision device were also found amidst the ruins of what was once a hive of terrorist activity.
Should the BBC ever decide to revive the 'Generation Game' then Major General Caldwell's name is a dead-cert for the shortlist of potential comperes. Bruce Forsyth ain't got nuthin' on this dude.
Jihad From Beyond The Grave: Zarqawi And 'Operation Phantom Fury'
Not long after his first death in April 2003, the miraculous hand of Allah restored Zarqawi back to life. Allah, it appears, dispatched Zarqawi from the afterlife with instructions to travel to Guantanamo Bay to collect some orange overalls from the kind men who manage that establishment, before journeying on to Abu Gharib for the beheading of Nicholas Berg.
After fulfilling his role as the patsie for the CIA murder of Berg, and after helping to divert the world's gaze away from the Abu Gharib torture scandal, Zaraqwi then conveniently turned-up in Fallujah sometime during the summer of 2004 to act as the pretext for the forthcoming US blitzkrieg on the ancient city. 'Senior defense officials' allegedly told Fox News that "details on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's likely whereabouts came from the interrogation of Umar Baziyani, an associate of al-Zarqawi that was apprehended by Iraqi police forces on June 4." Baziyani is said to have told interrogators that Zarqawi "has been and is still operating out of Fallujah."
Acting on this information, in June 2004, the US air force launched, in the span of one week, three seperate bombing missions on Fallujah. A 'senior Defense Department official' told CNN news that "US warplanes targeted a suspected safe house ... As they began to drop 500-pound bombs..."
Hmmm...'US Warplanes'...'safe-houses'...'500 pound-bombs'...a treacherous 'associate of Zarqawi' spilling the beans...hmmm...this is how the US recently explained their foreknowledge of Zarqawi's whereabouts in Baquba:
"The capture last month of an Iraqi customs worker, Ziad Khalaf al-Kerbouly, by Jordanian intelligence officers led the Americans to Abdel Rahman, said the U.S. intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Kerbouly, who said on Jordanian television May 23 that he had used his job to help Zarqawi smuggle cash and material, gave Jordanian intelligence agents Abdel Rahman's name and contacts, the intelligence source said."
"A top secret U.S. Special Operations unit, Task Force 77, located Abdel Rahman and kept him under surveillance, the source said."
Is any of this starting to sound familiar? Is anyone seeing any red flags flapping before their eyes? Is anyone hearing bells ringing loudly in their ears? Ding-dong, ding-dong...anyone at home?
Zarqawi survived the attack of June 2004, and remained in his Fallujah 'stronghold' to devise further acts of terrorism, kidnappings, beheadings, and attacks on troops, ahead of the scheduled handover of power on 30th June from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi 'interim government'. Any plans that Zarqawi may have had to disrupt the 'handover of power' came unstuck when the CPA civil administrator, Paul Bremer, passed interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi a bulging brown envelope...oops...sorry...a leather-bound transfer document at 10:26 a.m on 28th June, two days ahead of schedule before jetting out of Iraq and into obscurity - presumably with his cut of the money plundered from the Iraqi people stashed safely away in a Swiss bank account.
Unfazed by his failure to disrupt the 'transfer of power', Zarqawi either remained in Fallujah to prepare his warriors for their forthcoming battle with coalition forces in November or he slipped away for a holiday somewhere before returning sometime in the Autumn. Either way, Zaqawri was in Fallujah immediately prior to the beginning of 'Operation Phantom Fury' - that is according to Iyad Allawi and...yep...you guessed...unamed 'senior defence officials'.
Addressing the world's media in October 2004, the then Iraqi 'Interim' Prime Minister and CIA/MI6 asset, Iyad Allawi, decreed: "If they do not turn in Al-Zarqawi and his group, we will carry out operations in Fallujah. We will not be lenient." The Fallujahn people could not comply with Allawi's ultimatum because, they protested, they did not have him to surrender. Allawi demonstrated weeks later that he had issued no empty threat, and after more than two months of aerial bombardments, Fallujah was attacked en-masse by US ground-forces on 8th November 2004 with British forces playing their customary 'active support' role. In excess of 200,000 Fallujahn residents fled their city in fear of their lives. Those who stayed behind were, as promised by Allawi, shown no leniency nor were they shown any mercy.
During the seven-week long assault on Fallujah, US forces deployed chemical weapons, and men, women and children were all mercilessly slaughtered in the name of 'democracy' and 'freedom' by their 'liberators'.
