[Carlhole]

By Dahr Jamail

A remarkable proportion of the violence taking place in Iraq is regularly credited to the Jordanian Ahmad al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and his organization Al Qaeda in Iraq. Sometimes it seems no car bomb goes off, no ambush occurs that isn't claimed in his name or attributed to him by the Bush administration. Bush and his top officials have, in fact, made good use of him, lifting his reputed feats of terrorism to epic, even mythic, proportions (much aided by various mainstream media outlets). Given that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be based upon administration lies and manipulations, I had begun to wonder if the vaunted Zarqawi even existed.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=4481

[ECM]

I never thought he existed. How could anyone hope to control more than a small fraction of the insurgents. There are probably hundreds of groups that act independently of the others.

[aflurry]

The overall timing of the Bush administrations actions makes me believe in a far larger orchestration than the use of a dead radical's name in propaganda broadcasts. I mean, after you get the part proved about the weapons lies, and the pre 911 plan to attack Iraq, everything else becomes less probable. Is it possible that the attack on the WTC happened at the most convenient possible moment for the war planners? for the PNAC? possible, but dammit just less and less probable.

Alot has happened since Bush took office for the first time. He fought so hard for that presidency, and employed every bit of leverage and dirty trick. And for 9 months after he got in office and loafed around on vacation, I remember thinking, "why did he want this thing so bad? He's not doing anything with it." One day I remember clearly, he was doing an interview from his golf cart alongside his father, picking sod from his cleat and sneering as usual. I got a unsettling feeling that he was just waiting for something. Now I don't wonder why he fought so hard for it.

Another event I remember, when Bush did his speech at ground zero for the first time and someone yelled, "we can't hear you." Bush said somethjing like, "Well I can hear you. And the people who did this will hear all of us...blah blah blah." You probably remember. Staged. Every word of it. Come on. That quote was written 3 months before. The guy in the audience was a plant.

I don't read the conspiracy stuff anymore. It's not going to amount to anything. But in my opinion, Zarqawi, Bin Laden, Atta, etc. and the Al Ciaida, if they existed, were patsies, were infiltrated. People argue that a conspiracy of this size couldn't be pulled off, and I wonder about that, but then I remember the perfect timing, and sometimes I think it wouldn't take that much. The mafia keeps secrets for long periods from people who have more resources to uncover them than we do.

[sklump]

One thing to remember when they show "photos": Zarqawi has one leg. The other was blown off at Tora Bora.

If he has two pins, it's not Zarqawi.