Amidst The Rumor Mongering, We Now Believe We Have A New Player At The Table
The WaPo has the story about Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, AKA Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
U.S. military leaders Thursday unveiled a photograph of the Egyptian-born explosives expert they believe has been tapped as the apparent successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader killed in an airstrike June 7.
The announcement came as the death toll for U.S. soldiers and civilian contractors in Iraq reached 2,500, Pentagon officials said. A total of 1,972 personnel have been killed in action since the March 2003 invasion, officials said, while 528 died from accidents, illness and other causes. Nearly 17,500 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in the conflict, with about 10,000 of them returning to duty within three days, the Pentagon said.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV told reporters Thursday morning that Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the man identified on Web postings as the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is known to U.S. officials as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Masri was trained as an explosives expert in Afghanistan, Caldwell told reporters at a briefing. Masri is believed to have ties to fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, the deputy to Osama bin Laden.
Caldwell said Masri has been involved in terrorist activity since 1982, initially working with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which was led by Zawahri. He was pictured in a large photograph on display at the media briefing wearing a traditional white Arab headdress secured with a black cord.
Masri's high-level involvement in al-Qaeda in Iraq was confirmed by material seized in military raids in southern Iraq in April and May, Caldwell said. The loose-knit insurgent group has been responsible for hundreds of bombings, kidnappings and killings of Iraqi civilians and U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.
Caldwell said the United States cannot determine whether Masri has assumed full control of the group. "Al-Masri's ability to effectively assert his leadership over a-Qaeda cells remains unclear," he said. adding that there are other "al-Qaeda senior leadership members and Sunni terrorists" who could compete with him for power.
Among them, Caldwell cited Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, who in the past has been identified as deputy leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Abdullah bin Rashid al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Mujahedeen Shura Council.
Al-Masri will have his hands full with the other al-Qaeda commanders in Iraq, and in the region as a whole. While he may be an explosives expert, his ability to lead is still in question. It is obvious we have picked up on that, possibly through surveilled chatter. The fact that we now have a face to look for is a boon for the effort. The same tactics will be used, I am sure, to track this guy down, as well.
And leave it to the MSM to, in the beginning of a story that has absolutely nothing to do with its inclusion, hype and remind people of the death toll over in Iraq. I find this mildly irritating that the MSM has deemed itself the purveyor of this information with sickening regularity. One would think that someone at these papers would ask "Do we have to run this stuff, again?" And I am sure those that do are given withering glances. The MSM has decided to undertake the breaking of the morale of the nation. Unfortunately for them, this is not Vietnam, and the nation is not as divided over this war as they were over that war.
Their polls may reflect that, but for every person they get that steps up and says they are sick of this war, those same people remember that WE--AMERICA--was attacked on 9/11. This was not another nation getting its backside handed to it by guerilla fighters a half a world away, and that nation begging us to get involved. This war was not created out of whole cloth from the White House as the Kos Kiddies may think. We are at war because nineteen men from a Middle Eastern terrorist organization had a burr up their butt, and a seemingly legitimate gripe. Since then, they have learned that we do not take kindly to others killing our civilians.
Al-Masri had better take a close look at the battlefield before engaging us, or even contemplating an engagement. Efforts are still underway in Baghdad to secure the city from any terrorists, and this comes on the heels of weeks of attacks on civilians there; on Iraqi security and military forces. Under Prime Minister al-Maliki's orders, Baghdad is now being turned into a terrorist-free zone. And I am sure there are plans being drawn up to spread this concept across the fledgling nation.
The battle is changing as coalition forces are sick of dealing with these guys. We cut off the head of the snake last week, and his body burst into little pieces that went scrambling across the country like roaches when the lights come on. It is time to finish this, to run these animlas to ground--once and for all--and end their serious threat to the stability of Iraq.
Marcie
The WaPo has the story about Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, AKA Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
U.S. military leaders Thursday unveiled a photograph of the Egyptian-born explosives expert they believe has been tapped as the apparent successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader killed in an airstrike June 7.
The announcement came as the death toll for U.S. soldiers and civilian contractors in Iraq reached 2,500, Pentagon officials said. A total of 1,972 personnel have been killed in action since the March 2003 invasion, officials said, while 528 died from accidents, illness and other causes. Nearly 17,500 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in the conflict, with about 10,000 of them returning to duty within three days, the Pentagon said.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV told reporters Thursday morning that Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the man identified on Web postings as the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is known to U.S. officials as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Masri was trained as an explosives expert in Afghanistan, Caldwell told reporters at a briefing. Masri is believed to have ties to fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, the deputy to Osama bin Laden.
Caldwell said Masri has been involved in terrorist activity since 1982, initially working with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which was led by Zawahri. He was pictured in a large photograph on display at the media briefing wearing a traditional white Arab headdress secured with a black cord.
Masri's high-level involvement in al-Qaeda in Iraq was confirmed by material seized in military raids in southern Iraq in April and May, Caldwell said. The loose-knit insurgent group has been responsible for hundreds of bombings, kidnappings and killings of Iraqi civilians and U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.
Caldwell said the United States cannot determine whether Masri has assumed full control of the group. "Al-Masri's ability to effectively assert his leadership over a-Qaeda cells remains unclear," he said. adding that there are other "al-Qaeda senior leadership members and Sunni terrorists" who could compete with him for power.
Among them, Caldwell cited Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, who in the past has been identified as deputy leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Abdullah bin Rashid al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Mujahedeen Shura Council.
Al-Masri will have his hands full with the other al-Qaeda commanders in Iraq, and in the region as a whole. While he may be an explosives expert, his ability to lead is still in question. It is obvious we have picked up on that, possibly through surveilled chatter. The fact that we now have a face to look for is a boon for the effort. The same tactics will be used, I am sure, to track this guy down, as well.
And leave it to the MSM to, in the beginning of a story that has absolutely nothing to do with its inclusion, hype and remind people of the death toll over in Iraq. I find this mildly irritating that the MSM has deemed itself the purveyor of this information with sickening regularity. One would think that someone at these papers would ask "Do we have to run this stuff, again?" And I am sure those that do are given withering glances. The MSM has decided to undertake the breaking of the morale of the nation. Unfortunately for them, this is not Vietnam, and the nation is not as divided over this war as they were over that war.
Their polls may reflect that, but for every person they get that steps up and says they are sick of this war, those same people remember that WE--AMERICA--was attacked on 9/11. This was not another nation getting its backside handed to it by guerilla fighters a half a world away, and that nation begging us to get involved. This war was not created out of whole cloth from the White House as the Kos Kiddies may think. We are at war because nineteen men from a Middle Eastern terrorist organization had a burr up their butt, and a seemingly legitimate gripe. Since then, they have learned that we do not take kindly to others killing our civilians.
Al-Masri had better take a close look at the battlefield before engaging us, or even contemplating an engagement. Efforts are still underway in Baghdad to secure the city from any terrorists, and this comes on the heels of weeks of attacks on civilians there; on Iraqi security and military forces. Under Prime Minister al-Maliki's orders, Baghdad is now being turned into a terrorist-free zone. And I am sure there are plans being drawn up to spread this concept across the fledgling nation.
The battle is changing as coalition forces are sick of dealing with these guys. We cut off the head of the snake last week, and his body burst into little pieces that went scrambling across the country like roaches when the lights come on. It is time to finish this, to run these animlas to ground--once and for all--and end their serious threat to the stability of Iraq.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 10:54 AM
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