as Foxnews.com reported today. Apparently Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf was picked up during a raid on Jan 15, with a couple of other nasty folk:
Two other militants linked to Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group also were arrested, authorities announced Monday.
Al-Jaaf was "the most lethal of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's lieutenants," the statement said.
Al-Zarqawi heads Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terror network's local affiliate. The group is behind many of the car bombings, beheadings, assassinations and other attacks driving the insurgency in Iraq.
The suspect was linked to the August 2003 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others. The U.N. attack was "planned and directed by two others affiliated with Abu Omar," the statement said.
Al-Jaaf was responsible for 32 car bombing attacks that killed hundreds of Iraqis, the statement said. Al-Jaaf "confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad since March 2003," said Thaer al-Naqib, spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Sounds like our guys are doing a bang-up job rounding up the terrorist nutjobs, a couple at a time. How sweet would it be to get Zarqawi this week? Oh, but we need to be careful because if our military interrogators actually, well, interrogate Al Jaaf to find out where his boss is hiding, the LLL's will bring out the sobbing masses to scream violations of the Geneva convention. Never mind that capturing a top Zarqawi aide could actually result in the capture of the big cheese himself. Such a coup could only happen if we are allowed to extract the information as necessary - using military tactics. After all, this is war - a fact too easily forgotten in certain circles. I hope that our military leaders proceed unafraid - we must not bow to political pressure now.
Our country is truly blessed to have a a CinC that is steadfast and stays on task, regardless of poll results and political pressure. And such determination on the issues, even when undermined by leftist claims that he "refuses to admit mistakes", has paid off - our economy is back on track, particularly given the inherited recession and the staggering blow to our economy of Sept 11th, as well as the costs of the war on terror. And to the people who claim our war in Iraq is not a war on terror, take another look at the nightly news and tell me that bombing a wedding party to make a political statement isn't terrorism. We are fighting the war on their turf - terrorists are flocking to Iraq and are getting beaten down, one at a time. The terrorists are going to Iraq, and attacking our military - the men and women who are trained to fight back and win. The terrorists are not bombing America, taking on defenseless citizens riding on a plane or on a bus, or working in an office building. We have kept them off our soil - that is the first big step.
If you want the latest info on the work our troops are doing to help Iraq take care of itself, and improve humanitarian conditions, check out this Centcom site and the latest report on the successes in Iraq.
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