1 It's a real b*tch when the chickens finally come home. The level of response is interesting. The attack was against a Saudi owned facility, prompting a massive, violent response. I don't recall this level of action being taken after expat compounds and interests were attacked. The reports of the aftermath of those attacks usually involved the bad guys getting away somehow.

2 Yes they got a little too close to the smokehouse on that one.

3 So much for "the clash of cultures".... Now to this "previously unknown" Zarqawi associate captured by the Wolf Brigade (a group trained by James Steele, and associates as part of the Salvador Option).... You gotta wonder... "The Father of Farouk from Syria" hell of a name.... at least they didn't make the usual claim he is "number 2"...here's a partial list of Zarqawi operatives supposedly caught. Seems like he has an infinite supply.... "The No. 2 official in the al-Qaida in Iraq organization.' "The top deputy to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Mohammed Salah Sutton, aka Abu Zubair (8/14/05) "A lieutenant of al-Qaida terror boss Abu Musab al Zarqawi." Abu Abd al-Aziz (7/13/05) "Zarqawi's 'main leader in Baghdad'" Khalid Suleiman Darwish, aka Abu Alghadiya (6/26/05) A Syrian dentist...was described by Arab media as the 'number two' in Iraq's al Qaeda network and tipped to succeed its leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi." Mohammed Khalaf Shakar, aka Abu Talha (6/17/05) "A top lieutenant of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Mullah Mahdi, aka Abu Abdul Rahman (6/4/05) "Suspected deputy of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" Abu Karrar (5/27/05) "The Washington Post quoted a Zarqawi lieutenant by the nom-de-guerre of Abu Karrar as saying the Jordanian militant was shot and wounded in fighting with US forces near the western city of Ramadi." Mullah Kamel al-Assawadi (5/25/05) "Described as one of al-Zarqawi's top lieutenants." Agha Umar (5/25/05) "A top aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" Amar Adnan Muhammad Hamzah al-Zubaydi, aka Abu al-Abbas (5/9/05) "A high-ranking aide to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Ghassan Muhammed Amin Husayn al-Rawi (4/26/05) "A key associate of Iraq's most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Hamza Ali Ahmed al-Wdimizyar, aka Abu Majid (beginning of April-05) "Zarqawi associate" Salman Aref Abulkadir Khwamurad al-Zardowe, aka Abu Sharif (beginning of April-05) "Zarqawi associate" Taifor Abulsattar Malallah (3/8/05) "One of the 'princes' of Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group." Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, aka Abu Qutaybah (2/25/05) "Iraqi forces have captured a man described as a trusted aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Mohammed Najm Ibrahim, aka Mohammed Najm (2/25/05) "Zarqawi lieutenant" Adel Mujtaba, aka Abu Rim (2/20/05) "A propaganda chief of al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" Anat Mohammed Hamat al-Kays, aka Abu Alid (1/28/05) "High-level Zarqawi lieutenant" Sami Mohammed Ali Said Jaaf, aka Abu Omar Kurdi (1/25/05) "A senior aide to Abu Musab al Zarqawi" "The 'most lethal' top lieutenant of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq." Ismael Jeddan (1/23/05) "The raids also netted a man identified as Ismael Jeddan, an alleged associate of al-Zarqawi." Ali Hamad Ardani Yasin Isawi (1/20/05) "top lieutenant" Inad Mohammed Qais (1/20/05) "The deputy prime minister for national security affairs, Barham Salih, later told a news conference that authorities have arrested a third Zarqawi lieutenant." Salah Salman Idaaj Matar Luhaybi, aka Abu Sayf (12/31/04) "Zarqawi's chief of operations in Baghdad" Fadil Hussain Ahmed al-Kurdi, aka Abu Ubaydah al-Kurdi, aka Ridha (12/30/04) "A senior member of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network." Abdul Aziz Sa'dun Ahmed Hamduni, aka Abu Ahmed (12/22/04) "Zarqawi-linked leader" Hassan Ibrahim Farhan Zyda (12/14/04) "An aide to Iraq's most-wanted man, Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" Abu Saeed (11/26/04) "A lieutenant of Iraq's most feared terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" Nameless (10/23/04) The US military has arrested a 'senior leader' in the network run by Jordanian mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Omar Yusef Juma'a, aka Abu Anas al-Shami (9/25/04) "A senior aide of the Jordanian al Qaeda mastermind, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" Umar Baziyani (6/4/04) "A top aide of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" "His capture removes one of Zarqawi's most valuable officers from his network." Abu Mohammed Hamza (2/24/04) "A key lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Hassan Ghul (2/23/04) "The letter was found on al-Zarqawi lieutenant Hassan Ghul, a Pakistani captured in Iraq." The letter in reference was a "17-page letter to senior al Qaeda leaders written by terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who asked for help starting a Muslim civil war between Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites." Nameless (4/30/03) "An associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in the Baghdad area." From the looks of it, I guess everyone in Iraq is about two-degrees from Zarqawi.

