Two-legged man killed

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has reportedly been killed.

"Reportedly" is the ultimate journalist's weasel-word, translating roughly into "somebody said this, heck if I know if it's true or not."

I'm fairly confident that this morning's good news is true, but there's also good reason for skepticism. The officials reporting this news have a dubious track record. For example, you may recall that "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid was reportedly killed several times back during the early weeks of the invasion of Iraq.

You may also recall what these officials told us about Zarqawi earlier. They said they had confirmed that he had a leg amputated in Baghdad in 2002.

The man who was reportedly killed in an airstrike yesterday had two whole legs.

It's also important to remember how Abu Musab al-Zarqawi first came to worldwide attention. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell made him famous during his disgraceful Feb. 2003 speech before the United Nations. Zarqawi, Powell said, was operating a terrorist base in the no-fly zone to the north of Saddam-controlled Iraq.

This news prompted more than one member of Congress to ask why such a terrorist base was still operating, unmolested, in the crosshairs of America's military in the U.S.-patrolled no-fly zone.

The answer, it turns out, was staggeringly cynical:

"This is it, this is their compelling evidence for use of force," said one intelligence official, who asked not to be identified. "If you take it out, you can't use it as justification for war."

In early 2003, Zarqawi was too useful to be killed or captured or even contained. He was a key piece in the Bush administration's "justification for war," and so he was, deliberately, permitted to go about his business.

His business -- as we've seen in hideous, bloody detail over the past three years -- was mayhem, indiscriminate death, the slaughter of civilians and American troops.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has reportedly been stopped from adding to his list of victims. This is good news. It would've been much better news if he had been stopped sooner when we had the chance but -- deliberately -- chose to let him continue.

Comments

[cjmr's husband]

Osama who?

[Edward Liu]

The article you linked to states further on that, "In fact, by 2004, officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere were sheepishly acknowledging that, well, OK, maybe Zarqawi's leg was never amputated after all."

The rest of the article focuses on the fact that the amputation was used as proof of a Saddam/al-Qaeda connection before the war, since Zarqawi supposedly got Iraqi medical care to amputate the leg and get fitted for the prosthetic.

This may be an example of incredibly poor intelligence quality and dropping "facts" into the memory hole when they contradict what you said earlier. The fact that the military declared "Chemical Ali" dead several times over and spun fairy tales about the bravery of Pvt. Jessica Lynch also doesn't do wonders for the Pentagon or the administration's credibility. However, there's enough doubt on both sides for me to think that the 1 leg vs. 2 thing isn't something one can use reliably to prove OR disprove identity. I don't know how many legs Zarqawi had to start with.

What I want to know is that they're doing DNA testing to verify that it's Zarqawi. How do they have the DNA sample to test against?

[cjmr's husband]

They're probably comparing DNA samples to a known relative.

[cjmr]

Ummm, next question--how'd the heck they kill him that they need to use DNA samples to verify his identity? As opposed to, say, fingerprints?

[cjmr's husband]

Air raid.

[Mike Timonin]

I'd heard they were using fingerprints and facial recognition to identify, but that was first thing this morning, so perhaps things have changed since then.

[chimera]

So. They've got this great photo of his face to show they've identified him. His completely unmarred face that they would have had to dig out of the pile of rubble that remained after the two 500lb bombs were dropped on the house he was allegedly in. They also say he was indentified by certain scars and tattoos. Tattoos. Which are taboo for Muslims. Another identifying characteristic: a gold ring on his left hand. Oops! Another taboo -- the gold ring, and especially on the left hand.

Pardon me if I remain sceptical of some or all of the "facts."

[cjmr]

re: photo

Glad I wasn't eating breakfast when I opened the newspaper. D'you belive the WashPost found it necessary to print that thing three different places in the newspaper--and two of them were in the STYLE section???

[Kevin]

Reminds me of the original Osama confession video, in which a bloated, ring-wearing Osama writes with his right hand, even though he's left handed.

[Jeff]

He was dead when they found, except he was alive until they kicked his face in, I mean rescued him and no children were killed except maybe one, but maybe it was a full-grown woman. Great reporting on this -- nothing suspicious about it AT ALL!

I fully expected to see Shrub strutting in front of another "Mission Accomplished" banner.

[PK]

Good Lord... are you people so entrenched in your partisan hatred that you can't even credit the administration for doing one thing right?

[bulbul]

Good Lord... are you people so entrenched in your partisan hatred that you can't even credit the administration for doing one thing right?
What's the phrase? Too little too late?

I personally doubt they got the right guy. And even if they did, let's keep in mind that Zarkawi's role in the Iraq insurgency and/or "global terrorism" is far less important then the Administration would have you believe. I do not believe there is such thing as "al-Qaida", let alone "al-Qaida in Iraq". Check Juan Cole's blog for more details.

[moonbiter]

My first thought when I heard the news was "I'll believe it when he stops making videos." There certainly is a tendency to greatly exaggerate the demise of reported Al Qaeda types (how many AQ in Iraq #2 men did we nail again?).

OTOH, these reports seem credible, and is as good news as a murderous person's death can be.

Now the quote that mostly describes my thinking is "It's about time."

[cjmr's husband]

I'm sticking with my original comment: Osama who?

[Duane]

Osama Bin Forgotten

[Axiomatic]

*nods* We have always been at war with Eurasia.

[chimera]

PK: weeeelll... how many legs did this guy have, as the title of this post alludes? How very interesting.

Good Lord... are you people so entrenched in your partisan hatred that you can't even credit the administration for doing one thing right?

That kind of depends on whether they have done it, now doesn't it?

[Jay Denari]

Even if they have done it, it means squat now except as a public relations coup. In fact, if the article "What al-Zarqawi's Death Means for Iraq" is correct, his death may actually help UNIFY the opposition in Iraq, since he was pretty much killing for the sake of killing.