Hypocrisy. This where YOUR tax dollars and pounds are going people. Wakey-wakey, rise and shine sleepyheads before you end up in Iraq killing men, women and children for the benefit of Israel.
Having provided the US with the pretext they needed to reduce huge sways of Fallujah to rubble, Zarqawi somehow managed to breach the outer 'ring of steel' that American and British forces had formed around Falllujah, and slip out of the city completely unnoticed.
Or did he?
Zarqawi is reported to have been captured by Iraqi police but subsequently released because "authorities didn’t recognise him". It would appear that the Iraqi coppers - unlike the dilligent US soldiers who attended Zarqawi at Baquba - did not notice his scars or his tattoos or think that taking his fingerprints was a good idea. It would also appear that the US military's state-of-the-art spy satellites that can spot Iraqi mobile biological warfare production units...oops...sorry...artillery weather balloon systems, and North Korean missile launch preparations failed to detect any sign of a one-legged man wearing a ski-hat hobblling eastwards across the desert in the direction of Baghdad.
Come In Number Two - Your Time Is Up
In January 2005 Zarqawi was reported to have been arrested for the second time in as many months. Rumours circulated that Iraqi authorities had Zarqawi in custody but were delaying the announcement of his apture until just before the 'election' due to be held on 30th January. Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib refused to confirm whether the world's second most-wanted terrorist had indeed been captured.
Equally coy were Britain and America. Coming just before the 'election', the timing of Zarqawi's 'arrest' was interesting. It should not be forgotten that Zarqawi's most recent 'death' was announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki just a few minutes before he presented the Iraqi parliament with the names of the interior minister, the defense minister and the national security adviser whose appointments gave Iraq a full government for the first time since elections in December 2005.
Cor Blimey. Strike a light Guv. Stone the crows. Blow me over. Zarqawi finally snuffs it just in time to add meaning and relevance to the ministerial appointments just about to be announced. Predictably, Bush and Blair were quick to appear on global television to crow about Zarqawi's death, and to inform any halfwit who would believe their propaganda, of how Zarqawi's demise and the appointment of three Iraqi government ministers was evidence of the 'progress' currently being made in Iraq.
President Bush described the news as a "severe blow to al-Qaeda and justice for Zarqawi," while his perennial side-kick described the hit on Zarqawi as being "very good news." Both trumpeted Zarqawi's 'death' as being a 'victory' in their phoney 'war on terror' while emphasising that the violence in Iraq would not end. Indeed so. The senseless killing will continue unabated. Ending the violence is not the plan, and never was.
...And Justice For All
Speaking at Camp David where he hosted two days of coke-snorting...oops...sorry...discussions with his cabinet and senior military figures for the purpose of outlining a way forward for the US in Iraq, Bush stated that: "the successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice." Oh dear - better get those FI6s re-fuelled, stocked-up on 500-pounders, and ready for immediate take-off.
Justice as I perceive it, is where those accused of having committed crimes are presumed innocent until they are proven guilty. What evidence was ever presented proving Zarqawi's alleged crimes? Ouwith the say-so of the American/British governments, their intelligence agencies, their militaries, and their ever-compliant media mouthpieces, not one shred of tangibleevidence proving Zarqawi's guilt was ever produced. Ditto bin Laden's alleged involvement in the 9-11 attacks. Ditto Saddam's WMDs. Au contraire, the evidence that you have been presented with throughout this essay shows that it is the unholy trinity of America, Britain and Israel who are the real terrorists.
Justice, as I perceive it, is where those charged with crimes face trial for those crimes in a court of law. Justice, as I perceive it, is where the accused has the right to defend themself against the charges of which they stand accused. Bush's vision of 'justice' is the dropping of 500-pound bombs from a great height on people who are accused of acts of terrorism but not convicted of any. 'Justice' in Bush's Amerika now includes the murder of women and preteen girls.
And Bush labels Zarqawi a terrorist.
American politicians, media pundits, and countless millions of propagandised American citizens celebrate Zarqawi's death as if it were some kind of national achievement yet the very same people speak nothing of the slaughter of an innocent young girl whose only crime was to be in the vicinty of an F16 dropping its deadly cargo. In Bush's souless Amerika such savagery is now deemed to be the norm. Indeed, such savaregy now seems to be laudable in certain quarters. Where is the outrage? Is this what it has come to? Innocent children are being mercilessly slaughtered and hideously deformed by the United States of America inIraq and in Afghanistan yet these unfortunate little souls are considered to be no more than 'collateral damage'.
And America labels Muslims barbaric.
