From AP, with thanks to Shinoliite.
CAIRO, Egypt - In a rare video posted Tuesday on the Internet, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden and said any government formed in Iraq would be merely a "stooge."He also mocked the U.S. military in Iraq for what he called suicides, drug-taking and mutinies, and he warned that "worse" attacks were to come.
The video, released just days after Iraq named a new prime minister and a high-profile audiotape from bin Laden appeared on Arab TV, seemed a deliberate attempt by al-Zarqawi to claim the spotlight again following months of taking a lower profile...
The video was believed the first to show al-Zarqawi's face. The bearded, black-clothed terrorist leader, thought to be about 40, was in a flat desert landscape, dotted with scrub brush as if after a spring rain, that looked startlingly like Iraq's western Anbar province.
The footage showed him and about two dozen insurgents, masked and dressed in black uniforms, undergoing combat training.
In another scene, al-Zarqawi was filmed inside, sitting with his lieutenants and Anbar's insurgent commander, according to a caption in the video. The men, sitting on traditional Arab cushions and mats, could be seen discussing strategy over a large map spread on the ground.
"Any government which is formed in Iraq now _whether by Shiites or Zionist Kurds, or those who are dubbed Sunnis — would only be a stooge," al-Zarqawi said in the video. "They are a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Muslim nation."...
Al-Zarqawi also claimed the U.S. military was overwhelmed in Iraq.
"Why don't you tell people that your soldiers are committing suicide, taking drugs and hallucination pills to make them sleep?" he asked, directing his words to President Bush.
"By God, your dreams will be defeated by our blood and by our bodies. What is coming is even worse," he said.
The U.S. military in Iraq said it would have no immediate comment...
Once again it is by some other Muslims' lives and bodies while OBL, Zarqawi and their leaders make movies and tapes in the comfort of their tents. One wonders why Muslims men never ask themselves...why is it I am to die and they live on.
"Why don't you tell people that your soldiers are committing suicide, taking drugs and hallucination pills to make them sleep?" he asked, directing his words to President Bush.
I guess Zarqawi doesn't realize that for mentally stable people, hallucinations (and delusions of grandeur) don't come naturally.
Vietnam ended a long time ago. Can we please unleash the real dogs of war and start cleaning these places up with overwhelming force?
No wonder retired generals are getting irritated.
Just like another big brave Jihad leader...hide and make taped BS and hide in caves or safehouses. Come out and fight like a real soldier, take off those tablecloths damnit!
The video was believed the first to show al-Zarqawi's face. The bearded, black-clothed terrorist leader, thought to be about 40, was in a flat desert landscape, dotted with scrub brush as if after a spring rain, that looked startlingly like Iraq's western Anbar province.
Is there a Bulwer-Lytton journalism award?
Is AP's translator not too hot, or did Zarqawi really say "hallucination pills"?
FWIW, the BBC has clips from the video showing as a background while an analyst gives his view of it to an interviewer:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4944250.stm
They've got at least one other story involving Islamic terrorism on the go -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4943122.stm
What a strange release!
"Zionist Kurds?" Do the Kurds know that they're Zionists?
"Hallucination pills" for sleeping? And in that sleep what dreams may come?
"They (any Iraqi government) are a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Muslim nation..." Is this left-handed support of Bush's nation-building pipe-dream?
Hallucination pills, anyone?
How come that muslims around the world cannot see,,,and do not get outraged ,,,that these creeps are killing more muslims than anyone else? It beggars belief how stupid they are.
So this week we have had 2 "fabulous" messages, and another terrorist attack on muslim soil in Egypt. And of course no one in the muslim world can see what is happening. Play the race card; play the victim card. You guys never do anything wrong; it is always the infidels who do everything wrong.
If there are any muslims reading this post ,,please explain. And don't give me that bull**** about the crusaders and colonialism. Read your own history from before the time of the crusades: You ain't gonna like it. Seems to me the infidels have got a bigger case than you for being victims of your subjugation and colonialism,,,,and horrific crimes against humanity.
For centuries you have gone out to destroy and conquer the western world and you haven't stopped yet.We don't like your laws and customs; they are unworthy of humanity. And the likes of OBL whom you so admire are testament to your warped thinking. He has done more harm to muslims around the world than the west will ever do. He is the reason people are wary of you and distrust you.
