Al-Qaeda Number Two In Iraq Caught

I would be willing to bet that a few days ago when Hamed Jumaa Faris Juri al-Saaydi woke up, he never thought how bad his day was about to get, or how drastic his life was about to change. The WaPo elaborates:

Iraqi armed forces have arrested the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the country's national security adviser said Sunday.

The leader, Hamed Jumaa Faris Juri al-Saaydi, was captured within the past few days near Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, along with 20 other senior members of the Sunni Arab insurgent group, which is believed to be responsible for savage beheadings of kidnapped foreigners and suicide attacks that sometimes killed dozens of civilians in a single strike, said the security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie.

Saaydi was second to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Rubaie said. Masri had succeeded insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in June by a U.S. airstrike on a safe house in Baqubah.

And if I were Masri, I would be wetting my pants right. We know that once we get some of these guys into an interrogation session, they do not hold out long. Many surrender information willingly to avoid any sort of Q & A with our interrogators. It is not that we are cruel in any way; to the contrary, we lay it out for them what life will be like if they do not speak up. And trust me, it is not pleasant. Like Moussaoui, they will die, in time, but not as martyr's. Not as servants of Allah. They will die in a prison cell, unremarked or remembered by most of Islam. No one will sing their praises. No one will speak of an "honorable" death. They will die in that cell, alone and forgotten. That, to them, is death. At least through cooperating, they have their lives. We have handed over a fair number of detainees to their respective governments. Life is better than a dishonorable death.

"We now think al-Qaeda in Iraq is suffering a great deal and disintegrating," Rubaie said in a news conference at the U.S.-controlled Green Zone that was broadcast live across the Middle East. "The al-Qaeda organization is suffering from a leadership crisis."

Yes, and that crisis comes from that fact that they have no leadership. Al-Zarqawi, while a thorough pain in our backside, lacked the leadership that al-Qaeda needed there. In addition we should remember that al-Qaeda's global leaders, like bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. had communicated their dissatisfaction with his tactics. Beheadings, they argued, were not helping their cause. He was doing better before his death, in the attempt to pit the Sunnis and Shi'ites against one another. Those groups were not going along with him, for the most part, but the sectarian violence was drawing more to the internecine fight he was causing.

Saaydi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, ordered the February attack on the golden-domed Shiite shrine in Samara that ignited the ongoing ferocious wave of sectarian killings, Rubaie said. He accused Saaydi of trying to spark a civil war between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiite Muslims.

Saaydiwas only working on the overall goal set down by al-Zarqawi. He is continuing a dead legacy; a very deceased idea that is not gaining nearly as much steam as the dinosaur media would have people believe. Thomas put up a post last night, and in that post he cited the General Abizaid interview with Hugh Hewitt. He cited it for the reason that I am: In General Abizaid's opinion, we are winning, and the idea that they can incite Sunni against Shia, and vice versa, is not working. General Abizaid points that out in the beginning of the interview.

Rubaie said Iraqi forces had been tracking Saaydi's movements since the killing of Zarqawi three months ago. Saaydi was hiding inside a home surrounded by women and children whom he was using as a "human shield," Rubaie said.

Notice that above? Does anyone think that the Left and the antiwar nuts will finally pipe down after reading that these people care nothing for innocent lives, and indeed, they put them in greater danger than our troops do? Saaydi was using women and children--let me repeat that, women and children--as shields.

This is the point that a lot of the nuts seem to miss. Our enemy does not care about innocent lives. They care only for their beliefs, and those beliefs are bloody and despotic. We are not at war for oil, or to control the Middle East, or even to pacify it for Israel. (Israel, as I pointed out last night can take care of itself just fine.)

This story should be celebrated by America, but I am positive that the Left will offer only their grousing acknowledgement that Saaydi was even captured. There will be no champagne corks popping at the Kerry or Kennedy homes. Senator Joe Biden will find a way to hype up the "problems" still in Iraq. John Murtha will step up and call for our troops to come home, again. These people do not get the idea that this point goes in the "W" column as opposed to the "L" column. (Maybe that is why they dislike President Bush so much; he is synonymous with the "W" in the word "win.")

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see their reactions, or if there is a reaction at all. The election is right around the corner, and this is a major development in Iraq. And our critics should be reminded that it is the Iraqis who have Saaydi in custody, and I doubt that they will be quite so gentle with him. In the overall scheme of things, Marsi is in trouble.

Saaydi will spill the beans eventually. It is only a matter of time before he is found and captured. As things are, al-Qaeda is losing badly in Iraq, and things are only going to get worse now that Saaydi is in custody.

Marcie