Meet The New Boss...Same As The Old Boss
Zarqawi had hardly set foot inside Paradise, and had barely begun to enjoy the rewards of martyrdom in the form of 72 nubile virgins, before Psyops in Washington...oops...sorry...'Al-Qaeda in Iraq' were announcing the name of the deceased terrorist's heir and successor - via, of course, 'a website used by Islamic militants'. The White House, however, stated that the identity of their latest bogeyman was "unclear." This completely contradicts a statement made the same day by a 'US spokesman' who confirmed the new terror chief's appointment. The White House statement also flies in the face of what Major General Bill Caldwell IV said. According to him, al-Masri is the same person as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer. Phew...talk about the 'fog of war'.
One wonders why a photograph of Zarqawi's replacement was released when the US is claiming that his identity is "unclear." I suppose Islamic evil has to have a public face, and, it seems, any face will suffice to this end. Also uncertain is the new 'Al-Qaeda' chief's name. Abu Manza al-Mujahir? Abu Ayyub al-Masri? Take your pick. In any event, it doesn't really matter - a manufactured bogeymnan is a manufactured bogeyman whatever his name may be. Since I sometimes get confused with the spelling and pronunciation of Arabic names, 'the new guy' will do fine for me.
Forgive my cynicism but I feel that the timing of the announcement of Zarqawi's replacement, along with the release of his mugshot by the Pentagon was engineered to lessen the impact of the news that the US death-toll in Iraq had now - according to 'official' statistics - reached 2,500. The buffoons who celebrated Zarqawi's death with such fervour won't have much to rejoice about when the inevitable happens and the US is eventually defeated in Iraq. Even the real power behind the throne has said that an American military victory in Iraq is beyond the pale. The same schmucks who advocate war with Iran ought to remember thatwhen - not if - either the US and/or the Israelis attack Iran, it will be US soldiers stationed in Iraq who bear the brunt of Iranian retaliation. They are sitting ducks. Go take a look at a map of the middle-east you fucking idiots.
The'Islamic militant website' that informed the world of the new guy's arrival described himas a "knowledgeable" man with "a history of fighting a holy war." The new guy, then, will be pitting his wits against a man who displays no obvious signs of being in possession of any significant intellectual ability. Al-Mujahir/al-Masri/the new guy has already won the first of his battles with George W. Bush. No contest. Getting the better of Bush in a battle of wits is no onerous task and nothing to boast of.
The new guy might be coming to the battlefield with "plenty of experience of fighting holy wars" but so too will God's annointed one. The new guy, however, does not have the seriously nuked-up US military machine at his command. Bush, God help us, does. The Creator instructed Bush to invade Iraq, while Allah has evidently instructed the new guy to continue wuth the martyred Zaraqwi's holy jihad against the infidel Crusaders occupying the land of Mesopotamia.
The new guy has had his card well and truly marked, and will be"brought to justice", decrees Bush. Not so, according to a statement made on a...cor blimey, isn't life just full of surprises...web site often used by the Penagon and the CIA...oops...sorry...Islamist militants. The new guy has served notice of the perils that lie ahead "in the coming days" for the crusader infidels and their offspring:
"Don’t be overcome with joy about killing our sheik Abu Musab, God bless his soul, because he has left lions behind him. You crusaders, what will happen in the coming days is something that will turn your children’s hair white - battles that will reveal the falsehood of your might, the weakness of your soldiers and your lies. The holy fighters have made the enemy taste the bitterness of defeat and humiliation. With God’s permission, your sons have reached the decisive moment."
Bush has also had his card well and truly marked, and Al-Qaeda, it seems, have developed a new weapon to add to their deadly arsenal of nukes, ricin, and hydrogen-cyanide gas. How novel - hair dye. But then again, terrorists using hair dye as a lethal weapon is not a new phenomenon...and it was Al-Qaeda who carried-out the atrocities in London...wasn't it, Mr B. Liar?
The more things change in Iraq, the more they stay the same. The Pentagon's PG02unit have apparently redeployed Zarqawi's speech-writing team to work on the new guy's scripts too. The successor sounds just like the predecessor. Did you spot any difference in tone, content and rhetoric?...no?...don't worry...I couldn't either.
Meet the new boss - same as the old boss.
Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.
Just when you thought things couldn't become more farcial...they become more farcial.
First, CNN reports that Zarqawi's cell phone had the numbers of senior Iraqi officials stored on it. The obvious observation is 'how convenient', and the obvious question is 'what fucking cell phone?' There was no mention of any bomb-proof cell phones to be found in any of the reports that I have read regarding the items 'found' among the debris of Zarqawi's 'safe-house'.
