Iraq al-Qaeda leader US general said 'never existed' is 'captured' in Baghdad

[CLG_News]

Iraq al-Qaeda leader US general said 'never existed' is 'captured' in Baghdad

By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
24 Apr 2009

Imagine my (lack of) surprise when -- on the bloodiest day in Iraq in over a year -- US media reported a big capture of another (deceased or previously arrested) key al-Qaeda leader! Moreover, the mythical leader of an organization that's itself a myth (al-Qaeda, or 'the database'), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was allegedly captured in 2007. Hence, this new arrest would be his *second* bout with captivity.

I notice that these CNN-worthy arrests typically take place on a bad -- or should I say, torturous day for US public relations. You know, a 'bad' day can be defined as a day when the world learned that the US Vice President and National Security Advisor signed off on torture techniques. We simultaneously learned that said Security Advisor lied before a Senate hearing on what she knew and when she authorized it -- 'it' being torture.

No worries. It's just perjury about reasons to go to war and war crimes. I mean, It's not as if Condoleezza Rice lied under oath about a blow job, like Bill Clinton did. We only spend $70 million to investigate -- replete with special prosecutors -- if it's 'prurient' perjury.

Suffocation, simulated drowning, stress positions, beatings, Geneva Convention violations -- all signify it's time to look forward, not backward. You see, it would be 'political' to investigate whether waterboarding is torture -- consensual oral sex is not 'political,' just ask Senator Joe Lieberman (R-Israel). In 1998, Lieberman condemned Democrat Bill Clinton for his affair, but now he's terrified that Bush officials might be condemned for torture.

We can't even get the PentaPost to stop referring to torture as 'harsh interrogation techniques' and calling people who rot for six years, held without charge or trial, prisoners instead of 'detainees.'

So many captured, re-captured (and dead, re-dead) al-CIAduhs -- so little time. Like I said in March, when a dead Taleban chief was implicated in the Lahore terror attack:

All I know is, I want to come back to life as a Taleban or al-CIAduh commander. Such men are truly immortal.

Connect the dots.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C04%5C24%5Cstory_24-4-2009_pg7_43">Iraq says Qaeda boss captured as dozens killed 24 Apr 2009 The Iraqi military announced the capture on Thursday of the man they say is the head of Al Qaeda (al-CIAduh) in Iraq, as at least 73 people were killed in two bloody suicide bombings. "Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi was arrested today in Baghdad," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qasim Atta said. “It was Iraqi forces who arrested him based on an intelligence tip-off from someone.”

Is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi a man or a myth? 18 Jul 2007 The U.S. military says it may never catch the man in charge of the militant Islamic State of Iraq. The reason? Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is a myth. At least that's what a high-ranking terrorist is telling interrogators. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner says Khalid al-Mashadani, a senior member of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is claiming that al-Qaeda in Iraq founded a "virtual organisation in cyberspace called the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006." Reuters quotes the general saying: "To further this myth, (al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayub al-) Masri created a fictional head of the Islamic State of Iraq known as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-07-18-al-qaeda_N.htm">U.S.: Top al-Qaeda in Iraq leader captured 18 Jul 2007 The U.S. command announced on Wednesday the arrest of an al-Qaeda leader it said served as the link between the organization's command in Iraq and Osama bin Laden's inner circle, enabling it to wield considerable influence over the Iraqi group. The announcement was made as the White House steps up efforts to link the war in Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, with a growing number of Americans opposing the Iraq conflict. Some independent analysts question the extent of al-Qaeda's role in Iraq... In an effort to give al-Qaeda an Iraqi face, Bergner said al-Mashhadani and al-Masri established a front organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq, which the general described as "a virtual organization in cyberspace." In Web postings, the Islamic State of Iraq has identified its leader as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, a name indicating Iraqi origin, with the Egyptian al-Masri as minister of war. There are no known photos of al-Baghdadi. Bergner said al-Mashhadani had told interrogators that al-Baghdadi is a "fictional role" created by al-Masri and that an actor with an Iraqi accent is used for audio recordings of speeches posted on the Web.

(Snip -- more summaries at original article found here.)

[cliffordu]

1. Fuck me I LOVE the internet. K&&&&&R

great post

[CLG_News]

2. Thank you! :)

n/t

[greyl]

3. Misleading headline. Khalid al-Mashadani, a terrorist, said al-Baghdadi was a myth.

The US general was only relaying what a terrorist had said, as per your quoted article.

[wroberts189]

4. off to the greatest page with ya... nt

[Democracyinkind]

5. We have been duped. Wake up and learn about AQ, half the world knows it is bogus.

After all these I years I cannot believe that people still hold true this al-Qaeda myth.
We invented the name based on a cultural joke and practically invited any hillbilly to claim the title and fill the position of terrorist of the day. Allot of people strongly doubt that there is an ironclad connection between most of these "AQ" cells. Pre 9/11 these guys never claimed to be part of a global network... and then from one they to the other you have all these chaps come out and say " oh yeah.. forgot to mention... We are part of a streamlined global terror organization... " when they were just " freedom fighters " the day before.

