Theodore's World

A Dying Al-Zarqawi Tried to Get Away
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could barely speak, but he struggled and tried to get away from American soldiers as he lay dying on a stretcher in the ruins of his hideout.
The U.S. forces recognized his face, and knew they had the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.
Initially, the U.S. military had said al-Zarqawi was killed outright. But Friday new details emerged of his final moments.
For three years, al-Zarqawi orchestrated horrific acts of violence guided by his extremist vision of jihad, or holy war – first against the U.S. soldiers he considered occupiers of Arab lands, then against the Shiites he considered infidels.
On Wednesday, the U.S. military tracked him to a house northwest of Baghdad, and blew it up with two 500-pound bombs.
Al-Zarqawi somehow managed to survive the impact of the bombs, weapons so powerful they tore a huge crater in the date palm forest where the house was nestled just outside the town of Baqouba.
Iraqi police reached the scene first, and found the 39-year-old al-Zarqawi alive.

“He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short,” Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, said Friday of the Jordanian-born terrorist’s last words.

Iraqi police pulled him from the flattened home and placed him on a makeshift stretcher. U.S. troops arrived, saw that al-Zarqawi was conscious, and tried to provide medical treatment, the spokesman said.

“He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military,” Caldwell told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Baghdad.

Al-Zarqawi “attempted to, sort of, turn away off the stretcher,” he said. “Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he’d received from this airstrike.”

So much blood covered al-Zarqawi’s body that U.S. forces cleaned him up before taking photographs. “Despite the fact that this person actually had no regard for human life, we were not going to treat him in the same manner,” Caldwell said.

The airstrike killed two other men and three women who were in the house, but only al-Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser have been positively identified, he said.
Caldwell also said experts told him it is not unheard of for people to survive a blast of that magnitude.

“There are cases when people, in fact, can survive even an attack like that on a building structure. Obviously, the other five in the building did not, but he did for some reason,” Caldwell said.

He said he did not know if al-Zarqawi was inside or outside the house when the bombs struck.

“Well, what we had found, as with anything, first reports are not always fully accurate as we continue the debriefings. But we were not aware yesterday that, in fact, Zarqawi was alive when U.S. forces arrived on the site,” Caldwell said.

His recounting of the aftermath of the airstrike could not be independently verified. The Iraqi government confirmed only that Iraqi forces were first on the scene, followed by the Americans.
An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said he saw Caldwell’s news briefing but could neither confirm nor deny that al-Zarqawi briefly survived the blast.
“Well, I think it’s clear: The Americans said he was seriously wounded and he died,” the aide said.

ATTENTION EDITORS: CLARIFYING IN CAPTION THAT THIS PHOTO DEPICTS ACTUAL SITE OF SAFEHOUSE WHERE AL-ZARQAWI WAS KILLED An Iraqi boy holds a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush found amongst the rubble of a safe house destroyed in a U.S. raid which killed al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the village of Hibhib near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, June 8, 2006. (REUTERS/Helmiy al-Azawi) (IRAQ)

Wild Thing’s coment….
I cannot tell you how happy I am that his last vision was that of one of our troops. Big smile on my face!

A couple of our guys at QAIM, Iraq

Observing Iraq
QAIM, Iraq
US Dept. of Defense
American Forces Press Service
AFPS reporter Jim Garamone ( no photo available) has traveled in the U.S. Central Command theater since April, covering various aspects of the mission and the men and women who make it happen. He is a photographer and journalist.
Here are a few of those vignettes:

Boom, Boom! Out Go the Lights
Early one morning at Camp Hit came the unmistakable sound of a mortar launching. A door opened and a woman yelled, “Is that incoming or outgoing?”
Before anyone could answer came a huge “boom” that rocked the mud buildings. “Oh, that’s definitely incoming,” she said, and shut the door.
No one was injured in the attack.

Be Like Mike
Anbar province is the center of anti-coalition sentiment. Or is it?
The Iraqis in Anbar profess to not like Americans, but they are trying mighty hard to look like them. As you pass the men in the streets, they look with flint-hard stares — underneath their New York Yankees or Chicago Bulls caps.
American companies find excellent billboards on Iraqi T-shirts, and Nike and Reebok shoes are “tres chic” here.
The Iraqis even emulate the servicemembers who are enforcing security around their cities. The latest fad among young men is to get “high and tight” haircuts like the soldiers and Marines who patrol in the area.