Second, an Egyptian lawyer has stated that he met with an inmate of note while visiting some of his clients in Tura prison in early July. The inmate in question turns out to be none other than the 'new guy' himself.
Zarqawi's Successor, the lawyer says, has been in that Egyptian nick for the PAST SEVEN YEARS!!!
It would seem that the buffoons in the Pentagon's psy-ops department have screwed-up yet again. Not content with making complete arses out of themselves with the Zarqawi farce, they then heap further ridicule upon themselves by choosing a convict as their new boogeyman.
Zarqawi ran his jihad from beyond the grave. Al-Masri will be running his jihad from behind the bars.
The Myth Of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Written by Jim @ PlanetQuo - September 2005
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has a $25,000,000 bounty on his head. That's £13,888,318.61 at today's exchange rate. Every man, so it is said, has his price yet the task of capturing or eliminating a one-legged man appears beyond the capabilities of the multitude of cash-hungry foreign mercenaries who are currently operating within Iraq's borders. Al-Zarqawi, the Americans and British allege, is the leader of 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq', and is responsible for most of the insurgent attacks and beheadings that have taken place all over Iraq.
In October 2004, Al-Zaraqwi's Tawhid and Jihad group pledged allegiance to, and joined forces with, Al-Qaeda. Zarqawi is, according to a CNN article of May 2004: "arguably more important than Bin Laden", and that: "this may be his attempt to assert his own claim to the leadership mantle, to say he's really the most important terrorist in the world today, and that he is, in some sense, replacing bin Laden."
With bin Laden's apparent hiatus from terrorist activity, Zarqawi has adequately filled Osama's shoes as the bogeyman.
It is unclear, however, precisely where Zarqawi is at any given moment - he doesn't seem to remain in any one place for too long. He does get around though. Indeed, Zarqawi gets around a lot. He is able to travel extensively throughout Iraq organising and executing acts of insurgency, terrorism, kidnappings and beheadings. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a very busy man. Zarqawi, it is claimed, was the mastermind behind the thwarted Ricin attacks in several European countries - including Britain. Zarqawi was the brains behind the Ricin plot that never was. Disingenuous.
The psyops machines in London and Washington would have us believe that Zarqawi was also the inspiration behind the London 'suicide bombers'. Indeed, within days of the attacks taking place he was being linked with the bombings despite there being no evidence whatsoever to substaniate such allegations.
Al-Zaqarwi is evidently a very resourceful and clever man. He is able to concoct, plan, organise and execute acts of terrorism whenever and wherever he pleases. Not content with single-handedly bringing about the destruction of Iraq, he also plans to visit the United States and launch a series of terror attacks on American soil. Al-Zarqawi is one smart guy. Indeed, he is evidently much smarter than the dumbass CIA, MI6 and SAS operatives in Iraq. The master terrorist outsmarts them every time.
Even with their accumulated expertise and technology, the coalition forces can't capture him. The bungling buffoons in the military and intelligence services can't even locate him let alone nail him. Zarqawi, it seems, is way out of their league - free to wander around Iraq unimpeded and undetected, leaving mayhem, chaos, destruction and piles of burning bodies in his wake.
Al-Zarqawi's amazing skills become even more amazing when one considers that one of his legs was amputated because of wounds sustained in the course of battling against American troops in Afghanistan. Clearly, he doesn't walk to work. I wouldn't expect him to cycle either. He must therefore have access to some form of motorised means of transport in order to carry out his hectic schedule of bombing missions, troop assaults, kidnappings and beheadings.
Zarqawi must know of road and/or air routes in and out of Iraqi cities and towns that US military planners and the intelligence agencies are somehow not aware of. Zarqawi moves around as if he were a ghost. Indeed, some say that he is a ghost.
An MSNBC article of March 2004 reported Zarqawi to have supposedly been killed during a US bombing raid on the strongholds of Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq in April 2003. It was said that Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing because of the limitations imposed upon his mobility by his prosthetic leg. Allah came to the rescue though, and resurrected Zarqawi from his desert resting place to once again lead the Jihadis into battle against the forces of the Great Satan but the indestructible leader of 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq' was not to remain at liberty for long.
Later that same month, a report surfaced claiming that US forces in Fallujah had captured a man identified as Nizar Fadl Al-Khalayleh - A.K.A. Abu Musab Al Zarqawi - a Palestinian of Jordanian nationality, said to have been responsible for a series of Al-Qaeda linked attacks around the Middle East. Zarqawi, however, was not prepared to sit around festeringin jail, so he used his cunning and resourcefulness to escape from his custodians. Just four months later, he was reported to be once again in custody - this time courtesy of the Iranian government.