We do not want your caliphate: you have nothing positive to offer us.
The truth of the matter is that it is not the leaders that kill themselves and others, it is the everyday men and their sons that serve these leaders. These folks should start to doing the questioning.
Muslims have their heads in the sand when it comes to their own history. I don't think they have the connecting neurons in their brain to be able to understand logic.
As long as his victims are tied up, and alone, and outnumbered at least 5 to one, what a hero he is.
Wow!
A true Lion of Islam.
I'll bet the suicide rate and useage of 'hallucination pills' will double among the troops, once they see this video.
Shouldn't we all just now surrender before he gets really mad?
Oops!
I think I took one of those pills.
Thought it was a breath mint.
(Which Zarq also appears to need.)
freewoman, I agree their logic is illogical. Everyone here and everywhere else should remember that Iraqis and Iranians fought each other to a standstill for 10 years. US and coalition forces swept through Iraq the first time like a hot knife through butter as the fearsome Iraqi army fell to their knees begging to be captured due to starvation and dehydration. Then, years later, the same forces swept through, showed no sign of stopping this time, and drove the mighty Sadam into a rat's hole as the whimsical 'Baghdad Bob' kept spouting "there's nothing to see here ...no US tanks in the streets ...just ignore we're being invaded!"
These people are all hot air. Each one keeps shouting louder than the one previous. Just keep these as reminders whenever a little bit of doubt wants to creep in -we're going to capture this blowhard and if we were as barbaric as they are, we would display his ugly head on a pole so high as to make anyone who doubts we mean business to truly tremble in pants-filling fear.
I just saw the Zarqawi video. He looks well fed, in fact even kind of fat. Apparently his life of hide and seek agrees with him. It also says that he is not harried enough, chased enough, bombed enough. Our forces should ratchet up the hunt for him. What is notable is the 25 million dollar reward for him and no Muslim is interested in claiming it. Not even the "moderate" Muslims, or even the Shiites seem interested in finding him. The umma is strong in that regard. Wake up Condi, George, Rummy. Wake up!
You have to admit that al-Zarqawi has a leg up in the war of words. All that spicy hyperbole about "poisoned daggers" and "your dreams will be defeated by our blood and by our bodies," "we will cut off the hands..." adds a certain villainous mystique that juices the jihadis.
Meanwhile we get the dead pan detached monotone of McClellan, and the what-me-worry rain dance from Rumsfeld. We need some official testosterone, some intimidation, some inscrutable threats, Some foreboding warnings. Any suggestions?
"I can almost hear the ticking of the second hand of destiny. We must act now or we will die. Inchon will succeed, and we will save 100,000 lives. We shall land at Inchon, and I will crush them."
MacArthur
This Muslim mass murderer needs to die! I pray that soon he will be killed and go to hell where he can hang out with his false prophet
Of course Zarqawi is only doing what the Koran commands. To emulate the life of Muhammad. And what an evil life it was
Caratacus
There are plenty of Muslims who would love to betray Zarqawi for the 25 million dollars but know they will die gruesome deaths along with their families.
Dennis...I really doubt that any of those Iraqui bimbos realize what 25 million could really buy them. A real life out of that craphole called Iraq with security and safety for their families instead of religious strife and wondering what Islamic brother is ready to hack off their heads.
Absolutely NO concept of a nice house, great muscle cars, yacht, private helicoptor, jet skis with a lakefront house...pointed towards Mecca of coarse....Barbqued BEEF ribs cause pork don't work on one of those fancy Stainless steel BBQ's and don't forget the NEER BEER.
al-Zarqawi is a coward, hiding in safe houses, and urges the brain dead muslim followers to kill themselves. these brave men go into places were civilians unarmed and unaware of danger, and that is their claim to fame, these islamist brave fighters are nothing but cowards..any muslim should be ashamed of these senseless actions of cowards. they should resign themselves and leave islam at there is no futur with islam, it is a death cult.
the one thing l am pissed at Bush, is that he is not allowing an all out targeting of the sunni triangle.. l would make a parking lot out of it, once and for all. tell civilians to leave, and those that remain are targets for meeting their allah babba balu man!
Posted by: butterfly
"I can almost hear the ticking of the second hand of destiny. We must act now or we will die. Inchon will succeed, and we will save 100,000 lives. We shall land at Inchon, and I will crush them."
