Zarqawi was kept alive to sell the war in Iraq

[LSK]

We supposedly had chances to get him in 2002 and 2003 but he was needed so he could convince people that Iraq had terrorists.

But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.

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.

snip

The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.

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

Here is your propaganda:

Powell told the U.N. Security Council in early February that after al Qaeda and the Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan, Zarqawi established a camp in northeastern Iraq to train terrorists in using explosives and poisons.

During Zarqawi's stay in Baghdad, nearly two dozen of his associates set up a base of operations in the capital to move people, money and supplies throughout the country, said Powell.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/29/sprj.irq.terrorist.capture/

[AlCzervik]

1. the wh has been using him as cover for the sectarian violence imo

and when it continues they'll have to find a new bogeyman.

[Clark2008]

14. Polls drop, terror-mongering increases...

Bush's only recipe

[frylock]

15. they have..

the on-deck batter is some cat named Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi. Two years from now it will be Hassan Rashid al-Tikriti. Two years from then it will be Raouf Mohmoud al-Fallujah. Two years after that...

http://www.tkb.org/KeyLeader.jsp?memID=6330

[liberal N proud]

2. The bu$h regime needed something to drive the fear machine

They needed to have terrorist so they could invent the "War on Terror"

They allowed this just like they allowed 9/11 to happen in spite of countless warnings.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Skelington]

9. Spain found that out too.

[gatorboy]

3. And they probably would've skipped him AGAIN.

If the future of the Republican party didn't look so downright pitiful these days...

[kentuck]

4. Bingo !

And it permitted Bush to continue the lie that al Qaeda was somehow connected to his illegal invasion of Ira.

[Buzz Clik]

5. A new bogeyman will emerge soon

[greyl]

6. Are you implying that we didn't invade Iraq soon enough? nt

[LSK]

8. more visits down memory lane pre Iraq war style

Powell speech in 2003 first thrust al-Zarqawi into public spotlight
By AAMER MADHANI
Chicago Tribune
6/9/2006
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was relatively unknown until then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell mentioned him in a 2003 speech before the U.N. Security Council as a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden who had taken refuge in Iraq.

His presence was part of the Bush administration's case for invading the country, and over the next three years, al-Zarqawi became the embodiment of the roiling insurgency that has plagued the country - the most wanted man in Iraq who somehow managed to elude capture despite a $25 million bounty.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060609/1003560.asp

[leftofthedial]

10. gotta have an Emanuel Goldstein

for orwellian totalitarianism to work.

[NNN0LHI]

11. Same people who produced the fat Osama tape gave us this guy

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Don

[Xenotime]

12. Now the truth is starting to bubble to the top...

I knew this would happen.

[ComerPerro]

13. My main take on things is: I really don't think he was all that important

I think they are playing him up now because they have found him. But he will be replaced.

As republicans and terrorists both know firsthand, when you don't value human life, it doesn't matter which or how many of your own people go down.