Despite his impaired mobility and advanced state of death, the elusive Zarqawi continues to organise and execute Al-Qaeda's holy war in Iraq right under the noses of the coalition forces. If Zarqawi is indeed a ghost, then Al-Qaeda has given new meaning to the concept of 'spiritual warfare'.
Not content with being buried under six feet of sand in northern Iraq, Zarqawi led the insurgents of Fallujah into battle with the infidels armies who had surrounded the ancient city in their tanks and Humvees. Prior to the massive military assault that took place in November 2005, Interim Iraqi President Iyad Allawi had said that only the surrender of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to coalition forces could prevent the assault from commencing.
The United States insisted that Zarqawi was in Fallujah organising the insurgency but the residents of Fallujah vehemently denied the allegation. Zarqawi was not handed over, and the US military duly reduced the city of Fallujah to rubble - polluting its air with the discharge of Depleted Uranium shells and chemical weapons in the process.
Fallujah could not surrender Al-Zarqawi, said its Clerics, because they did not have him to surrender. This is reminiscent of similar demands made on the Taleban regarding the surrender of bin Laden. Peculiar, most peculiar.
Zarqawi fortunately evaded another meeting with the Grim Reaper, and managed to escape the US onslaught. Given that Fallujah was completely surrounded by US and British forces, one wonders quite how he managed to flee undetected. Harry Houdini ain't got nothing on this guy! Having easily outwitted American forces yet again, Zarqawi continued where he had left off, and resumed planning the downfall of the Crusaders and the Jews.
Having emerged from the Fallujah skirmish unscathed - and undetected - Zarqawi appears to have taken some time-out before returning to front-line Jihad duties by beheading two Iraqis, and vowing to declare war on the forthcoming 'election'. Perhaps Zarqawi took a vacation in Barbados or Mauritius in the interim. He must have been so exhausted after carrying-out all those bombings, attacks on US troops, and all those beheadings.
The BBC website reported in January 2005 that Zarqawi had been arrested inside Iraq and would be publicly paraded just before the advent of the election that he declared war upon. Neither London or Washington would confirm or deny Zarqawi's reported capture though.
The Iraqi interior minister was keeping schtum too. "No comment", was his reply to enquiries regarding Zarqawi being in the custody of the Iraqi 'interim government'. Don't they just love to keep us guessing? Don't they just love playing mind games? Aren't they so full of crap? There was no public parade of Iraq's most-wanted man because they never had him to parade in the first place. Draw your own conclusions as to why they strung everyone along.
The Iraqi Interior Minister broke his silence in early February when he announced in a satellite video news conference from Baghdad that US and Iraqi security forces had 'nearly' captured Zarqawi a few weeks ago. It seems that they they missed him by "one hour maybe". What a lousy stroke of luck. I recall hearing a similar story regarding bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora! Peculiar, most peculiar.
The Interior Minister assured the assembled reporters in Baghdad that he was:
"confident Zarqawi eventually will be eliminated and the insurgency brought under Iraqi control."
Given their record to date, the bungling miltary and intelligence operatives hunting Zarqawi would have a hard job catching a fish in the Euphrates let alone snaring the world's second most-wanted 'terrorist'.
As for bringing the insurgency under control, events that have occurred since Mr. Falah al-Naquib made his bold statement serve only to demonstrate a rather inflated sense of optimism on the Minister's part. The body count between then and now belies his confidence. Don't ever take camel-racing tips from this man.
The London Times reported in late May that Zarqawi had been badly injured after an American airstrike on the northern town of al-Qaim left him with shrapnel lodged in his chest. Zarqawi is reported to have received first-aid for his wounds in a hospital in Ramadi before fleeing to an unspecified location.
Read this as meaning either Syria or Iran!
US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, had this to say about Zarqawi's supposed departure from Iraq in pursuit of emergency medical attention:
"Were a neighbouring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven, they would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the Al-Qaeda network, and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands."
It is highly improbable that Zarqawi went to Israel in search of medical treatment. Indeed, there would be more chance of an 'exercise drill' running simutaneously with an actual 'terrorist' attack!!! We can thus safely eliminate Israel from the list. That leaves us with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Saudi Arabia and Turkey are both allies of the United States in its 'war on terror' so they too can be eliminated. Only Syria and Iran remain. Both these countries are marked-down for 'regime change', and it looks very much as if Rumsfeld was giving a coded warning of what is likely to be coming in the not-too-distant future.
