According to this news story, a high raking al-Queda operative has confessed to the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad. He also claims that al-Queda has constructed about 75% of the car bombs that have been used in Baghdad.
AQ has been suffering from a loss of prestige so far as radical, murderous Islamo-Fascist terrorist groups go. This is probably some has-been blowing smoke to puff up his sense of importance. Sort of like those copycat serial killers who confess to crimes they didn’t commit so the cops will think they’re such big deals.
Still, he is a mover and shaker in AQ. There’s also no doubt that he’s one of the bad guys, a murderous punk with innocent blood on his hands. And it’s beyond question that he was captured in Iraq while up to no good.
But that doesn’t mean anything, right? It’s like all of those angry op-eds in the NYT told us. Saddam had nothing to do with terrorism, invading Iraq isn’t really attacking international terrorism, and the current attacks in Iraq are conducted by local “freedom fighters” trying to defend their homes without support from foreign terrorists desperate to prevent the formation of an Arab democracy.
So what was this al-Queda guy doing there? Uh…He was on vacation!
I hear that he was thinking of going to Disneyworld instead, but he looked like a geek in those mouse ears.
Perhaps he saw an opportunity to deal a blow to America. He has men, materiel, expertise and financial recourses to bring to bear on what he perceives to be his enemy, he is simply going to where the fight is.
Yahoo, better there than here.
Saddam had ties to terorists of course, but this guy was captured after Saddam was removed. It might be that he was in Saddam’s pocket for years, but there is no particular reason to think so.
If one guy is actually responsible for 75% of all the car bombs that implies that the “insurgency” is actually quite small.
I think it is very clear that we are dealing with a very small group of people here, possibly just a few hundred, with perhaps several tens of thousands of well wishers out of a population of nearly 25 million.
I think it is only the lack of civil organization, like say car registration, that keeps the guys in business at all.
Shannon,
it’s 25 & of the bombs in Baghdad, not the whole country.
“it’s 25 & of the bombs in Baghdad, not the whole country”
The news item said 75% when I wrote the post. If they decide to change their story, well….
James
Sorry, that was typo, I meant to write “75 % in Baghdad, not the country”.
Ralf Goergans,
Actually, virtually all the car bombs that have been set since the end of Oct have gone off in either Baghdad or Mosul. So it is quite possible that he did in fact make 75% of the bombs used in the entire country regardless of what the number the story eventually settles on.
This is part and parcel of the extreme locality of the violence in Iraq. Kurdish and Shia areas suffer virtually no violence while the Sunni triangle gets hammered. The number and scope of these attacks indicate that they could be carried out by fewer than a hundred individuals.
even by the administrations own admission, the number of terrorists has grown from “a couple of hundred” to “several thousands”. They are getting no help from the people there, and in the words of a writer from the economist, the US troops no longer even pretend they are trying to win over the hearts and minds.
If Bin Laden wanted to keep building his org, it definitely seems like a fertile ground.
“They are getting no help from the people there, and in the words of a writer from the economist, the US troops no longer even pretend they are trying to win over the hearts and minds.”
As a student of military history, I’m always amazed at the distortions, pessimism, myopism and outright fabrications that the news media has presented as “factual reporting”.
The picture you’ve painted, pat, simply isn’t the same one that the troops on the ground have seen. It’s like the reporters go off and repeatedly watch that old Mel Gibson movie, Mad Max, before typing out some drivel and then staggering into the bar to get good and drunk.
The facts are pretty much as Shannon has stated them. The majority of Iraq is peaceful and gaining in prosperity. Sunni areas, the places where Saddam recruited his thugs and murderers, is in turmoil as they attempt to sabotage the election. It’s unlikely that they will succeed since 80% of Iraqi’s polled say that they’re eager to cast their vote. (Hardly the results expected if conditions are as you say.)
US troops are involved in humanitarian efforts every single day, and the majority of the Iraqi people are appreciative of our efforts. (I should know since I’ve contributed to a fair number of them.)
So far as the people of Iraq refusing to help is concerned, that’s patently untrue. For decades the only government in Iraq was a corrupt, murderous regime that filled mass graves with hundreds of thousands of corpses and created a climate of fear that is unimaginable to a free man such as myself. Since the invasion, the Coalition forces have been moving to create police and National Guard units.
As can be expected when recruiting from people who have lived under such conditions for so long, the results are mixed. Still, the terrorists seem to think that they’re a threat since they keep attacking police stations. (Just read your newspaper or go online to see that I’m right.)
But, even though they’re taking the brunt of the attacks and suffering the greatest casualties, there are ever more Iraqis that are willing to sign up.
I would suggest that you try reading some of the military analyst websites instead of relying on news reports written by someone with a partisan axe to grind. The best place to start would be Strategypage.com. It’s also free, but you have to put up with some popups.
James
Shannon, love (sorry, couldn’t resist)
there is only one Ralf here, so just ‘Ralf’ is enough. :)
Anyway, the Iraqi government itself has said that there are thousands ofd insurgents. They are goinf to lose, but there are more than a couple of hundred.
Anyway, as I explained here there is nothing out of line in the violence for a country like Iraq
https://www.chicagoboyz.net/archives/002746.html
Anyway, I am very optimistic myself, but I think you are reading too much in this one data point.
Besides, the article says that al Queda has set off 75 % of ther bombs in Baghdad, not the captive personally. ;)