Al-Zarqawi: Bombers didn't target wedding

[sabra]

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/13203051.htm

Al-Zarqawi: Bombers didn't target wedding

Associated Press


AMMAN, Jordan - An audiotape purportedly from the head of al-Qaida in Iraq said Friday the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people.

The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the bomber who detonated his explosives in the Radisson SAS hotel on Nov. 9 was targeting a hall where he claimed Israeli and American intelligence officials were meeting.

...

Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli and American intelligence agents, and he insisted al-Qaida in Iraq was not targeting fellow Muslims.

"We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," al-Zarqawi said, addressing Jordanians.

[soleft]

1. Wow, if this is legit, he's totally parroting our Military's same denial

We didn't mean to target civilians, our intelligence said there were insurgents at that wedding.

[StopThief]

3. One small difference. . .

The suicide bombers entered the room and saw that it was a wedding. Planes don't quite have the same view.

[soleft]

6. The article doesn't say they entered the hall

but another difference is we never tell the Iraqi's that we love them as much as ourselves.

[daleo]

8. Planes are supposed to have targeting directions

So, someone should have known the difference between a wedding and a "terrorists safe house".

[confludemocrat]

9. That's called a distinction w/o a difference equally brutal and

cold-blooded, indiscriminate killing from the air and the targetting of a wedding party in this case. Anyway, I seem to recall that the US military has blown up a few wedding parties itself.

[StopThief]

2. Oooops. . .

the blowback from those despicable acts must be stinging him.

Burn in hell you worthless piece of crap!

[progressivebydesign]

4. This contradicts the supposed confession on Jordanian TV by that woman.

She said specifically that she and her husband "dressed for a party" and headed to the hotel. Now, first of all.. I still doubt that her outfit she was booked in (with unexploded belt) was party attire. I don't know the customs there, but she didn't look festive. Two.. I still can't understand why she was standing around waiting to be arrested with the belt on. 3) if she was close enough to be pushed out of the way, why did she look totally unmarked and clean?

I don't care what Zarqawi (Bush's stand in for OBL) says... they killed innocent people and blew up hotels. they're animals. The bombs they used all over town were more than enough to kill plent of people... If he is so concerned about it, then he should stop blowing people up.

Honestly, terrorism is such a failure. It accompishes nothing. It doesn't frighten people, it just pisses them off. It doesn't change governments, or further anyone's aims. All is does is make your group or cause more and more hated and muddied. I sometimes wonder about some terrorism in the world, if it's being perpetrated for other reasons... if you know what I mean. It seems to always further the side they're attacking. Not tin foiling, but just wondering about why anyone would use such a pointless and counterproductive tactic.

[Psephos]

30. Good post

I don't get the terrorism thing either. Killing people randomly is supposed to further your cause? WTF?

"Honestly, terrorism is such a failure. It accompishes nothing. It doesn't frighten people, it just pisses them off. It doesn't change governments, or further anyone's aims."

I feel the same way about political slap-downs, too, which often seem motivated by the same emotions as terrorism (but thankfully, without the same methods). Yesterday's vote in the House regarding the Iraq pull-out proposal is a perfect example. Mindless repugs. So was the closed-door session in Senate recently. Mindless Dems. (Yes, both sides are guilty of it.) What effin' good does it do to increase divisiveness and spur hatred of people with different political opinions? We should be finding ways of draining vitriol and finding common ground, even if it's one square inch. Not giving in, but taking the long view that an increase in hatred is lose-lose. Of course, that means self-discipline, and not constantly giving in to the urge to feel all righteous and good for slapping down an opponent.

I imagine that white mobs a hundred years ago used to feel the same rush that comes from hating an opponent when they strung up black people. Specifically, that were doing something righteous. That's what make terrorists tick.

Bottom line: hatred is easy, and it makes you do bad things yet feel good about them.

These are my opinions, nothing more, nothing less.

Peace.