According to Seymour Hersh, US special forces are already operating inside Iran laying the foundations for a future attack on the country's nuclear installations. In this instance, Rumsfeld has a nerve making thinly-veiled threats against Syria and Iran. US special forces under his command may enter Iran univited but woe betide Iran if Al-Zarqawi has crossed its border with Iraq.
Rumsfeld's hypocrisy is nauseating, his arrogance breathtaking. The 'official' body count of dead US soldiers is currently 1,921, with the wounded numbering 14,362. Unofficial estimates of Iraqi casualties place the number of dead between 26,165-29,478. Donald Rumsfeld is is no position to be talking about people with lots of blood on their hands.
If ever there was a lucid example of the kettle calling the pot black then this is it. No one has more blood on their hands than Rumsfeld and his fellow Neocon war criminals in the White House.
What if Zarqawi didn't visit any of Iraq's neighbouring countries for medical treatment? He could well have left Iraq for Kuwait to become a patient at the same American hospital where bin Laden was treated for a kidney infection in July of 2001. Maybe he too was met there by a CIA agent just as Osama had been prior to recuparating sufficiently enough to later return to his cave in Afghanistan to oversee the final preparations for the 9-11 attacks.
It is entirely possible, of course, that reports of the serious injury to Zarqawi's chest are greatly exaggerated - the reports of his arrests and earlier deaths certainly were! Indeed, Zarqawi himself is reported to have dismissed his wounds as 'minor'. In this scenario, Zarqawi reminds me very much of the Black Knight played by John Cleese in 'Monty Python And The Holy Grail'.
Apart from being impervious to serious injury, both are highly-amusing characters with Zarqawi's antics and punchlines being slightly funnier than those of the Black Knight.
Consider this gem. Zarqawi said he was still in Iraq and was:
"enjoying good health among my brothers".
Prepare yourself for a fresh change of underwear after you read the next howler:
"I am currently with my brothers and my people in the land of Mesopotamia, where I am participating in combat against the crusaders and the enemies of religion."
You have to applaud the nerds who the CIA employ to draft these scripts...they sure write some hilarious gags. Keep up the good work fellas, your wit never ceases to have me in stitches.
Have you heard the one about the guy who lives in a cave in the mountains of Afghanistan?
Reports have since surfaced of how Zarqawi plans to launch a series of terrorist attacks on American schools, cinemas and eateries, and of how he was involved in the London bombings. The globe-trotting terrorist mastermind was also accused of being behind the Madrid bombings in March 2004 as well as being responsible for the beheadings of Americans Nicholas Berg, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, along with British-born man Kenneth Bigley and Japanese citizen Shosei Koda. You cannot hide from Al-Zaraqwi. Like God, he is omnipresent.
Zarqawi's fiendish scheme to destroy western civilisation came unstuck, however, when he was killed by the US military. The hitch was only temporary though, as Allah resurrected him from his desert tomb yet again. Jordan's equivalent of Captain Scarlet is now believed to be considering emigrating to Africa after he vanquishes the infidel invaders.
The US military, no doubt, will follow in hot pursuit. Africa, after all, has some nice oil reserves awaiting 'liberation'. Besides, Africa is long due 'freedom' and 'democracy', and who best to bring it to them than good old Uncle Sam? Nasty man, that Robert Mugabe...almost as nasty as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi...almost.
I believe, however, that Zarqawi is more likely to once again sneak across the border to Iran. He appears to have an affinity with the place. I can just envisage the headlines of the world's newspapers in the near future: 'America attacked again - Zarqawi and Iran linked to attacks - Bush orders nuclear retaliation.'
Don't be at all surprised when Zarqawi and/or Iran get nailed for the forthcoming massive 'terrorist' attack on the United States. The writing is on the wall.
The Pentagon must now be at their wits end. Despite having already killed him, Zarqawi continues to be a thorn in their side. How do you kill a man who, like Superman, is seemingly indestructible? Perhaps US military scientists ought to consider building a Kryptonite bomb. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has properties more akin to the 'man of steel' than he does mere mortals.
Recent reports circulating on the Internet say that Zarqawi has been killed for a third time. Zarqawi's immunity from death should come as no great surprise. Immortality amongst 'Islamic terrorists' is not a new phenomenon - at least seven of the 9-11 hijackers are known to have survived the World Trade Centre attacks.
