Thursday, June 08, 2006

Zarqawi Dead; Most Beautiful of His 72 Virgins Light Candles, Put on KennyG Album









Zarqawi is dead.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the coalition's most wanted man in Iraq, was killed in an airstrike near Baquba, jubilant U.S. and Iraqi authorities announced Thursday.

Al-Zarqawi's death gives Iraq a chance to "turn the tide" in the fight against the nation's insurgency, President Bush said at the White House.

"The ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders," Bush said. "Zarqawi's death is a severe blow to al Qaeda." (Watch bombing run that killed al-Zarqawi -- 2:00)

"Zarqawi personally beheaded American hostages and other civilians in Iraq," Bush said. "Now Zarqawi has met his end and this violent man will never murder again."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said al-Zarqawi's death will have "worldwide" effects. "Let there be no doubt the fact that he is dead is a significant victory in the battle against terrorism in that country, and I would say worldwide because he had interests well outside of Iraq."

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell detailed the strike, saying two Air Force F-16s dropped two bombs on a safe house near Baquba on Wednesday night. (Map of target)

Six people including al-Zarqawi and a key lieutenant, spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-al-Rahman, were killed in the strike, the military said. Iraqi forces were the first to arrive at the scene, Caldwell said.

"Zarqawi's body was then removed, brought back to a secure location," Caldwell said. "By visual identification it was established that that probably was him.

"But they ... did further examination of his body, found more scars and tattoos consistent with what had been reported and what we knew about him. They then did a fingerprint identification, and that came back ... this morning as positively identified as Zarqawi having been killed."

"We have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Zarqawi was in the house," Caldwell said. "It was 100 percent identification." Even so, DNA testing will be conducted, he said.

During a jubilant announcement early Thursday in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials first revealed the news to reporters.

The 3-year-old insurgency has "lost its leader," said U.S. Gen. George Casey, the highest-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq. Casey was joined during the announcement by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. (Watch the celebration following the announcement -- 4:31)

A Web site used by Al Qaeda in Iraq confirmed al-Zarqawi's death and urged its followers to continue the insurgent fight.

Another Web site used by the group issued a statement: "People of Islam, God will not let our enemies celebrate and spread corruption in the ground. Expect the right that was stolen to come back to us and destroy the Crusaders" -- an apparent reference to U.S. troops in Iraq.

CNN could not verify the authenticity of the Web messages.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair called al-Zarqawi's death "a very important moment in Iraq. A blow for al Qaeda in Iraq is a blow for al Qaeda everywhere."

Al-Zarqawi was the self-proclaimed leader of one of the nation's many insurgent factions -- al Qaeda in Iraq --who pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

He had a $25 million bounty on his head, led foreign and Iraqi fighters in a series of dramatic and high-profile attacks against U.S. and Western targets and was seen as leader of one of the factions in Iraq that fomented sectarian strife between the Sunni and Shiite communities.

His killing is a major coup for the embattled coalition forces.

"Today is a good day," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Khalilzad said at the news conference. "Zarqawi has been killed."

Khalilzad called al-Zarqawi "the godfather of sectarian killing and terror in Iraq" -- and said the death "marks a great success for Iraq and the global war on terror."

"His organization has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in Iraq and abroad."


(hat-tip: hans ze beeman)

[UPDATE: Welcome new readers from LGF, Hot Air, and others. To commemorate the absurd flow of traffic today, I think a trip down memory lane is in order. Let's go back to when The Onion had not yet fallen victim to Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) and gave the country exactly what it needed -- a laugh -- after the most horrific crime perpetrated against America in 60 years : "Hijackers Surprised to Find Selves in Hell." And now they welcome their pal Zarqawi to their midst. May they all not rest in peace.]

[UPDATE: It's official: The Z-Man has begun his holy bliss with these lovely girls, according to a top Islamic cleric. Glad all that innocent-head choppin', marriage-blowing-up, and children killin' is paying off for you, big guy.]

13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Z-man gonna love that first six-breasted babe you showed. Next time, though please don't just cover the top 2, but all 6. Yechh.

12:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hate to accuse anyone of lookism, and I hate that terrorist bastard as much as anyone and wish him to Hell, but what did these (perhaps not so symetrical) ladies do to be so maligned? I am dissapointed in this great site.

7:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I listened to "Waiting for the Blow to Fall!" (Zarkman's Lament) and "Zarq is Bad PR!" at
BrainSurgeryWithSpoons.blogspot.com

The guy's got a knack for parody and satire! And all his MP3s are FREE!

7:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You all are getting it all wrong. These "martyrs" don't get 72 virgins...they are going to be used as virgins for satan for 72 millennia.

May he rot in hell…

9:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I must dissent on this topic (which is, of course, the patriotic thing to do)...

...but after comparing Zarqawi's snuff videos against the sampling of what awaits him in "paradise", I must ask...

Did he really do anything so vile as to deserve THIS?

10:55 PM  
Blogger Annoynymous said...

Oldschoolliberal -

Agree it's a cheap shot. But I did get these pictures just by typing "ugly" into the search engines, so it's not like I'm the first. Not much of a defense, but hey, you only get a chance to dance on Zarqawi's grave once, and I took it.

Interesting that you point out symmetry as the general principle behind attractiveness, as that's a pet meme of mine to point out here in Hollywood at parties populated by the beautiful people (and always a conversation stopper, to my delight).

What beauty is, is averageness. The nose not too long, or too short, the distance between the eyes not to wide or narrow, etc. And symmetry is part of that mathematical averaging. This phenomenon was first noticed by researchers at MIT when they were studying the morphing of photographs, and noticed that the composite picture got better looking the more individual pictures were added into the program. Their conclusion: beauty is our intuitive way of picking the safest conduit to pass down our genes -- going for the middle of the bell-curve, with least chance of outliers mucking things up....

Thanks for the nice comment about the blog.

ww

11:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's a good day isn't it?
A very good day indeed.

LGFootballer "Davida"

5:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oldschoolliberal says "I am dissapointed in this great site."

Thanks for proving again that liberals do not have a sense of humor.

5:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Never understood the 72 virgins obsession. Who wants 72 inexperienced rookies? I'd prefer 70 virgins and two really good sluts to train em...

7:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd prefer 70 virgins and two really good sluts to train em...

I'd rather have the two sluts and 70 bottles of black lager that magically refill each morning.

8:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL! Can you imagine an eternity of listening to KennyG? Are you sure he's not in hell?

9:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

is GOD a pimp..... that HE should spend the rest of eternity re-making virgins .........is the HOLY GOD's reward about sex?..is paradise about drunkeness? or is all this just blasphemy???

12:49 PM  
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10:34 AM  

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