Zarqawi Map Aided Successes Against Iraqi Insurgency+

DuH2 · #1 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Zarqawi Map Aided Successes Against Iraqi Insurgency
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — A key turning point in the U.S.-led war against the Iraqi insurgency came even before last winter's troop surge, FOX News has learned.

A map drawn by Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — who was killed last year by U.S. forces — turned up last December in an Al Qaeda safe house and essentially gave U.S. war planners insight into the terrorist group's methods for moving explosives, fighters and money into Baghdad.

"map"--> http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/Baghdad_Belt.pdf

"The map essentially laid out how Al Qaeda controlled Baghdad. And they did it through four belts that surrounded the city, and these belts controlled access to the city for reinforcements and weapons and money," said Maj. Gen. Bob Scales, a FOX News contributor who recently visited Iraq.

"And [U.S.-led forces] simply made the decision to reduce these belts one at a time, and essentially what that did was it choked off Al Qaeda's access to the city. And once that was done, Al Qaeda had no alternative but to leave the city, to leave the belts and to retreat into the city of Baquba," Scales said.

RelatedStories
2 Key House Democrats Threaten Future War Funds, Call on President to Accept Withdrawal Deadline The map showed four rings around Baghdad, nearly identical to rings former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein once created to protect the city.

U.S. military planners used those maps to choke off Al Qaeda, moving ring by ring, hunting and destroying Al Qaeda in Baghdad, flushing them out of their urban strongholds and picking them off as easy targets in the desert.

The troop surge was announced Jan. 10 and began soon after that. Gens. David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno took a risky but calculated move to send U.S. troops out of main base camps and set up small patrol stations that were jointly manned with Iraqi forces, essentially living among Iraqis in Baghdad. It made it easier for intelligence to surface but made U.S. troops easier targets.

U.S. forces seized on an opportunity as Al Qaeda gathered in the northern city of Baquba. The surge allowed troops to encircle Baghdad, and the insurgents fled into the desert, making them even more vulnerable to U.S. forces.

"What this offensive did is it essentially cut the head off the snake," Scales said.

The explanation for the turning point came as new reports of a more peaceful Baghdad surfaced.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312343,00.html

Quote:

November 20, 2007

Baghdad’s Weary Start to Exhale as Security Improves
By DAMIEN CAVE and ALISSA J. RUBIN

BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 — Five months ago, Suhaila al-Aasan lived in an oxygen tank factory with her husband and two sons, convinced that they would never go back to their apartment in Dora, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad.

Today she is home again, cooking by a sunlit window, sleeping beneath her favorite wedding picture. And yet, she and her family are remarkably alone. The half-dozen other apartments in her building echo with emptiness and, on most days, Iraqi soldiers are the only neighbors she sees.

“I feel happy,” she said, standing in her bedroom, between a flowered bedspread and a bullet hole in the wall. “But my happiness is not complete. We need more people to come back. We need more people to feel safe.”

Mrs. Aasan, 45, a Shiite librarian with an easy laugh, is living at the far end of Baghdad’s tentative recovery. She is one of many Iraqis who in recent weeks have begun to test where they can go and what they can do when fear no longer controls their every move.

The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.

As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/wo...nt&oref=slogin

Some people flippantly dismissed and actually mocked the killing of Zaraqawi as "insignficiant"..and that his al Qaeda was virtually irrelivant and much too small of a % to matter. SO much for that.

+

One of the loudest bleaters of defeatism is being forced to report success.

Oh yeah and I guess the Iraqis forgot they where supposed to be in a !Civil War!....but then they told you all that over a year ago.

JP5 · #2 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 02:47 PM

And to think: the Democrat leadership KNEW this even before we did........especially those on the Intelligence Committee.....but all the time demanded we leave immediately. Why? Because they didn't want Iraq to go well, because they knew that Bush would get the credit. Shameful behavior from leaders who are supposed to be FOR our country and our military successes.

I have NEVER heard a Democrat leader say they hoped and prayed for our success in Iraq....or even acted as if they wanted it to be successful.

jhffmn · #3 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 03:28 PM

Did anyone else actually look at the map? Maybe there is something I am missing, but it looks like something his son drew him win a crayon on a napkin.

I wonder what insight was actually provided by that map. I wonder what the inscriptions say. Interesting story though.

For all we know, that one piece of paper could have ultimately determined the outcome of the war. Fascinating stuff.