Silence is Scary
A line of servicemembers coming out of an Internet café is a moment of dread in Iraq.
“I hate to see that,” said an officer as soldiers filed out of the facility at an Anbar province forward operating base.
He didn’t like it because commanders shut down the Internet and phone lines without notice if they take casualties. Military officials do not want families to find out of the death or wounding of a loved one via e-mail or a satellite phone call. “Most soldiers wouldn’t do that, but who wants to take the chance?” said a coalition official.
In this case, the café wasn’t closed for a casualty, but a power surge that crashed the system. It may have been the only time losing all data was greeted with a sigh of relief.

Joseph Vento, whose grandparents came from Italy, insists that customers at Geno’s Steaks order in English. “Why should I have to bend?” he says.

Vento is also a huge supporter of the cause of Police Officer Danny Faulkner, who was murdered by Wesely Cook, AKA Mumia Abul Jamal. Many events and fund raisers have been helped by him and his establishment.

Eatery’s English-only sign raises irePHILADELPHIA (Reuters)

A sign in a landmark Philadelphia restaurant asking customers to order in English is sparking controversy in the metropolis known as the “City of Brotherly Love.”
The owner of Geno’s Steaks said on Thursday that the sign, “This is America — when ordering speak English,” is intended to encourage immigrants to learn the language and assimilate into U.S. society, but one Latino activist said it’s racist.
The controversy comes amid a national debate over immigration in the United States. The U.S. Senate passed an immigration bill last month that includes a provision which would make English the national language.
“They should be glad that I put the sign up. I’m trying to help them to speak English,” said Joey Vento, 66, whose grandparents moved to the United States from Italy. “Without the English language, they are going to have a lot of problems in this country.
“There is nobody who can say they are turned down because of the language,” he added. “They can point if they want to.”
The sign, which Vento posted at his cheese steak restaurant about six months ago and says he has no intention of removing, has made some people angry.
Roberto Santiago, executive director of Philadelphia’s Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations, said he was “appalled” by the policy.
“I think what’s coming out of his mouth is racist,” said Santiago. “He is saying, ‘I don’t like these brown faces in my community and I will do everything I can to get them out of there.'”
Santiago said he has urged Latinos to boycott Geno’s Steaks, a fixture in South Philadelphia’s Little Italy neighborhood which has seen an influx of Hispanic immigrants in recent years.
Vento denied that anyone would be refused service if they ordered one of the sliced beef-and-cheese sandwiches, a famed bit of cuisine in the Quaker-founded “City of Brotherly Love,” in a language other than English.

Some reason’s why Muslim terrorists are so quick to commit suicide. Let’s see now. . . . .
No Jesus
No Christmas
No television
No cheerleaders
No baseball
No football
No hockey
No golf
No tailgate parties
No Wal-Mart
No Home Depot
No pork BBQ
No hot dogs
No burgers
No chocolate chip cookies
No lobster
No shellfish, or even frozen fish sticks
No gumbo
No jambalaya
No Beer
Rags for clothes and towels for hats.
Constant wailing from the guy next-door because he’s sick and there are no doctors.
Constant wailing from the guy in the tower.
More than one wife.
You can’t shave.
Your wives can’t shave.
You can’t shower to wash off the smell of donkey cooked over burning camel dung.
The women have to wear baggy dresses and veils at all times.
Your bride is picked by someone else.
She smells just like your donkey.
But your donkey has a better disposition.
Then they tell you that when you die it all gets better!
I mean, really, is there a mystery here?
Thank you Jack (Conservative Insurgents) for sending this to me.

I am so proud of Col. Day. He has spoken out about Kerry in the past ( Former POW ‘Astonished’ By Kerry’s False Testimony Charging War Crimes….Calls Kerry ‘a Man of Benedict Arnold Qualities’) and now he is doing this as well.

