US Says Al Qaeda in Iraq Leader Not Captured

I guess the phony stories about Down Syndrome bombers bit the military a little too hard. Once they supported the Iraqi story of two women with Down Syndrome (nearly always associated with severe mental retardation) they had to push the story forcefully. 

We saw generals and even Condi Rice claiming that al Qaeda was using people who didn't understand consequences as walking bombs.  The story blew up in their faces as news agencies spread out their sources in Baghdad.  It may be that militants do such things. 

That must have reminded our leaders and military officers that the US not only has a few news sources ready to do everything they can to get to the bottom of stories (even if that comes to fruition 2-3 weeks later after they'e had to treat questionable new, we also have an incredible secondary news analysis system of non mainstream news sites and bloggers to evaluate whether news coming to us through mainstream is reality or some home grown version of Baghdad Bob. 

This time they have to admit that the Maliki government (or should we call it a regime) is a pack of liars.

A fun excerpt from CNN report "U.S. says al Qaeda in Iraq leader not captured":

U.S. military and intelligence officials were surprised and skeptical [about reports of al Mazri's capture], despite the insistence of Iraqi officials that al-Masri was already in U.S. military custody.

 ...

...Iraqi officials have reported his death three times, his capture twice and a mortal wounding once.

I think Hollywood might want to make a movie of that.

Working title could be "How to Die Four Times Without Really Trying." 

It would be interesting to know how a Bushie would answer if asked to explain just how the new Iraq government is better than Saddam.  We've seen all kinds of killings under the various Iraqi governments that were justified to us because of AQIM (Al Qaeda in Mesopotamium) or Sunni insurgents, but AQIM is a tiny ridiculous group, and the Sunnis are mostly pacified because the US pays $800k a day to keep them so. 

So now al Maliki has sent his militia (the Badr Corps) dressed up as the Iraqi Army and dragged along the US military in Iraq to kill off his rival militia.  And, even though we get further from victory with every attack on families in Sadr city, our government keeps it up because al Maliki promised contracts for American Big Oil companies that are so good they amount to spoils of war.  Most other factions want to keep more of the money from Iraqi oil for Iraqis.  Al Maliki understands that as long as he'll give it away, the US military will be his plaything.

But does he need to keep trying to play us for fools?

tags: iraq  war  military  al qaeda in iraq  al queda in mesopotamia  

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