US Troops Battle Al Qaeda In Iraq; Al Qaeda Somehow Survives Gauntlet of AP Editors To Remain In Story

Al Qaeda in Iraq? I thought they were all in Okinawa or something.

It violates at least three MSM Thou Shalt Nots (Thou Shalt Not Mention Al Qaeda In Iraq; Thou Shalt Not Report US Troops Bravely Triumphing Over Terrorists; Thou Shalt Not Quote Frightened Civilians Pleading For US Aid).

Great story. It ends:

Fighting eased afterward. Soon, previously empty streets were teeming with crowds of people who shook soldiers’ hands as they passed.

And that's gotta be the biggest Thou Shalt Not there is.

Question: That AP story is actually from the Army Times. It's cited as an AP story, but carried on the Army Times.

A bit of searching -- just a brief search -- has failed to turn this story running anywhere else, including on the AP sites listed on Drudge.

Is no one else bothering to carry this story? Is that the game now?

More Red On Red: At some point it stops being Red on Red and starts being Purple on Red. The above story mentions an "insurgent" group which had attempted to fight Al Qaeda, but fled when it ran out of ammo.

This story -- from Le Figaro of all places -- notes the increasing anti-Al-Qaeda sentiment even among insurgents.

Following the unconfirmed assassination by a Sunni tribe of Abu-Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of the Iraqi branch of Al-Qa'idah, the tensions between the Islamonationalist camp of the anti-American insurrection and its other component, the Usamah Bin-Ladin network, have never been so strong. "Al-Qa'idah has gone too far in massacring Shi'i civilians but also very many Sunnis," explained Omar, a journalist close to the Islamonationalist factions. "More and more armed groups are realizing that Al-Qa'idah has tarnished the image of resistance by seeking to spark off a civil war. It no longer serves the interests of the Iraqis." Former Information Minister Mohammed al-Hakim went further: "Al-Qa'idah is forcing families to give very young girls into marriage with its fighters in order to benefit from the protection of their tribe."

Nothing wins hearts and minds faster than raping the locals' underage daughters.

... "Al-Qa'idah has just been ousted from Ramadi and Haditha," Mohammed al-Hakim explained. "Its militants are in difficulty in Hit. They are unable to go and take refuge in Tikrit (the stronghold of Saddam Husayn - newspaper's editorial office note), because the tribes do not want this." On the defensive, the jihadists are said to be regrouping in Kirkuk, where they hope to benefit from the divisions between Sunnis and Kurds, and around the mountain bastion of Diyala. ... The elimination of the Iraqi terrorist network leader could nevertheless lead to a divorce. The different armed groups do have the ability to subjugate the few thousand jihadists linked to Al-Qa'idah. "But they need a good reason to start the offensive, a link, for example, between Iran and Al-Qa'idah," maintained Omar, for whom Al-Qa'idah derives its strength from the presence in its midst of a majority of Iraqis, particularly former centurions of Saddam's special guard.

Thanks to dri.

posted by Ace at 07:22 PM

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