4 Background noise seems amazed at what most of the world calls 'dead mans boots' The promotion of a lesser ranked individual, to the position of the last man killed/captured. He must be fascinated by twinking lights.

5 Please when referring to Zarqawi associates please take the time the edit all Prince to Princess.

6 Can you just imaging the sinking feeling when he comes up puts his arm around you and says, "I like you Abdulla, You are doing a really fine job and I think you deserve more credit and a position worthy of your work".

7 You are in command now, Admiral Piett!

8 Gee... and you just swallow this crap without even thinking about it... hmmm Wonder what ever happened to all those Saddam doubles.... whatever happened to all those shark tanks....whatever happened to all those WMD.... hmmmm and now a group trained by the guy who trained Salvadoran death squads trots out a guy no one has ever heard of and says he is some Zarqawi hotshot and you buy it.... hmmmmm here's the funny part... you ever wonder how they keep getting the guy NEXT to Zarqawi but never get him? I mean how fast can a one legged guy run? hmmmmm == It's not fair to denigrate mindless Bush supporters. For those of you who are mindless Bush supporters, "denigrate" means "belittle".

9 Oh it was not that serious man. That's why it got slapped in there with the Saudi deal. He was commander of the other five or else he was the one they didn't like. It's just news. Do we have to argue till the cows come home about just how big a deal it is?

10 He's a bit sensitive Howie, you're dark is all too obvious in this one and that's bad news, for more than just terrorists.

11 background noise: I haven't got any pictures, so you might not understand it. I know you would prefer chunky Crayola but I'll try and make you understand. Terrorists work in "cells" these cells work independent of each other. One cell has no operational ties, to another cell. The structure is based, like a pyramid. The bottom being the lowest members, the next tier are most likely "commanders", the next tier "local lieutenants" of multiple cells, followed by lieutenants, till you finally get to the Z man. You capture a cell member, he will not even know of the other cells operating, you capture the "commander" of the cell, he most likely knows the next man in the chain. To make it less confusing for you, I'll say this: It is unlikely even the 2nd lieutenant has even sat in the same room as Zarqawi in a very long time. Most of the cells do not communicate between each other by technology, but by courier -- hence the intercepted written words between members. now go back to your tickle-me-elmo coloring book.

12 C'mon, it's the media who keeps telling us it's Zarqawi's second-in-command, or his first lieutenant twice removed or his top-aide's godmother's first ex-husband's best friend. Does anyone really think the media has a clue? Nevermind - don't answer that. Of course we don't take it seriously! As long as it's an Islamo-jihadist, I'm happy - I don't care who he's related to or is commanded by, as long as he's dead.

13 Capturing terrorists is good. But you have no idea who this guy is... and the report did not come from the US military. It came from the Wolf Brigade. They are implicated in death squad activities. You would think with all the middle management swept up that Zarqawi has no one to lead. Even crazy old Don Rumsfeld says we have created more terrorists than we can kill. In light of that admission, blithely hoping that everyone of the bad guys is captured and no one is inflaming the situation is foolish. Fortunately, we can see how this "War on Terrorism" is going - by the administration's own accounting. Here is a story that most folks missed in the furor over the Cheney shooting. Admittedly it isn't as sexy as getting shot in the face, but the news of the The National Counterterrorism Center terrorist suspect list should give you sanguine folks some pause. According to the National Counterterrorism Center there are 325,000 names on their terrorism suspect list. That is more people than worked in New Orleans prior to Katrina (and a hell of lot more than work there now). This came to light after 30,000 people were mistakenly matched to the no fly list. What the hell does that mean? Suspected terrorists have a 90% chance of getting a seat in first class as long as their name isn't Cat Stevens? But hey.... let's compare apples to apples and look at how things have gone since we invaded Iraq and made it a central front on the GWOT. In 2003 they only had 75,000 names on the NCC list. Now we have almost 5x as many. They're spawning faster than rabbits. Donald Rumsfeld is right. We are literally creating terrorists faster than we can kill them... actually 10x faster (assuming all the civilian deaths in Iraq were terrorists). Since 2002 we have spent almost 400 Billion on the War on Terrorism. In other words, it costs us more than a million dollars a pop to create just one terrorist! That is insane! Good thing we are fighting them over there...we can't afford to keep creating them over here! I don't know where people find their confidence given this administration's approach to forecasting. Consider the original cost of the war in Iraq (50 Billion) vs. now (400 Billion and counting). Consider the duration of the war (6 months) vs. now (20 years). consider the deficit projected for 2007 (200 Billion) vs. now (400 Billion). If you look at it that way this list of 325,000 may represent only one quarter of the candidates. Here's the kicker. They don't even have confidence in their own reporting. They tell us that although there are 325,000 names on the list ... the unique names are closer to 250,000. So the original 75,000 they had in 2003 are now reduced to what... a rounding error? == It is not fair to denigrate mindless Bush supporters as ignorant. For mindless Bush supporters, "denigrate" means "make fun of".

14 Dose EMPOROR PALPATINE belong to the AL QUEDA? he sure looks it

15 Greg : And you solve this how? Besides bitching day and night night and day.

16 Ziggy