[Marxism] US general rebuts account on Zarqawi beating -- and changes official story to fit

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note that the former official story that Zarqawi attempted to get off
the stretcher and had to be kept on [which sounded like an attempt to
explain away the sight of him being pulled off the stretcher] has now
been dropped from the story.  Note that the General now insists they
were trying to save his life/

And note the Iraqi official's explanation of the "propaganda ploy":
"They're trying to make up for the huge loss and the disorientation
they're suffering from, because there is a huge vacuum of power now
within Al Qaeda," Mr. Rubaie said on "Late Edition." Clearly crap.

Since their version is clearly being cleaned up to hide something or
other, I think we should assume that Zarqawi was killed.  The argument
that the troops wouldn't do this on their on is purely speculative.  It
sets aside the "payback" mentality that pervades the US operation.  And
they may have had prior orders to bring him back head down over their
saddles.

Remember it was many months of claims by Iraqi civilians (they were just
pushing Al Qaeda propaganda then, too, of course) that Haditha began to
be admitted as what it was.

I say "assume" because there is a track record here.  Just about
everything they have said about Iraq, starting well before the war has
been a lie.  What justification do we have, especially given the
suspicious odor of their changing explanations, for assuming that
anything else it taking place here.

They lie and lie.  Therefore the only reasonable assumption is that they
are lieing once again.
Fred Feldman






June 12, 2006
U.S. General Rebuts Account on Zarqawi Beating
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 11 - The top American commander in Iraq on Sunday
rejected as "baloney" an account by an Iraqi witness who said a dying
man resembling Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader, had been
beaten by American troops after warplanes demolished Mr. Zarqawi's safe
house with a pair of bombs on Wednesday evening.

The air assault north of Baghdad in the village of Hibhib, near Baquba,
was quick and fierce, but did not immediately kill Mr. Zarqawi. The
American military now says he died as troops were trying to save him,
after initially saying they found him dead when they arrived.

"Our soldiers who came on the scene found him being put in an ambulance
by the Iraqi police, they took him off, rendered first aid, and he
expired," the American commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., said on "Fox
News Sunday." He said Mr. Zarqawi "died while American soldiers were
attempting to save his life."

In Hibhib, a neighbor who gave his name as Muhammad said that after the
second bomb was dropped, he rushed to the home and helped to drag a
heavyset man, who he now believes was Mr. Zarqawi, away from the rubble.
"He was still alive," said Muhammad, who had given similar accounts to
other news organizations.

A few minutes later, he said, the Iraqi police loaded the man into an
ambulance, and American troops arrived soon after that, taking the man
out of the ambulance and putting him on a stretcher and clearing all
Iraqis away. The Americans demanded to know the man's name, and then one
struck him with his rifle butt, Muhammad said. The Americans loaded the
body of Mr. Zarqawi and several others into helicopters and flew away,
he said.

Asked about the allegation of a beating, General Casey said, "The way I
respond to the comments of the alleged Iraqi who saw what went on there
is, that's baloney, and we've already gone back, looked at it." He also
said "the idea that there were people there beating him is just
ludicrous."

Another person who identified himself as a witness to Mr. Zarqawi's
final moments, interviewed Sunday on Al Jazeera satellite network, made
no mention of soldiers striking the man and suggested that American
soldiers tore open his clothing in what appeared an effort to revive
him.

"The Americans came afterward, they took him out of the ambulance, put
him on the ground, and ripped his dishdasha," the witness, Ali Abbas,
said in the interview on Al Jazeera. "They were pressing on his chest,
wanting him to speak or to respond, and they brought a bottle of water
but he didn't take it."

Mr. Abbas also said the Americans handcuffed the police on the scene,
took their shirts off and searched them.

American officials finished their autopsy on Mr. Zarqawi on Sunday and
said they would release results on Monday. The senior American military
spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, has said that Mr.
Zarqawi's wounds "were not superficial wounds at all," but that there
were no gunshot wounds.

General Caldwell has also said he did not know if Mr. Zarqawi had been
inside or outside the house when the bombs were dropped - a missing
piece of information that could help explain why he was able to survive
blasts that killed five other people inside.

Mr. Zarqawi's death did not appear to slow the pace of mayhem in the
country. Nearly 40 people were killed in violence on Sunday, including 7
Iraqi soldiers and a civilian who died when a suicide car bomber
attacked a checkpoint near Baquba, The Associated Press reported.

The group formerly headed by Mr. Zarqawi, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, vowed
in a statement issued with other insurgent groups to "prepare for big
operations" that will "shake the enemy." The statement did not say
whether the group had decided on a new leader, but it did vow allegiance
to Osama bin Laden, saying "his soldiers in Iraq" will bring him joy.

On CNN, the Iraqi national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, called
the statement a "propaganda ploy."

"They're trying to make up for the huge loss and the disorientation
they're suffering from, because there is a huge vacuum of power now
within Al Qaeda," Mr. Rubaie said on "Late Edition."

In the southeastern city of Amara, one British soldier and several
Iraqis were wounded when British forces fought a gun battle with local
guerrillas early on Sunday.

According to a British military spokesman, mortars struck the British
camp around 2 a.m., and troops drove into the city to arrest those
responsible. They came under fire and fired back, said the spokesman,
Maj. Sebastian Muntz, hitting a number of Iraqis. Reuters quoted an
Iraqi police official as saying five Iraqis were killed.

The soldiers began to return to their base, but an armored personnel
carrier got stuck in a ditch, and one soldier was wounded, while they
worked to pull it out, Major Muntz said. The soldier is expected to
survive, he said.

Reporting for this article was contributed by John F. Burns, Khalid W.
Hassan, Mona Mahmoud, Sahar Nageeb and Sabrina Tavernise.



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