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May 09, 2008
Dust Off The Waterboarding Equipment!!
UPDATE:
This is an update to the story further down. Thank you Lynn for the heads up about this.
Al Qeada in Iraq leader not captured - U.S. military
BAGHDAD, May 9 (Reuters) - A man seized by Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul is not Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday.
"He has not been detained," the official told Reuters, without giving further details. Several Iraqi officials had earlier said Masri had been captured in an operation late on Wednesday
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Suspected al Qaeda leader in Iraq arrested
Iraqi security forces have detained a man suspected of being the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after a captured associate led them to him sleeping in a house in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said on Friday May 9,2008).
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it was checking the reports that Abu Ayyab al-Masri, an Egyptian also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had been detained.
If confirmed, the arrest would be another blow for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in Iraq, which has reeled under a wave of U.S. military operations in the past year and been forced to regroup in northern Iraq.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said an associate of Masri detained in an earlier operation took security forces late on Wednesday to where the al Qaeda leader was hiding.
After being detained, Masri confessed to being the al Qaeda in Iraq leader, he said, adding that his identity still had to be confirmed. Other Iraqi security officials said the suspect was in American custody for identification.
Al Qaeda in Iraq was headed by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until he was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006. His successor, Masri, was Zarqawi's close associate, and has a U.S. bounty of $5 million (2.6 million pounds) on his head.
Duraid Kashmula, the governor of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, also said the detained man had confessed to being Masri.
"When police entered the house, they found him asleep," Kashmula said, adding the suspect was alone.
"These is no doubt that the person arrested is Masri. The operation was very quick and easy. There were no clashes."
U.S. officials blame al Qaeda in Iraq for most big bombings in the country, including an attack on a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that sparked a wave of sectarian carnage that nearly tipped Iraq into all-out civil war.
But a build-up of U.S. troops last year allowed the military to focus a series of offensives against the group. The emergence of Sunni Arab tribal security units also helped to provide intelligence on al Qaeda activities.
URBAN STRONGHOLD
The result was that al Qaeda has largely been pushed out of Baghdad and its former stronghold in the western Anbar province to areas in northern Iraq, such as Mosul.
American generals say Mosul is al Qaeda in Iraq's last remaining urban stronghold in the country.
But U.S. commanders warn that the group, while significantly weakened, can still carry out large-scale attacks.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said last May that Masri had been killed, but soon afterwards al Qaeda released an audio tape purportedly from him.
And in an hour-long audio tape issued last month also said to be from him, Masri called for renewed attacks on American troops and lashed out at U.S. President George Bush.
He urged militants from the Sunni Islamist group to "celebrate" the recent announcement that the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq had passed 4,000.
"We must celebrate this event in our special way, and make the defeated Bush join us in this celebration," he said.
He called on al Qaeda fighters to provide "a head of an American as a present to the trickster Bush" in a month-long campaign that he called the "Attack of Righteousness".
Al Qaeda in Iraq shares a name and ideology if not organisational ties with Osama bin Laden's network, which was blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The U.S. military says al Qaeda in Iraq is largely foreign led but that its foot soldiers are mainly Iraqis.
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Wild Thing's comment........
This is a big fish .. he’s full of valuable info. This is HUGE! Tah dah Troops!
OH wait incoming memo from B.Hussein Obama....Obama says he wants to talk with him and work out an understanding.
Posted by Wild Thing at May 9, 2008 02:55 AM
Comments
PEEK ABU WE SEE YOU AL-MISERY?... TAGGED....YOU'RE
IT / HIT! Sleep deprivation...waterboarding...K-9 kennel action...infidel heavy metal music...cold showers...root canals free of anesthesia by Dr. IS IT SAFE (Marathon Man)...and thong pictures of Rosie O'Donnell and Helen Thomas? And pork fried rice on Fridays?
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at May 9, 2008 04:48 AM
Now they're saying it isn't him. Damn!
I thought we were gonna have good news today.
But it's still great we got one.
And they said there were no Al Qaeda in Iraq.
What pipe has Nazi Peeloser been smokin' from?
Posted by: Lynn at May 9, 2008 09:11 AM
Here's the headline I want to hear: Abu Ayyab al-Masri's Head Found.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it was checking the reports that the head of Abu Ayyab al-Masri, an Egyptian also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, has been detached, it was found staked to a gatepost just outside of Mosul in Ninewa province, his body was found nearby, ongoing DNA tests are being performed to confirm his timely death.
I know he'd be a treasure trove of information for the intel folks but a speedy execution would spare us the BS rhetoric of the Communists in the Congress, save taxpayer monies and sadly keep another vulture lawyer like Ramsey Clark in poverty.
The same goes for any terrorist caught. Let's deny the enemy within as well as the terrorists.
Posted by: Jack at May 9, 2008 11:31 AM
Earlier this year Congress voted to outlaw waterboarding as torture. So, next time that we want to interrogate captured Islamofascist terrorists I suggest that we subject them to 24 by 7 loud playing of speeches by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama, and John McCain. If Congress doesn't like it, let them outlaw their own speeches as torture. I'm sure that George Bush would immediately sign this important legislation.
Posted by: Les at May 9, 2008 02:12 PM
Darth....OH my gawd!
" thong pictures of Rosie O'Donnell and Helen Thomas"
LMAO yikes
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 9, 2008 07:35 PM
Lynn thanks for letting me know, oh well sigh, whoever it is I am glad our troops caught him. yipee.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 9, 2008 07:37 PM
Jack that would be fantastic.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 9, 2008 07:38 PM
Les hahaha that would be torture for sure.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 9, 2008 07:39 PM
... and Michael Moore in a Speedo, and her thighness, Hitlery Rotten Clinton, in a bikini?
Gadzukes and triple yikesssss?
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at May 10, 2008 01:50 AM
Darth, Michael Moore.....oh noooo now I am going to be sick.
Hahahahhaa
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 10, 2008 03:42 AM