Military News
Honored Veteran Takes Lead Defense Position
by Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. “Hognose” O’Brien
Aero-News has learned that USAF Col (Retired) George Everett “Bud” Day MOH, one of the most highly decorated veterans of the Vietnam War, or of US history for that matter, has undertaken to defend “up to 20” Marines who have been accused of crimes up to and including murder in connection with an alleged massacre in Haditha, Iraq.
Col. Day is a veteran, peculiarly enough, of World War II as a Marine, and later of the Army, and then of Korea and Vietnam in the United States Air Force. In Vietnam, he started and led the Misty Super FAC program, which includes among its old boys Dick Rutan and several other aviation luminaries. In a tradition begun by Day, each Misty pilot had a unique numbered callsign beginning, of course, with Misty 1 (Day, of course; Rutan was Misty 40).

Day was marked for success in the Air Force early in his flying career, when he made a “no-chute” ejection from a doomed F-84F and survived. “I bailed out of a burning F-84 in 1957 in England,” he wrote in response to an enquiry from the Free Fall Research Page. “My parachute did not open, but lucky for me I landed in the Queen’s forest, and the riser cords of the chute wove in and out of the pine tree I fell in. I bailed out between 300 and 500 feet and lived.”
On August 24, 1967, then-Major Day was breaking in a new pilot on F-100F “Misty” “fast FAC” duty in the southern reaches of North Vietnam. He was instructing pilot Corwin Kippenham on how best to approach the target, a missile site, when their aircraft was hit. At over 500 knots it became a fireball.
Day ejected, followed by Kippenham, and they landed in North Vietnam near the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam. Day had a broken arm — broken in three places — and a dislocated knee, and the North Vietnamese grabbed him only a mile or so from where Kippenham boarded a helicopter to safety. Later Day escaped, only to be wounded by US fire when he slept too near an enemy artillery site, and ultimately recaptured after being wounded yet again.
In almost six years of captivity, Day endured unspeakable tortures, and, his fellow captives recall, drove his captors wild. In one case he responded to them by singing “the Star Spangled Banner,” which earned him a particularly violent beating — as the other prisoners all joined in, and the guards saw it as a loss of face.
There’s no official list of most highly decorated veterans, but Day and Army Colonel Bob Howard are more or less tied for the top title. There was a more highly decorated veteran in World War II, though: Douglas Macarthur. In all, Day has a staggering 70 awards and decorations, not to mention such post-service honors as having the Sioux City Airport named after him.
After retiring from the Air Force in 1977, Bud Day put his long-dormant law degree to work and he has been a lawyer and an activist for veterans ever since. He has not always won, but government attorneys have come to fear him almost as much as the North Vietnamese prison guards did.

These days, the old warrior even sees a rosy side to his bleak years of captivity: “Freedom has a special taste!” His legal record is a formidable as his military record; he has frequently argued appellate cases, and has taken cases to the Supreme Court and argued them there.
While there has been much reaction to probable charges in the Haditha case, no details have been released, charges laid, nor defendants named by officialdom — yet. But the defendants, whoever they may be — and we hadn’t heard numbers like “20” before — will not lack effective counsel.

Wild Thing’s comment…..
Thank you Col. Day, I believe in our Marines and all of our troops too! God Bless you Sir! God bless and keep our troops safe!

Excerpts from transcript of CNN’s ” Live Today”, Thursday, June 8th,2006
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Fred, one of the most vocal critics of troops in Iraq is Congressman John Murtha. He — last November, as recently as last November, asked — called for U.S. troops to be withdrawn. He joins me now live with reaction to this death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Congressman, it is a pleasure to have you, an outspoken critic in this war, but a very big day for this administration. Is it fair to say that this attack and the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi wouldn’t have happened if U.S. troops were not on the ground?
REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, I’m not sure about that. I’m not sure it was a bomb that killed him from the air. So I’m not sure about that … There’s no question we can’t win this militarily … I think the intelligence came from the Iraqis, as I understand it. Now, this is the early reports. And it came to the security forces and the Iraqis and then passed on to the Americans. So this was a key element. Whether they could have done this themselves in this isolated area, I don’t know.

