This morning, on "Imus In The Morning", Don was interviewing Mike Boettcher of NBC News from Baghdad about the Zarqawi air raid and he began to report of another bombing in the streets of central Baghdad where 13 people were killed. Mike stated that the reactions to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are already beginning to show with this most recent car bombing (an outrageous assertion).
Don Imus, no fan to the war effort in Iraq, immediately asked Mike Boettcher, "How do we know it's a reaction to that, Mike?" (that the attack on the 13 people was a reaction to the Zarqari death) and Mike stuttered and stated that he really did not know if the event was really connected. When pressed further by Don about the nature of original statement ... Mike's excuse was, "I had a little 'mixed-plus' (feed-back) in my ear". This, from an on-air professional who is comfortable to working with an earpiece in his ear.
Agenda driven media, our next airstrike target?
Excerpts from The Washington Times -
Zarqawi killed in air raid
ASSOCIATED PRESS - June 8, 2006 - 9:09 a.m.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq who waged a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and beheadings of hostages, has been killed in a precision airstrike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said today. It was a long-sought victory in the war in Iraq.
Zarqawi and seven aides, including spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman, were killed yesterday in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, officials said.
"Zarqawi was eliminated," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
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The announcement about Zarqawi's death came six days after he issued an audiotape on the Internet, railing against Shiites in Iraq and saying militias were raping women and killing Sunnis. He urged the community to fight back.
The Jordanian-born terrorist was Iraq's most-wanted militant - as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he swore allegiance in 2004. The United States put a $25 million bounty on his head, the same as bin Laden. Mr. Al-Maliki told al-Arabiya television the bounty would be honored, saying "we will meet our promise," without elaborating.
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Mr. Al-Maliki said yesterday's airstrike by U.S. forces was based on intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by area residents.
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Baqouba has in recent weeks seen a spike in sectarian violence, including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. It also was near the site of a sectarian atrocity last week in which masked gunmen killed 21 Shiites, including a dozen students pulled from minibuses, after separating out four Sunni Arabs.
"Those who disrupt the course of life, like Zarqawi, will have a tragic end," Mr. al-Maliki said. He also warned those who would follow the militant's lead that "whenever there is a new Zarqawi, we will kill him."
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UPDATE - 6-9-2006, al-Zarqawi's Greatest Hits:
ZARQAWI'S FOOTPRINTS
Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed Wednesday in a U.S. air strike at a safe house north of Baghdad. Here is a chronology of some attacks claimed by Zarqawi and his followers:
** Oct. 28, 2002: U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley is fatally shot in Amman, Jordan.
** Aug. 19, 2003: A truck bombing of the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad kills 23.
** Aug. 29, 2003: More than 85 are killed in a car bombing in Najaf.
** March 2, 2004: At least 181 are killed in suicide bombings and mortar attacks at Shi'ite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad.
** May 11, 2004: American businessman Nicholas R. Berg is beheaded.
** May 18, 2004: Iraqi Governing Council President Abdel-Zahraa Othman is killed by a car bomb.
** Sept. 16, 2004: British engineer Kenneth Bigley and U.S. engineers Jack Hensley and Eugene "Jack" Armstrong are kidnapped in Baghdad. By Oct. 10, all three men are confirmed beheaded.
** Feb. 28, 2005: A suicide car bomber kills 125 in Hillah.
** Nov. 9, 2005: A triple suicide bombing at hotels in Amman, Jordan, kills 60.
** Feb. 22, 2006: One of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines, the Golden Mosque in Samarrah, is destroyed in a bombing, leading to more than 90 reprisal bombings on Sunni mosques.
Sources: Combined wire dispatches from The Washington Times
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