[unsamiSlini]

key phrase:

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi had met with al Qaeda members in Iran, officials also said.

[xkQCaS4w]

Some background on al-Iraqi...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7369892/site/newsweek/

[Sarah Armstrong]

Originally posted by Arrian
Yay.

No word yet on whether he was #2?

-Arrian How many #2's have we killed or caught by now?

[koebforfrn]

Originally posted by Arrian
No word yet on whether he was #2? Looks like this one was an al-Qaeda diplomat of sorts being the chief liason between them and the Taliban.

[atmowasia]

al qaeda? these guys are still around? Honestly, I don't care. What have they ever done to us? We have a war in Iraq to win. Terrorists aren't important right now.

[BruceQW]

Isn't bin Laden dead? IIRC he didn't trot out arecent video last time they reported him dead so I think he must be not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.

[khjhkfggt]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Hopefully the CIA can catch enough of these guys so that Iraq doesn't go completely to **** when the Yanks pull out... I hate to break it to you Drake, but al-Qaida in Iraq is just a minor symptom of the US occupation. The civil war is a full fledged shiite-sunni fight, with each side's militias/death squads/truck bombers doing most of the killing.

[Starichok]

Capturing Al Gayda Top Man

Oops looks like we only caught #2.

[DoniandaCoado]

The Saudis just thwarted a pretty huge attack

http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid..._alleged_plot/

[mikajuise]

Originally posted by Asmodean
... As long as they have Bin Laden's money and a willing pool of recruits, Al Qaeda is still as strong as ever.... Like Ramo said: The Saudi's just broke up a huge al Qaeda cell, nabbed 150 suspects and $5,000,000

[BrainTop]

Iranian involvement in this is puzzling. It appears they may be backing both sides in the Iraqi civil war.

As I have said in other threads, we can't deal with Iraq unless we deal with Iran (and Syria). So long as bordering nations are funding/supplying the resistance, we have no hope of winning.

Since we cannot deal with Iran and Syria because we don't have the power to do so and further because the American people would not support it, we need to give up the idea of victory in Iraq and act accordingly.

Alternatively, we need to get serious about this. But that poltically could only be undertaken by a new, Democrat, administration as no Republican administration would have any credibility or international support for a war on Syria and/or Iran, I'm afraid. Bush has really screwed the Republic and the Republican Party for some time.

[SallyIsNice5]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I hate to break it to you Drake, but al-Qaida in Iraq is just a minor symptom of the US occupation. The civil war is a full fledged shiite-sunni fight, with each side's militias/death squads/truck bombers doing most of the killing.

Portions of Iraq turning into a new stronghold for al Qaeda is worse for the West than an Iraqi civil war. Stopping the former is a good thing even if we can't stop the latter... Yes but we know it's all about the oil. That's why we don't want a civil war. We don't want disruptions in the oil supply. This is why we are still there.

[SawbasyWrab]

all I know is I'm paying $3 a gallon for gas now.

[tipoketpu]

Yet another top leader captured!

With this many captured, I guess the war on terror is working! That means, we will naturally see less terrorist attacks from now on

[AlistDakisa]

He's a Finn trying to talk about world events, Dis. The proper response is just...

[BV6lwvXf]

the U.S. hasn't seen any terrorist attacks since 2001. The rest of the world (particularly where this fella was hanging out) wasn't so lucky..

WASHINGTON - A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006 to more than 14,000, almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17145574.htm

[Stetbrate]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
You should be paying more. I'd love to be paying as little as $3/gallon.

It now me costs twice at much to fill up my tank was it did in 2001 when I bought it.

[tsovimnpb]

Hello there! I see you are discussing Saddam-AQ connection. Perhaps I can be of assistance.

Who'd have guessed that the usual liberal misfits would be banging the drum slowly? I woke up late and logged in to idiocy. Folks, its real simple, see if you can follow this logic, though I doubt it....

1. Yellowcake is used to enrich partial-birth abortions, and...
2. Kosovo is Enron's largest supplier of incarcerated black youths, therefore...
3. Behind closed doors, a new scheme is being drawn up to eliminate the borders with Mexico and Canada, replacing the Dollar with the "Amero."

Want a few reasons this is a bad idea? How about 911, thugs.

[PVaQlNaP]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
[q]Al-Qaeda's Iraq Head Killed in Clashes, Ministry Says (Update5)

By Robin Stringer

May 1 (Bloomberg) -- The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was killed north of Baghdad during a struggle among members of the group, the Iraqi government said.

The death was denied in an Internet statement purported to be from al-Masri's followers, in which he was described as safe and ``still fighting God's enemies,'' Agence France-Presse said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abu al-Kareem Khalaf, in announcing al-Masri's death, said, ``We have strong intelligence that he was killed in clashes today'' near the town of Taji. ``The clashes took place between groups within al- Qaeda,'' Khalaf said in a telephone interview aired on state television. ``Our forces were not involved.''

Al-Masri was identified as the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq on an Islamist Web site in June, after his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, died in a U.S. air strike near Baghdad. Al- Zarqawi's death was presented by the U.S. as a major blow to the terrorist network. By contrast, al-Masri's death probably won't make much difference to the group, said Peter R. Neumann, head of the Defence Studies Department at King's College London.

``Al-Qaeda in Iraq has established itself to such a degree it doesn't need one person alone,'' Neumann said in a telephone interview. ``Someone else will take over. They have semiautonomous factions and it will not make a big difference to them.''

The U.S.-led coalition said in an e-mailed statement that it was unable to confirm al-Masri's death.

Samarra Attack

The U.S. military blames the mainly Sunni Muslim al-Qaeda network for attacks on Iraqi civilians, including the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra that worsened violence between the majority Shiites and the Sunnis.

``It is probably public enemy No. 1,'' General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said of al-Qaeda's network in the country, at a news conference on April 26.

Al-Qaeda's Iraq organization emerged from Sunni groups that are still fighting to dominate the country, Neumann said.

``There have been struggles for control between Sunni groups from Baghdad and al-Anbar, Sunni Kurds and foreign fighters,'' he said. I don't have a reference, but I believe that other sources are saying that he was killed in an attack by another Sunni faction not part of al-Qaeda, which supports what I've been saying, that al-Qaeda has nothing to gain if the US leaves Iraq. The other insurgent factions will not suffer their presence for very long once we leave.

[BILBONDER]

Originally posted by Ramo
The Saudis just thwarted a pretty huge attack

http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid..._alleged_plot/ Good for the Saudis, esp the factions that are genuinely anti-AQ

Now the question is, was this done with intell gleaned from Al-Iraqi? IE Al-Iraqi is singing? Or was this network something we and KSA intell knew about already, and it was disrupted now, so AQ would THINK that Al-Iraqi is singing?