Adam Curtis likes to call this... The power of nightmares....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4602171665328041876&ei=6WjxSYuDEILH-AaTqtjBBQ&q=the+power+of+nightmares

[struggle4progress]

6. Captured in April, killed in May, recaptured in July: 2007 was a busy year for Abu Omar al-Baghdadi

Middle East
May 5, 2007
ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
The man who might save Iraq
By Pepe Escobar

... Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abdul Karim Khalaf once again was sure: this was Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, and he had been killed in west Baghdad, in Ghazaliya ...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE05Ak01.html

[CLG_News]

9. LOLOL!! Most key al-CIAduh leaders have been 'reborn.'

See also: Injured, re-killed Ayman al-Zawahri is back!
:rofl:

[struggle4progress]

7. This brings up another important question: Who is currently "#2" in Iraq?

At one point it was supposedly al-Zawahiri. But then he got killed -- or didn't. But last October, the #2 who got killed wasn't al-Zawahiri. And then a few days ago, al-Zawahiri was back in the news as #2. So what I'm wondering is: why isn't the press calling Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi #2?

Al Qaeda's No. 2 taunts U.S. in new video
Tape seems to prove al-Zawahiri survived missile attack
(CNN) <2006> -- Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appeared in a new video Monday, saying he is alive and well just weeks after a U.S. missile strike targeted him in Pakistan ... http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/30/alzawahiri.tape/index.html


Press Release A081015a-001
October 15, 2008
UPDATE: Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s number two leader killed
BAGHDAD, Iraq – A terrorist killed by Coalition forces during an operation in Mosul on Oct. 5 has been positively identified as Abu Qaswarah. Abu Qaswarah, also known as Abu Sara, was the al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader of northern Iraq. A Moroccan native, Abu Qaswarah had historic ties to AQI founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan ... http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22987&Itemid=128


Originally Aired: April 20, 2009
... In Iraq, a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. military delegation. Eight American soldiers were wounded; three Iraqi civilians were killed. It happened in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. Violence continues there despite a decline elsewhere. And the number-two leader of al-Qaida rejected U.S. plans to send more troops to Afghanistan. Ayman al-Zawahiri said in an audio message, "It's only adding more fuel to the fire" ... http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june09/othernews_04-20.html

[14thColony]

8. al-Zawahiri was never #2 in Iraq -- he's not part of that group

Ayman al-Zawahiri is the #2 man in al-Qaeda, and has been since he merged his Egyptian Islamic Jihad with AQ in 1998. Al-Zawahiri has probably never set foot in Iraq; he is most likely in the frontier region of Pakistan.

AQI and AQ are not the same organization, so being #2 in AQI doesn't necessarily mean you have any rank at all in AQ, and vice versa.

Much of the confusion stems from people thinking AQ, AQI, AQEL, AQIM, and AQEA are all the same group, plus some casual confusion of names like al-Zawahiri and al-Zarqawi.

[struggle4progress]

10. I may just be cynical, and you may be right. But I have ceased to believe much any of these

public tales about shadowy figures with multiple pseudonyms or the claims made by or about various supposed groups that appear from time to time as internet posts. A case can be made that AQI originated as a US invention, intended to justify the occupation of Iraq and that later "recruits" to the organization were drawn to a brand that the US had invented and popularized

The stories we have heard are usually incoherent

After being waterboarded, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to beheading Daniel Pearl -- but former Pakistani president and Bush ally Musharaff has claimed Daniel Pearl was killed by an agent for the UK's MI6

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was alleged killed in Afghanistan. Then he allegedly had escaped because he was having his leg amputated in Baghdad at the time. Later he was killed when he couldn't escape a bombing because of his artificial leg. Later we were told he hadn't had his leg amputated, but that some translator had misunderstood a story about him having a sinus infection or something, and he had recovered from his nose problem and was still alive. Finally, media triumphantly carried pictures of a dead body after a bombing raid and identified the corpse as that of Zarqawi

Sometimes the "Al-Qaeda in Iraq" leaders are supposed to be elsewhere, such as in Afghanistan

Looking back over the last eight years of strange tales, one sees that some come from political opportunists (like Chalabi) and some from wackos (like "Curveball"); some tales come from the mouths of torture victims; and some tales (like the "Liberty City" plot) seem to have been devised simply for political reasons. If you go back far enough, there was a time when almost every news-cycle brought a breathless report about how "AQI's #2" had just be killed or captured -- Abu This also known as Abu That (sometimes called Abu Who by his friends and code-named Abu Abu bin-Abu) -- and it's likely that the name has appeared several times previously in announcements of his prior death or capture. Perhaps some of this is legitimate confusion; perhaps some of it is careful and deliberate "mirror-puzzle" disinformation by intelligence agencies. What's clear at this point is that such tales are almost surely horseshit

[DearAbby]

11. How will we ever

win the war on terror, if people escape capture, disappear to become a myth, and come back from the dead?

[gratuitous]

12. "Come back from the dead" - sounds so dramatic!

Why don't we just say "he got better"?

[Echo In Light]

13. I'm def not up to speed on this. Thanks for posting

[Soylent Brice]

14. excellent work!

K&R

[CLG_News]

15. Thank you! n/t