[Mz Pip]

5. Oh okay, dude

Glad you cleared that up. Makes me feel soooo much better about you. :sarcasm:

Mz Pip
:dem:

[daleo]

7. I don't know what the truth is in this case

I think we will get different versions of the story coming out from different sides, and will have to triangulate on the truth, much like the case of the British bombings, and the shooting of the Brazilian electrician.

[toopers]

16. The truth is that a group of terrorists blew up innocent people.

That's all the truth there is.

[daleo]

19. True, we just don't know who the terrorists were for sure

There have been some claims about Zarqawi, but this is hardly conclusive - doubts have been expressed on whether he is even still alive. There has been a presumed confession, but there have been conflicting accounts and this confession has not been entered as legal testimony anywhere.

I remind you of the evolution of the evidence in the British bombing and associated events.

[ThePopulist]

10. I don't believe that murderer for one second....

He was targeted civilians because he thinks they're co-conspirators with the Israelis and Americans. This man is mentally deranged and I don't trust a word he spits.

[booley]

11. Common ground

The terrorists sayign they don't target civilians.

The Shrubbery sayign they don't target civilians.

next Zarqawi will be claimign they are fighting for freedom and that his detractors "hate islam".

Anyone else notice that terrorists and the shrubbery are getting harder and harder to differentiate?

[confludemocrat]

12. Totally! well-summed up n/t

[soda]

13. sympatetic detonation

if you were a bomber and your partner had trouble with there detonator wouldnt you blow up next to them to set off there belt too?

[Eugene]

14. But the tape also threatens to bomb more hotels

and threatens to kill King Abdullah.

Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces
in Jordan, hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the
southern resort of Aqaba and embassies of governments participating in
the war in Iraq, saying they would be targeted.

He underlined that al-Qaida in Iraq is not targeting fellow Muslims.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1326649

They hear the outrage, but they just don't get the point of it.

[NYC Liberal]

15. For a one-legged dead guy, Zarqawi sure is behind a HELL of a lot

of these bombings.

I expect we'll be capturing yet another "Number 2 man" fairly soon. And Zarqawi will "just escape" by jumping off a speeding truck and running to a safe house. :eyes:

[LisaL]

32. Yep. He is doing pretty good for one legged dead guy.

At least Osama made videos from time to time, so, presumably, he exist (existed). Now, I don't think Zarqawi is real to being with.

[pinniped]

17. I bet 1M USD these fools don't have a "real" al-Zarqawi audiotape...

to compare it to.

Sure, that will work. Compare the purported al-Zarqawi audiotape to other purported al-Zarqawi audiotapes. Bingo, same purported voice because they all came from the same dude in *'s bunker.

--The authenticity of the audiotape, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be confirmed independently, but the voice resembled that of al-Zarqawi on previous tapes.--

[ECH1969]

18. The German's have Zarqawi's voice on tape from 2001

discussing the possibility of attacks on different sites in Germany.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Four Arab men accused of planning to bomb Jewish targets in Germany on the orders of militant Islamist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have been found guilty on Wednesday at the end of a marathon trial.

The defendants were arrested in April 2002 along with a fifth man, Shadi Abdalla, who was convicted separately in 2003 but freed from jail after less than a year as a reward for agreeing to testify against his former associates.

At the time of their arrest, the men were under increasing pressure from Zarqawi finally to carry out an attack in Germany, Breidling said.

Evidence in the trial, which started in February 2004, included wiretapped conversations in which Jordanian militant Zarqawi discussed with group members the state of preparations for the attacks, using codewords such as "honey" and "medicine" to refer to explosives.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/10/26/germany.terror.reut/

[Disturbed]

20. The Sunni and Shia Insurgency in Iraq should issue a

declaration denouncing al Q and al Z. They should make it clear that they do not support the terrorism of al Q anywhere and al Z specifically. The Bush Regime lumps al Q into the Insurgency which is not accurate at all. If the Sunni and Shia Insurgents would declare a non-violent decree of oppostion to the Occupation the Bush Regime would not have the excuse to continue the Occupation.

