The pursuit of Zarqawi is being sold as the "turning point" of the Iraq war. It is nothing of the sort. This is another lie, heaped upon the multitude of lies that comprise the "war on terrorism" itself.

Zarqawi: Pentagon psy-op and intelligence asset

What is a well-established (and deliberately unaddressed) fact is that the United States government and US-connected intelligence agencies created Islamic "terrorism." The US and its allies have continued to use and guide terrorist cells, as well as fill worldwide media with "terrorism" propaganda.

See, "Who is Osama bin Laden?" and "Al-Qaeda: the database"

As pointed out by Michel Chossodovsky in "The Anglo-American War of Terror: An Overview", the continuing US-led war of conquest rests upon a labyrinth of deceptions, of which "Zarqawi" is one:

"One of the main objectives of war propaganda is to 'fabricate an enemy.’ As anti-war sentiment grows and the political legitimacy of the Bush administration falters, doubts regarding the existence of this illusive 'outside enemy’ must be dispelled.

"Propaganda purports not only to drown the truth but also to 'kill the evidence’ on how this 'outside enemy,’ namely Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda was fabricated and transformed into 'Enemy Number One.’"

With the Zarqawi hit, a bit more of this evidence has been killed. Literally.

Zarqawi, "Bush's man in Iraq" is not just a manipulated Anglo-American intelligence asset, but a clumsy Pentagon psychological operation. The legend of the "shadowy terror mastermind" responsible for virtually every act of violence in Iraq and beyond has morphed and changed over the years. In a bizarre recent twist (perhaps paving the way for last week’s finale), Zarqawi, the "great terrorist mastermind," was depicted as an incompetent; an object of ridicule lacking the knowledge to properly handle an automatic weapon (leading to questions about the competence of US propaganda apparatus). Zarqawi has been reported dead more than once, and now he is dead again, deader than ever.

The definitive analysis, "Who is Musab al Zarqawi?" (recently updated to include analysis of the purported Zarqawi hit), chronicles the entire Zarqawi operation from its inception. In this piece, Chossudovsky reveals:

" . . . a recent Washington Post article provides details on leaked internal military documents which confirm the existence of a PSYOP 'Zarqawi program’ at the Pentagon.  (WP. 10 April 2006 ) The latter consists in creating a 'Zarqawi Legend’ by feeding disinformation into the news chain:

"The Zarqawi campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents. "Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated. It listed three methods: "Media operations," "Special Ops (626)" (a reference to Task Force 626, an elite U.S. military unit assigned primarily to hunt in Iraq for senior officials in Hussein's government) and "PSYOP," the U.S. military term for propaganda work . . ." (WP . 10 April 2006, further details).

"In this regard, the senior commander entrusted with Pentagon's PSYOP operation is General Kimmitt who now occupies the position of senior planner at US Central Command (USCENTCOM), responsible for directing operations in Iraq and the Middle East confirms that

'There was clearly an information campaign to raise the public awareness of who Zarqawi was, primarily for the Iraqi audience but also with the international audience.’

"A goal of the campaign was to drive a wedge into the insurgency by emphasizing Zarqawi's terrorist acts and foreign origin, said officers familiar with the program. 'Through aggressive Strategic Communications, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi now represents: Terrorism in Iraq/Foreign Fighters in Iraq/Suffering of Iraqi People (Infrastructure Attacks)/Denial of Iraqi Aspirations,’ the same briefing asserts . . . (Ibid)’"

Once it was exposed, this psy-op had to be shut down in the most opportune and timely fashion, obliterating the trail behind an explosive final blast of propaganda.

Bush administration’s final lies

The Bush administration’s mighty Wurlitzer is in overdrive, pushing again to inflate Bush's macho image, distract attention from unfolding scandals (that won’t go away) and continuing losses in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an election year, Bush-Rove is seeking to boost lowest-ever poll numbers, and silence political opposition, with help from both corporate media and "alternative" media. News broadcasts continue to show self-congratulatory Bush White House players gloating about its glorious hunt for Islamic "quarry," and posturing over photos of the alleged Zarqawi corpse.

As Chossudovsky notes, the spin is obvious and transparent:

"The Bush administration is already announcing 'a post-Zarqawi era,’ suggesting that with the death of its presumed leader, the 'insurgency’ is in the process of being defeated. Zarqawi's death was an opportunity for the new government to 'turn the tide,’ Bush said.  'The ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders.’

"The killing of Zarqawi has occurred at a time when Bush's public support is at an all time low, as confirmed by the opinion polls. In a press conference at the White House, Bush underscored the role of Zarqawi as 'commanders of the terrorist movement in Iraq. He led a campaign of car bombings, assassinations and suicide attacks that has taken the lives of many American forces and thousands of innocent Iraqis. Osama bin Laden called this Jordanian terrorist the prince of Al Qaida in Iraq. He called on the terrorists around the world to listen to him and obey him.’

(In fact, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the other murderers of the Bush administration have more blood on their hands than any US presidency in history. They know it. They like it.)

The Bush administration has momentarily succeeded in one respect: hapless congressional Democrats and Left intellectuals (who have enthusiastically supported the "war on terrorism") have been maneuvered and cowed into congratulating Bush’s "success," and echoing the administration’s lies verbatim. They, along with a large portion of the American sheeple, still jump through the time-honored 9/11 propaganda hoops in Pavlovian fashion, each time Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and the New York Times and Fox News, say "jump." But even this trick has lost its power. Even mainstream reports have noted that any momentary popularity bump for Bush and his war have been "fleeting" at best.

No psychological operation can hide the fact that the Bush administration and its neocon "plan" has failed in catastrophic fashion: failed to do the job it was installed into power to do; failed to conquer Central Asia and the Middle East; failed to secure and control cheap oil; failed to gain geopolitical advantage over superpower rivals. In fact, Bush-Cheney has obliterated what little international respect the New World Order once believed it commanded.

The Zarqawi "crescendo" signals what is likely the beginning of a final chapter in the Bush administration’s "war on terror" fiction, as the administration itself faces its own fall. In an attempt to save face, the mentally ill Bush and his criminals know they must act now to create the illusion of victory, even as their violent, criminal acts have left the New World Order, and the entire world, in flames.

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