"Does al-Zarqawi exist?"

[jedicord]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1814710,00.html

"Still, even as al-Zarqawi threatens more chaos - in recordings and internet messages - many Iraqis believe the Jordanian militant does not even exist and is merely a phantom created by the Americans to sow unrest in the country."

<snip>

"Indeed, ethnic and religious groups typically at odds are now standing united against the US-backed push for Iraqis to adopt a new constitution in a referendum om Friday and elect a permanent government in December. These steps, they say, are really intended to tighten the grip of America and Britain - the old master in Iraq - on the counry's oil wealth.

"Zarqawi is ... a myth that America has created to put a face to the terrorism it wants to stoke in this country to justify its continued presence," Sheik Amer al-Husseini, a top aide to radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told The Associated Press in a recent interview."

The article, albeit dated 11/05, calls this a "conspiracy theory", but this theory apparently is prevalent in Iraq.

[frylock]

1. no, he isn't..

and the fact that the so-called leaders of "al-Qaeda in Iraq" are supposedly speaking out against Zarqawi tells me that PsyOps is getting ready to ramp up the fear by creating some sort of fake uber-terrorist that will make Zarqawi look like a kittykat.

[MrPrax]

2. Seems to be alive and well

and providing paychecks and copy for the MSM pundits.

I love the stories where al-Zarqawi been 'demoted', only then to have a bunch of other experts, suggest that he wasn't so much 'demoted', but 'side'-moted to head up corporate operations in the Levant.

I guess they noticed al-Zarqawi missing from his usual seat from the opening of Ballet Iraq's new season. :eyes:

[yurbud]

3. that was such an embarrassingly thin story