Those of you who have seen Bryan Singer's excellent film 'The Usual Suspects' will be able to draw parallels between the central character of the movie - the unseen but deadly Kaiser Soze - and the equally lethal yet invisible Al-Zarqawi.
"Who is Kaiser Soze, does he even exist?", I asked myself when I watched this cinematic masterpiece for the first time. I now find myself asking the same question of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. 'Who is he, does he even exist?".
The answer are: a) CIA-created bogeyman, and, b) no, he doesn't exist. Zarqawi the master-terrorist exists only in the highly imaginative minds of those who created him - and in the mindsets of those who believe the lies that are continually fed to them by the Psyops and propaganda machines of London and Washington.
So if Zarqawi is not responsible for the atrocities in Iraq then who is?
'Al-Qaeda' has absolutely nothing whatsoever to gain from conducting 'suicide bombings' against Muslims, whether they be Sunni or Shia. How are they expected to gain support and draw recruits from the very people who they are claimed to be killing? The occupying forces, on the other hand, have everything to gain from these bombing attacks.
It is the coalition who need to bolster support for the war and not Al-Qaeda. Ask why British and US troops cannot be immediately withdrawn from Iraq, and you'll inevitably be told that no withdrawal can take place until Iraqi security forces have had sufficient training to manage their own security themselves. This training is being provided by the US and Britain. Why the British are killing members of the Iraqi police force that they purport to be training is a question that has not been officially addressed let alone answered.
Civil war in Iraq is to the detriment of Muslims and of significant benefit to America, Britain and Israel. An ethic civil war and the balkanisation of Iraq is the hidden agenda of the British, US and Israeli governments. Fake terror attacks are the means to this end. These staged attacks provide the occupying forces with the pretext they need to justify their presence and the expansion of their troop numbers and operations.
The evidence with regard to who is responsible for the bombings in Iraq points directly at America, Britain and Israel - they are the real terrorists here. Sad but true. Each has been caught conducting 'false-flag' operations. The evidence is volumous and damning.
With two undercover British soldiers having recently been caught dressed as Arabs while carrying-out acts of terrorism against the Iraqi people, we begin to see the true picture of what is going on in Iraq.
Ask yourself who gains the most from the carnage in Iraq. Cui bono?
On the morning of 9 February 2004, The New York Times carried an exclusive and alarming story. The paper's Baghdad correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported that US officials had obtained a 17-page letter, believed to have been written by the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi to the "inner circle" of al-Qa'ida's leadership, urging them to accept that the best way to beat US forces in Iraq was effectively to start a civil war.
The letter argued that al-Qa'ida, which is a Sunni network, should attack the Shia population of Iraq: "It is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us. If we succeed in dragging them into a sectarian war, this will awaken the sleepy Sunnis."
Later that day, at a regular US press briefing in Baghdad, US General Mark Kimmitt dealt with a string of questions about The New York Times report: "We believe the report and the document is credible, and we take the report seriously... It is clearly a plan on the part of outsiders to come in to this country and spark civil war, create sectarian violence, try to expose fissures in this society." The story went on to news agency wires and, within 24 hours, it was running around the world.
There is very good reason to believe that that letter was a fake – and a significant one because there is equally good reason to believe that it was one product among many from a new machinery of propaganda which has been created by the United States and its allies since the terrorist attacks of September 2001.
For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.
The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. I've spent the last two years researching a book about falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.
The "Zarqawi letter" which made it on to the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into news media.
This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to work without effective oversight; and also by a new and essentially benign structure of "strategic communications" which was originally designed by doves in the Pentagon and Nato who wanted to use subtle and non-violent tactics to deal with Islamist terrorism but whose efforts are poorly regulated and badly supervised with the result that some of its practitioners are breaking loose and engaging in the black arts of propaganda.
Like the new propaganda machine as a whole, the Zarqawi story was born in the high tension after the attacks of September 2001. At that time, he was a painful thorn in the side of the Jordanian authorities, an Islamist radical who was determined to overthrow the royal family. But he was nothing to do with al-Q'aida. Indeed, he had specifically rejected attempts by Bin Laden to recruit him, because he was not interested in targeting the West.
Nevertheless, when US intelligence battered on the doors of allied governments in search of information about al-Q'aida, the Jordanian authorities – anxious to please the Americans and perhaps keen to make life more difficult for their native enemy – threw up his name along with other suspects. Soon he started to show up as a minor figure in US news stories – stories which were factually weak, often contradictory and already using the Jordanians as a tool of political convenience.
