Bush says Azzam (al Qaeda's #2 guy) death shows US Iraq strategy working

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28304821.htm

Bush says Azzam death shows US Iraq strategy working

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush cited on Wednesday the killing of al Qaeda's Abu Azzam as a sign that the U.S. strategy in Iraq was defeating a violent insurgency, although he warned there will be more violence before next month's vote on a new constitution.

Azzam, who was shot and killed in Baghdad, was "the second-most wanted al Qaeda leader in Iraq," and a top lieutenant of insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Bush said in his second speech in a week on fighting terrorism.

"This guy's a brutal killer," he said in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by three generals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, who was using a walking stick after recent aneurysm surgery behind both knees.

"He was reported to be the top operational commander of al Qaeda in Baghdad. He is one of the terrorists responsible for the recent upsurge in attacks in the Iraqi capital, which is part of their campaign to stop a referendum on the Iraqi constitution," Bush said.

[Not Me]

1. Does it seem like every one of the people we manage to take out

is the #2 guy.

Like a bank, they sure have a lot of Vice Presidents.

[0007]

7. More!

We know of one number one guy that has poll numbers as high as his I.Q.

[lapfog_1]

2. al Qaeda must have the flattest org chart in history

just look at how many "number 2" guys we keep killing. And every one
of them is "critical" to the organization. So the number of attacks
should have dropped dramatically over the last 3 years... right?

[underpants]

21. Too funny

IF you take what THEY say with any truth.

BAM! Hey ____ is dead (looks around) do you want to be my second in charge?

Yeah SURE!

Okay

[tatertop]

31. brilliantly funny

[saigon68]

3. "This guy's a brutal killer," he said

into the mirror

[tatertop]

32. He's using the giant red crayon; he means bidness!

[xxqqqzme]

4. "...the second-most wanted al Qaeda

leader in Iraq,..."

IN IRAQ and just think there were none B4 March, '03.

[indepat]

5. Raises the question as to just what is the Iraq strategy

[rkc3]

6. I think it's to wait them out until they die of old age.

[anotherdrew]

8. bush has a strategy? news to me. We got lucky on this one, if that.

[Bill McBlueState]

9. well, who's the new number two?

This goes to show again that you can't "kill" terrorism. There's someone new in the number two spot, and whatever the dead guy was doing for al-quaeda, someone else is equally capable of filling his role.

[Roland99]

10. This guy?

[Bill McBlueState]

34. hah!

:rofl:

[TOOLZ]

11. of course it's working

if you kill all iraqis, you're bound to get the bad ones.

effective strategery!

[txaslftist]

12. The number one guy is Zarqawi?

Gee. What about Osama Bin Forgotten?

[underpants]

26. *

* in Iraq that is IN IRAQ please remember that. Thank you now back to Ranger Dave and Fearless Freedom Five

[AlCzervik]

13. and in other news---Bush is still insane.

[antonialee839]

14. This doesn't show jack! Not to mention this is about the 50th

number 2 they've claimed to have killed or captured. The Monkey is insane.

[AusTexDem]

15. How many # 2 guys are there?

seems like every couple of months they get one.

[underpants]

24. Why can't we get #1? oh that's right

Zarqawi Eclipsing Bin Laden in Prominence
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119700,00.html
In 1999, after being released from jail in Jordan, Zarqawi formed an alliance with bin Laden allowing Zarqawi to operate a training camp in Afghanistan for Arab fighters committed to the overthrow of Jordan's moderate monarchy.
During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Zarqawi is believed to have been badly wounded in a U.S. airstrike and fled to Iran. Later, he ended up in Baghdad, where Saddam's regime allowed him to recuperate for several months after having his leg amputated.

But check out how CNN spins itself into the ground trying to cover for Bush five weeks earlier
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/06/us.zarqawi/
A U.S. official said Tuesday that al-Zarqawi traveled to Baghdad in May 2002 for treatment of a leg injury but, contrary to previous reports, appears not to have had a leg amputated. The official would not discuss the reason for the change in assessment.
Al-Zarqawi, an associate of Osama bin Laden, had been named by the Bush administration as an al Qaeda member who fled to Iraq from Afghanistan in May 2002 for medical treatment and then stayed to organize terror plots. He came to Iraq with about two dozen al Qaeda terrorists, according to the administration.
Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other administration officials pointed to intelligence that they said suggested al-Zarqawi had had his leg amputated in Baghdad.

Unfortunately a YEAR before that report CNN said:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/29/sprj.irq.terrorist.capture/index.html
Zarqawi was said to have received medical treatment in Baghdad in May and June of 2002 after being wounded in Afghanistan during the war. His leg was amputated, U.S. officials say, by a surgeon in Iraq.

[truthisfreedom]

16. working, huh? 100,000 dead, and you get one bad guy? billions of bullets

and a trillion dollars in hardware trashed, depleted uranium poisoning an entire region of the world, and you get one aide to a bad guy? nice shot, bush.

[sabra]

17. Myers acknowledged yesterday that it's really not a big deal

cause they've got an endless line of number 2 guys...

[marmar]

18. Bush warns about spike in Iraq violence

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-28-bush-iraq_x.htm


Do you get the feeling the world's spinning beyond their spin control?

[underpants]

19. Bring 'em on

Right?

[xxqqqzme]

29. that's what he said....

'..."And our troops are ready for it."...

[SCDem]

20. They're concerned about violence in Iraq all of a sudden

I thought that the Iraq war was good because "we are fighting them over there"

[VWolf]

25. Really???

Violence in Iraq? Who'd a thunk it?
:sarcasm:

Can he quantify a spike? How many more soldiers will never see their families again?

[Selteri]

28. Wow, I guess those last throws are really strong! NT

[FightingIrish]

22. Put Brownie in charge.

The worst he can do is blame it on everyone else.

[yurbud]

23. Do they know that no one takes this seriously?

The more Bush flogs their inflated story of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the more tempted people are going to be to look backward and question how real al Qaeda was in Afghanistan--and 9/11.

at least I hope so.

[pfitz59]

27. "....flanked by three generals,...."

"....Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney....". Sure takes a lot to prop the little bastard up, don't it? Bush* can never stand on his own! He's a weak-knee-ed, draft-dodging cowardly weasel!

[pinniped]

30. I went to one of those stupid gun-nut repuke sites yesterday...

to see if the morans were talking about their beloved chimp and his Posse Comitatus termination proposal. Nothing there, but I did see them talking about this lame story and how it doesn't appear anywhere on them "liberal" media websites.

They're so proud and stupid, they don't realize this is the 1000th #2 or #3 bad dude allegedly killed. They must have short memories because lame stories like this come out almost on a weekly basis.

[LynnTheDem]

33. bush again proves bush is an unadulterated idiot.

Fucking asshole. Gawd DAMN but I hate stupid MFers!

[Lindacooks]

35. Um, the guy was NOT the #2 guy

The 'Second' Man

The slain Abu Azzam may not have been Zarqawi’s top deputy after all. Will his death have any effect on the Iraq insurgency?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9518556/site/newsweek


Sept. 28, 2005 - U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism analysts are questioning whether a slain terrorist—described by President Bush today as the “second-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraq”—was as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming.

Gee, so much for your well oiled killing machine, chimp.