MacArthur
Bravo! Great choice. That's the kind of unwavering plain-speak that revs up the troops. Churchill's speech likely suffers from overexposure, but imagine Bush reading it verbatim as a historical perspective. I doubt that he would capture the grave inflection of Churchill's voice, but the text is sufficient.
"I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone...
...We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."
Winston Churchill
Mindbleed, an Egyptian blogger, put into words on paragraph that beautifully describes the problem with these zealots. Read the post here.
Violent Muslims, loonies, terrorists, fundies, whatever you want to call them, are the most selfish creatures ever created on God’s earth. They are willing to inflict pain and suffering on fellow man and beast only to get some cheap gate pass to Heaven. Instead of toiling at ‘life’ like the rest of us sorry fucks, these idiots think they can hop onto the superhighway to heaven by chopping other people’s heads off and pointing to God and saying ‘gimme gimme.’
Thumper, I agree that we need someone who can speak like he means waht he says. I am sick of hearing this diplomatic-double talk that we hear all the time. This is the usual response when a question is asked about American plans, it goes like this: "We have not ruled out any military options." or "Our response will be firm." These are wienie words that mean nothing to the Jihadists. I also realize that testosterone in congress and the White House is about abundant as water on the Sun.
Instead of saying that we will hunt the terrorists down and bring them to justice, I wish GHWB had said "We will hunt them down and kill them." Simple, huh?
I really hope that behind the scenes and away from the microphones, GHWB, Rummie, Condy, and the rest speak in plain language to these so called allies both Arab and European. I guess that's why people like me shouldn't be president.
Pelayo says: "Instead of saying that we will hunt the terrorists down and bring them to justice, I wish GHWB had said "'We will hunt them down and kill them.'"
Bush did use such strong language right after 9-11. When asked about bin Laden, Bush invoked the old Wild West posters that said "Wanted: Dead or Alive." He also said "we're going to smoke 'em out." But this type of "bellicose" rhetoric was greeted with horror by all the usual suspects. There's no point in using strong language if your allies and a very vocal and influential segment of the Western elites won't sign on to it. Which is why Bush eventually abandoned it.
Now personally, I wish Bush would have paraphrased what Truman said to Japan in 1945 just before he dropped the A-bomb: "The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." (And that is what they got.)
But when Truman said that, the U.N. hadn't yet been populated by international cockroaches wrapping themselves in victimization and anti-Americanism; CNN wasn't broadcasting live TV coverage to the whole world of how the awful U.S. Air Force was killing civilians; Human Rights Watch wasn't looking over Truman's shoulder; there wasn't a sizable anti-American political movement in the West denouncing U.S. actions day after day; and the American Civil Liberties Union was still concerned with the civil liberties of Americans, not the rights of the enemy. But that's not how things are anymore.
If we want this war to be fought the only way it can be won--with a total effort comparable to World War II--we simply have to clear this peanut gallery off the field of battle. They have a Constitutional right to say whatever they want. But I want a Government with enough intestinal fortitude to say it won't subordinate our survival to the wishes of the peanut gallery. And for starters, that means repudiating the U.N. in its current form. As well as saying that from now on, nothing that is said or done in Berkeley, San Francisco, or anywhere in Massachusetts east of Worcester is of the slightest interest to us anymore.
"We'll bring them to justice" sounds like a bad cowboy movie cliche from a 1930's serial with Tom Mix.
Bush and crew need to lace their language with some harder reality, like:
"The mind of the enemy, and the will of his leaders, is a target of far more importance than the bodies of his troops.."
-Gen. S.B. Griffith II.
And:
"May God have mercy on my enemies, because I won't."
-Gen. George Patton.
ya,Patton was the man
Is this the 'benevolence in the heart of Islam', you wre refering to, Condi?
Isn't it quaint how these wild-beast men keep 'speaking for God'? God doesn't need anyone to speak for him, least of all blood thirsty devil worshippers like these.
My guess is that they'll have to ANSWER for this.
I doubt that Zarqawi is even in Iraq. He probably hides out most of the time in Syria, Saudi Arabia, or even jordan.
I think the reference "Zionist Kurds" is meant to mock the dream of a greater Kurdistan which would include chunks of SE Turkey, W Iran, and NE Syria.