DuH2 · #4 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 03:57 PM

It looks like a territorial distribution map.(IE x controls this y that) or something similiar.
It wasn't the only thing found where he was killed..its simply being used as the focal point of the story.

thetruth6 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JP5";p=&quot

And to think: the Democrat leadership KNEW this even before we did........especially those on the Intelligence Committee.....but all the time demanded we leave immediately. Why? Because they didn't want Iraq to go well, because they knew that Bush would get the credit. Shameful behavior from leaders who are supposed to be FOR our country and our military successes.

I have NEVER heard a Democrat leader say they hoped and prayed for our success in Iraq....or even acted as if they wanted it to be successful.

You are absolutely pathetic. <--- Personal Attack No one in this country wants Iraq to become what it is now, you are seriously retarded if you believe this <--- Personal Attack ...I am glad that our torture has yielded 1 positive thing come out of it

jhffmn · #6 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetruth6";p=&quot

You are absolutely pathetic. No one in this country wants Iraq to become what it is now, you are seriously retarded if you believe this...I am glad that our torture has yielded 1 positive thing come out of it

Perhaps, but the same people who stand to gain from a negative opinion of the war also stand to lose from good news out of Iraq.

Do you think that among the politicians that have wagered on defeat not even one would put their career ahead of the best interest of the country.

Do you even remember the outcry from Washington after the Patraeus report? Hell Hillary called that poor man a lier straight to his face. Even at that point they were scrambling to discredit good news out of Iraq.

Tedminator · #7 (**permalink**) 11-21-2007, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetruth6";p=&quot

Quote:

Originally Posted by JP5";p=&quot

I have NEVER heard a Democrat leader say they hoped and prayed for our success in Iraq....or even acted as if they wanted it to be successful.

You are absolutely pathetic. No one in this country wants Iraq to become what it is now, you are seriously retarded if you believe this...

heh, So you've met JP. She's got a lot of hate bubbling up in her.

Stick around. It gets even funnier when the RNC haters starting whining about the DNC haters' level of hate for each other.

Topic Hijack:
This post is an attempt to hijack the subject of the thread to be about another user.

f100supersabr · #8 (**permalink**) 11-24-2007, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tedminator";p=&quot

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetruth6";p=&quot

Quote:

Originally Posted by JP5";p=&quot

I have NEVER heard a Democrat leader say they hoped and prayed for our success in Iraq....or even acted as if they wanted it to be successful.

You are absolutely pathetic. No one in this country wants Iraq to become what it is now, you are seriously retarded if you believe this...

heh, So you've met JP. She's got a lot of hate bubbling up in her.

Stick around. It gets even funnier when the RNC haters starting whining about the DNC haters' level of hate for each other.

LOL !Met JP ! TtHAT IS FUNNY! There are those who see the world, life, and all events only through the prism of their political party. Even though both camps are guilty I do believe that the Jp faction are ahead of the DNC appologists in factless/baseless whining. I can read/hear of a news issue and just about write a post for JP!! LOL !!

Topic Hijacking continues:
This post is off topic, continuing to derail the thread.

LoSconosciuto · #9 (**permalink**) 11-24-2007, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by f100supersabr";p=&quot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tedminator";p=&quot

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetruth6";p=&quot

Quote:

Originally Posted by JP5";p=&quot

I have NEVER heard a Democrat leader say they hoped and prayed for our success in Iraq....or even acted as if they wanted it to be successful.

You are absolutely pathetic. No one in this country wants Iraq to become what it is now, you are seriously retarded if you believe this...

heh, So you've met JP. She's got a lot of hate bubbling up in her.

Stick around. It gets even funnier when the RNC haters starting whining about the DNC haters' level of hate for each other.

LOL !Met JP ! TtHAT IS FUNNY! There are those who see the world, life, and all events only through the prism of their political party. Even though both camps are guilty I do believe that the Jp faction are ahead of the DNC appologists in factless/baseless whining. I can read/hear of a news issue and just about write a post for JP!! LOL !!

Don't let the secret out. When she goes on vacation for Christmas, a couple of us have gigs set up as substitute post writers. Especially with the Writers Guild strike, I'm not proud of what I have to do. But hey, I got presents to buy.

Off topic posting continues. This is not a thread about other users.

DuH2 · #10 (**permalink**) 11-24-2007, 12:54 PM

IOW none of you can point to any known Democrat(Liebermann does not count) who has done what JP5 says she has never seen.

I haven't seen it either.

But please continue showing you can't refute her point but can act like gits..

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