And this if from Wolf Blitzer on CNN, The Situation Room
Let’s turn now to a strong critic of the president’s policies, Democratic Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania. He’s joining us live from Capitol Hill.
Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.
Your critics are already saying, you know what? If we would have listened to John Murtha, we would have never gotten Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. What do you say to that?
MURTHA: Well, let me tell you, Wolf, they too it from the air.
And the encouraging thing about what happened today is, you had information from the Iraqis go to the Iraqis, then go to the Americans. Now, this is a significant event, there’s no question about it, to have gotten the top leader of al Qaeda.
You have got to remember, though, al Qaeda is a very small part of what is going on in Iraq. And you have got to be careful not to overestimate the impact this is going to have.
Naturally, we’re delighted to get him. But, even more importantly, they announced the defense minister today. They announced the interior minister today — and that intelligence flowing through the Iraqis to the U.S. forces. They could have done this from outside, just like I have — I have been — been suggesting right along.
The air came in and knocked it out, from every report that I have. So, you know, this is a significant event. I’m pleased. I compliment the troops about the way they handled it. I compliment the Iraqis. But we have got a long ways to go.
BLITZER: What does it do to your strategy, your recommendations, recommendations that the United States begin an orderly what you call redeployment from Iraq? What does today’s event do…
MURTHA: Yes.
BLITZER: … if anything, toward your thinking?
MURTHA: Well, it doesn’t change my thinking a bit.I have said right along, we have become the enemy.

Wild Thing’s comment…..
Murtha is just without concern for the troops. It is his way or the highway. I believe Murtha and the rest of the leaders of the Jackass Party want failure. It makes me sick to my stomach to think these people put their Jackass Party above our great Nation.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. AP

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, was killed by 500-pound bombs dropped by two F-16 fighter jets on a house north of Baghdad, it was the result of intelligence information gathered, in part, by an elite task force of international special operations forces formed just a month ago with the express purpose of taking him out.
The “A-Team” created for the mission drew on the skills and expertise of U.S. Army Green Berets, “Tier 1” of Britain’s Special Air Service and the Israeli Mossad.
The decision to form the unit was taken after a top-level conference between U.S. and British defense chiefs in Washington a month ago.
The unit was part of the already-secret Task Force Black run by Britain’s MI6 out of coalition forces headquarters in Baghdad. Nicknamed “The Untouchables,” it was given a no-holds barred brief in pursuit of Zarqawi in May.
To avoid detection, the team dressed in clothes bought from second-hand stalls in Baghdad’s back-street markets. They regularly sprayed themselves with a pungent, sweat-smelling odor known as “souk scent.” Each man wore contact lenses that turned their eye color brown or black. The goal was to permit them to look like any other Iraqi peasant as they hunted the most bloodthirsty killer in Iraq.
“The Untouchables” were assured in advance they need fear no investigation into their methods to bring Zarqawi to summary justice.
Though Zarqawi was done in ultimately by massive bombs delivered from high-tech fighters, the unit members were each equipped with L115A-353 sniper rifles that allowed them to kill at 1,000 yards. But the key to the mission was the fact that each made high-risk surveillance operations into normally no-go areas in Iraq.
While officially Israel denies any presence in Iraq, four Mossad assassins were assigned to serve with the unit.
“The Untouchables” also used thermal-imaging equipment to probe the “rat holes” the terror chief used as he flitted around Baghdad and other cities. They also had at their disposal a CIA-operated Predator unmanned aircraft able to provide a real-time video feedback of any area where Zarqawi was spotted.
Zarqawi boasted on his website of beheading innocent victims, including the murders of more than 1,000 British and American soldiers in Iraq over the past two years. Zarqawi also led terrorists that killed thousands of Iraqis through relentless suicide bombings and organized attacks. Many of the bombings were directed at large crowds of Shi’ites under a strategy U.S. and Iraqi officials said was designed to trigger a civil war.
Gen. Sir Timothy Granville-Chapman, Britain’s vice chief of the defense staff, had told senior officers in Baghdad that “removing this terrorist will be a massive blow against al-Qaida.” Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told a news conference today the big breakthrough that led to Zarqawi’s location came while U.S. forces were trailing Zarqawi’s spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman.
“Through painstaking intelligence efforts we were able to start tracking him, monitoring his movements. … Last night, he went to meet [Zarqawi] again at 6.15 pm when the decision was made to go ahead and strike that target,” he added.
Zarqawi came from humble beginnings – a former street thug from Jordan. But he remained elusive despite several U.S. military offensives, a $25 million bounty on his head and the capture of what officials said were several of his aides.
Caldwell said an Egyptian militant trained in Afghanistan named Abu al-Masari, who established the first al-Qaida cell in Baghdad, may succeed Zarqawi as head of the group in Iraq.
“What everyone needs to understand is the strike last night did not occur in a 24-hour period,” he said. “It truly was a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human sources, electronics, signal intelligence that was done over a period of time, many, many weeks.”
There were six people in the house, including a woman and a child, but only Zarqawi and Abdul-Rahman have been identified.
Caldwell said important information was found at the location that led to 17 simultaneous raids later that night in Baghdad and its outskirts that uncovered a “treasure trove” of information.
But he cautioned against being overly optimistic because Zarqawi’s followers still posed a threat.
“It’s not the beginning or the end but it is a step forward,” said Caldwell. “Ridding Iraq of Zarqawi will not instantaneously stop the violence.”