[pinniped]

22. Maybe so, but what are they comparing that to? A video...

with the dude the FBI guys claim is al-Zarqawi, or just some dude on audio in 2001 claiming to be al-Zarqawi?

The FBI pic could be 100% al-Zarqawi or just some poor goat farmer.

I'm holding onto my 1M USD until I see some conclusive proof of his continued existence.

After seeing the video of that overweight OBL shortly after 9/11, which was allegedly recovered by US forces in a house in Afghanistan, I knew * had employed the services of a Goebbels.

The four dudes in Germany could have thought any of their leaders was al-Zarqawi. For them, it was probably an honor to be die under the orders of the mythical al-Zarqawi, or at least who they thought was him.

I wish the judge luck in finding a guy who's in the fourth dimension.

--"In this case, Abu Musad al-Zarqawi should also be sitting on the defendants' bench," Judge Ottmar Breidling told the court Wednesday in his explanation of the verdict.--

[0rganism]

21. Al-Zarqawi? Wasn't he supposed to be dead already?

Or was that just his second or third in command?

These assholes have more lives than Fritz the Cat.

[pinniped]

23. The strategy is for every bad dude to claim to be al-Zarqawi because...

that way no one knows who the "real" one is.

The Brady Bunch kids tried this strategy with their mom's favorite broken vase. All were supposed to admit breaking it so the real perp would remain unknown. Peter the dope messed up.

[0rganism]

24. I wonder what the literal translation of "Al Zarqawi" is

If it means, "The Leader", I'm gonna laugh.

[pinniped]

25. Good one. In Latin it translates to Holy Warrior.

Step right up and receive your al-Zarqawi shoulder patch.

[soda]

27. fyi

Al-zarqawi means the ¨man from zarqa¨ a small town north of amman jordan

[Psephos]

28. It means "From (the village of) Zarqaw", which is in Jordan n/t

[pschoeb]

35. Or to take it one further "Out of the Blue"

Zarqa means "Blue" in Arabic. My creative ;) interpretation for Al-Zarqawi is "Out of the Blue".

Also sometimes Al-Zarqa' is used for someone with blue eyes. For example Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Ibn Yahya Al-Naqqash, the famous maker of Toledo's medieval water clocks, was better known as Al-Zarqali, "the blue-eyed one".

[StrafingMoose]

26. Oh sure, Agent Zarqawi...

You targeted "Israeli and American intelligence officials" but what you ACTUALLY got was very high-ranking Palestinian intelligence officers and Chinese from China's University of National Defense. Go figure...

[daleo]

29. I hadn't heard about the Chinese victims

It is an interesting detail. Maybe they just got unlucky, but it makes you wonder...

[StrafingMoose]

31. There

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5417694,00.html

Just type "jordan china OR chinese military" in Google News, you should get a wadload of reports.

[daleo]

33. That's an interesting article, lots of details I hadn't heard before

Some "odd coincidences"

- the lights going off at the wedding at the Raddison just before the bomber detonated (coincidence or signal?). Lights were still on outside in the hall when the ballroom lights went out. Perhaps an unidentified "inside job" confederate.

- bomb belts stashed in the downstairs bathroom at the Hyatt (prior planning by the bombers or inside help?). It would seem like a dangerous ploy for four lone bombers to stash bomb belts in a public washroom sometime before going to the hotel, risking their detection and the plot being foiled. Again, perhaps an unidentified "inside job" confederate.

- bomber at the Days Inn manages to kill three Chinese. A woman upstairs is warned of an impending blast "moments earlier". The latter seems to indicate more people in the know and on the scene, than just the four.

I think there is a lot more to this than we have heard so far. And this is all in The Guardian, normally a pretty good source.

[StrafingMoose]

34. Yup, Guardian/AP

Here's another one

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1869574,00.html

In this article, Jordanian authorities imply that al-Qaeda penetrated their army - probably to explain how did they manage to smuggle RDX or TNT in there.