Iraq (CNN) -- Unconfirmed reports that al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been killed come from local tribes and not Iraq's intelligence services or military, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday. [...]
"Iraqi security forces do not have the body," al-Dabbagh said on Iraqi state TV. "Iraqi security forces and Multi-National Forces are trying to retrieve the body for visual identification and DNA tests."
The reports of al-Masri's death emerged after a confrontation Tuesday between Sunni tribes and al Qaeda in Iraq at a bridge in an area under Sunni tribal control, Dabbagh said.
Earlier Tuesday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said "very strong intelligence" indicated al-Masri was killed in fighting between rival militant groups north of Baghdad. [...]
The U.S. military and U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had no information on the reports.
The media seems to be taking off on the "unconfirmed" nature of the reports but the text I highlighted in red above are incredibly significant.....and incredibly damaging to Bush and Company.
And just why would that be?
Glad you asked.
There are two aspect to this that make the tiny snippet of information important. The first is that even though the Sunni tribes and Al Qaeda share the same Wahhabi roots, there is no way on earth the Sunni will subjugate themselves and their religion to Al Qaeda. In short, they dislike AQ as much as we do.
Oh yeah, did I mention that Saddam Hussein was Sunni?
So this business about Saddam being in league with Al Qaeda that was supposed to be such an "imminent threat" to America was just pure fiction. It was deliberately distorted to drum up a case for a war they wanted to get into anyway. If Americans were paying ANY kind of attention at all to these stories they would immediately see the lie exposed in Cecil B De mil, wide-screen, living, techni-color.
The other aspect, and perhaps equally troubling is this snippet from yesterday's news. This from the Washington Post:
BAGHDAD, April 29 -- A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.
Since March 1, at least 16 army and national police commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to resign; at least nine of them are Sunnis, according to U.S. military documents shown to The Washington Post.
Okay. Let's break that down a little. Our "boy" Maliki, the Prime Minister upon whom we are relying to bring peace and stability to Iraq (at least enough where we can leave "with honor"....deja vu anybody...) is firing Sunni's who are cracking down on the Shiite militias who have been waging war and reprisals against Sunni's...the same Sunnis who are fighting Al Qaeda...
So, in case you're keeping score or at least trying to, in general, Iran supports the Shiia and Saudi Arabia supports the Sunni. So we're supporting the Milaki government who supports the Shiia and we're against Iran but we're friends with the Saudi who are supporting the Sunni who are fighting Al Qaeda who are fighting the Shiia who we're supporting.
blblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblb Benny Hill would have been proud......
This war was ill-conceived from the beginning and the total incompetence of the Bush Administration just keeps making it worse.