Then, on 7 October 2002, for the first time, somebody referred to him on the record. In a nationally televised speech in Cincinnati, President George Bush spoke of "high-level contacts" between al-Q'aida and Iraq and said: "Some al-Q'aida leaders who fled Afghanistan, went to Iraq. These include one very senior al-Q'aida leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks."
This coincided with a crucial vote in Congress in which the president was seeking authority to use military force against Iraq. Bush never named the man he was referring to but, as the Los Angeles Times among many others soon reported: "In a speech [on] Monday, Bush referred to a senior member of al-Q'aida who received medical treatment in Iraq. US officials said yesterday that was Abu al Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian, who lost a leg during the US war in Afghanistan."
Even now, Zarqawi was a footnote, not a headline, but the flow of stories about him finally broke through and flooded the global media on 5 February 2003, when the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, addressed the UN Security Council, arguing that Iraq must be invaded: first, to stop its development of weapons of mass destruction; and second, to break its ties with al-Q'aida.
Powell claimed that "Iraq today harbours a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi"; that Zarqawi's base in Iraq was a camp for "poison and explosive training"; that he was "an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Q'aida lieutenants"; that he "fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago"; that "Zarqawi and his network have plotted terrorist actions against countries, including France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia".
Courtesy of post-war Senate intelligence inquiries; evidence disclosed in several European trials; and the courageous work of a handful of journalists who broke away from the pack, we now know that every single one of those statements was entirely false. But that didn't matter: it was a big story. News organisations sucked it in and regurgitated it for their trusting consumers.
So, who exactly is producing fiction for the media? Who wrote the Zarqawi letters? Who created the fantasy story about Osama bin Laden using a network of subterranean bases in Afghanistan, complete with offices, dormitories, arms depots, electricity and ventilation systems? Who fed the media with tales of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, suffering brain seizures and sitting in stationery cars turning the wheel and making a noise like an engine? Who came up with the idea that Iranian ayatollahs have been encouraging sex with animals and girls of only nine?
Some of this comes from freelance political agitators. It was an Iranian opposition group, for example, which was behind the story that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was jailing people for texting each other jokes about him. And notoriously it was Iraqi exiles who supplied the global media with a dirty stream of disinformation about Saddam Hussein.
But clearly a great deal of this carries the fingerprints of officialdom. The Pentagon has now designated "information operations" as its fifth "core competency" alongside land, sea, air and special forces. Since October 2006, every brigade, division and corps in the US military has had its own "psyop" element producing output for local media. This military activity is linked to the State Department's campaign of "public diplomacy" which includes funding radio stations and news websites. In Britain, the Directorate of Targeting and Information Operations in the Ministry of Defence works with specialists from 15 UK psyops, based at the Defence Intelligence and Security School at Chicksands in Bedfordshire.
In the case of British intelligence, you can see this combination of reckless propaganda and failure of oversight at work in the case of Operation Mass Appeal. This was exposed by the former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter, who describes in his book, Iraq Confidential, how, in London in June 1998, he was introduced to two "black propaganda specialists" from MI6 who wanted him to give them material which they could spread through "editors and writers who work with us from time to time".
In interviews for Flat Earth News, Ritter described how, between December 1997 and June 1998, he had three meetings with MI6 officers who wanted him to give them raw intelligence reports on Iraqi arms procurement. The significance of these reports was that they were all unconfirmed and so none was being used in assessing Iraqi activity. Yet MI6 was happy to use them to plant stories in the media. Beyond that, there is worrying evidence that, when Lord Butler asked MI6 about this during his inquiry into intelligence around the invasion of Iraq, MI6 lied to him.
Ultimately, the US has run into trouble with its propaganda in Iraq, particularly with its use of the Zarqawi story. In May 2006, when yet another of his alleged letters was handed out to reporters in the Combined Press Information Centre in Baghdad, finally it was widely regarded as suspect and ignored by just about every single media outlet.
Arguably, even worse than this loss of credibility, according to British defence sources, the US campaign on Zarqawi eventually succeeded in creating its own reality. By elevating him from his position as one fighter among a mass of conflicting groups, the US campaign to "villainise Zarqawi" glamorised him with its enemy audience, making it easier for him to raise funds, to attract "unsponsored" foreign fighters, to make alliances with Sunni Iraqis and to score huge impact with his own media manoeuvres. Finally, in December 2004, Osama bin Laden gave in to this constructed reality, buried his differences with the Jordanian and declared him the leader of al-Q'aida's resistance to the American occupation.
"The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history."
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