This is my favorite one, Linda of Something ….and Half of Something made this graphic above, and it is perfect. heh heh I love it.

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Airstrike kills terror leader al-Zarqawi in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Terrorist 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.

“At 6:15 Baghdad time, Special Operations forces, acting on tips and intelligence from Iraqis, confirmed Zarqawi’s location and delivered justice to the most wanted terrorist in Iraq,” said President Bush during a White House statement.

Bush said al-Zarqawi’s death gives Iraq a chance to “turn the tide” in the fight against the nation’s insurgency.
Earlier, U.S. and Iraqi officials first announced the attack at a news conference in Iraq.
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.

“Today,” exclaimed the prime minister, “Zarqawi has been killed.” The announcement was greeted by cheers and applause.

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 independently verify the authenticity of the Web messages.
Al-Zarqawi was the self-proclaimed leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
Rest os story HERE
Wild Thing’s comment….
I love our troops! Thank you for all your hard work finding this piece of humuan flesh al-Zarqawi and taking him out.

Congressional funding stalemate threatens IED work
Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
ARLINGTON, Va. — Research into combating roadside bombs could be in jeopardy as lawmakers continue debate over the latest round of supplemental funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Pentagon official.
If Congress fails to pass this fiscal year’s Defense supplemental by the end of this month, the Defense Department would have to hold off funding “any new initiatives” to protect troops from roadside bombs, according to Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman. He defined new initiatives as “anything that requires new funding.”
House and Senate negotiators were scheduled to meet Tuesday night to craft compromise legislation on the supplemental funding issue.
The House’s emergency spending bill totals $93.2 billion, with about two-thirds of that to pay for military operations overseas. Another $20 billion would go for reconstruction efforts related to Hurricane Katrina.
In April, the Senate passed a $106.5 billion version, which included additional funds for things such as port security, agriculture disaster assistance and aid for industries affected by the hurricane.
The extra spending has come under fire from both the House and President Bush. Both versions call for $1.9 billion of additional funding for the Joint IED Defeat Organization, a group lead by retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs and tasked with combating the problem of roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whitman said the Defense Department is close to its legal limit of transferring funds to fight the war on terrorism, but would not discuss other possible ways to fund the anti-IED efforts.

“We are squeezing money out of where we can and where we have sufficient authorities to do that,” Whitman said.

The Army has already announced spending cuts on spare parts, travel and transportation, and temporary civilian contractors due to the delay in the emergency spending bill’s passage.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
The enemy believes that life has no meaning. They are eager to sacrifice their own life and take the life of anyone (women, children, our troops, etc.) who does not support their beliefs.
In contrast, the brave men and women of our armed forces have much to live for, and wish to return home to their family and a positive future.
Our troops need to aggressively defend their lives, by killing anyone perceived to present a lethal threat to them or the rest of their troop. Thus our Government needs to back them up 100% with whatever equipment they need, money they need, supplies they need to protect themselves as well as fight the enemy.
It would be not only a disgrace NOT to give our military whatever they need, make funds possible for protection it would be a catastrophe to the lives of our troops.
Give them what they need you mental midgets in Washington!