US Deliberately Passed Up Repeated Opportunities to Kill Zarqawi (ABC)

[kpete]

US 'allowed Zarqawi to escape'
May 1, 2006

United States deliberately passed up repeated opportunities to kill the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before the March 2003 US-led invasion of that country.

The claim, by former US spy Mike Scheuer, was made in an interview to be shown on ABC TV's Four Corners tonight.

...................

Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years - six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit - until he resigned in 2004.

He told Four Corners that during 2002, the Bush Administration received detailed intelligence about Zarqawi's training camp in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Mr Scheuer claims that a July 2002 plan to destroy the camp lapsed because "it was more important not to give the Europeans the impression we were gunslingers".

"Mr Bush had Zarqawi in his sights almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq," he told Four Corners.

more at:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-allowed-zarqawi-to-escape/2006/04/30/1146335608444.html

[Selatius]

1. I thought he's been dead for years now?

We were told he lost his leg. We were then told he was mortally wounded after a "near miss" when US troops almost got him. We were then told he managed to escape troops from a checkpoint and disappeared. I didn't think a one-legged wounded man could outrun US soldiers who are trained to run several miles a day.

[BuyingThyme]

2. Of course. They need these guys.

[ContraBass Black]

3. They can't scare Americans if they're caught.

[BuyingThyme]

4. And if you can find a way to blame Frenchie, all the better.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

5. but but but dead or alive. . with us or against us. . uh. . freedom?

terra?

[UrbScotty]

6. GOP: (not) Tough on Terrorism (nt)

[Garbo 2004]

7. NBC reported that two years ago. Of course Scheuer brings an insider

account given his previous position in the CIA.

2004 NBC report here: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4431601

[unblock]

8. so he was letting "old europe" dictate how to keep america secure?

once again, shrub is caught doing all the stupid, rotten things he said kerry would do!