Which one of these Zarqawis had tattoos and a prosthesis? Bottom is Zarqawi's body after two 500 lb. bombs were dropped on the safe house-- photo was neatly matted and framed with gold leaf (obviously done by a 24-hour Baghdad version of Kinko's).

Jordanian Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi, born Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, was killed in a U.S. air strike last night at 6:15 pm (Iraq time) in an Al Qaeda safe house north of Baghdad. Killed with Zarqawi were his "spiritual adviser" Sheikh Abdul Rahman, and an unidentified woman and child. Eight to ten other Zarqawi lieutenants were also reported to have been killed in the attack. A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad this morning stated at a news conference that Zarqawi was identified based on fingerprints, facial recognition, known scars, and tattoos. The attack on Zarqawi was apparently carried out in close coordination with Jordan's General Intelligence Department, which had received a tip on Zarqawi's location from its agents operating inside Iraq.

The U.S. military spokesman's revelation that Zarqawi's body was partly identified from tattoos is noteworthy. Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi, described as the Deputy Emir of Al Qaeda in Iraq on an Al Qaeda web site, stated that Zarqawi was a martyred mujahed sheikh. Zarqawi was a lieutenant of strict Wahhabi Islam adherent Osama Bin Laden. However, why Zarqawi would have had tattoos is baffling. Islam specifically forbids tattoos. According to Islamic texts, the Prophet Mohammed forbade tattooing:

Narrated Abu Huraira: "Allah's Apostle said, 'The evil eye is a fact,' and he forbade tattooing. (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Dress, Volume 7, Book 72, Number 827)"

Narrated 'Aun bin Abu Juhaifa: "My father bought a slave who practiced the profession of cupping. (My father broke the slave's instruments of cupping). I asked my father why he had done so. He replied, 'The Prophet forbade the acceptance of the price of a dog or blood, and also forbade the profession of tattooing, getting tattooed and receiving or giving Riba, (usury), and cursed the picture-makers.' (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Sales and Trade, Volume 3, Book 34, Number 299)"

Narrated 'Abdullah: "Allah has cursed those women who practice tattooing and those who get themselves tattooed, and those who remove their face hairs, and those who create a space between their teeth artificially to look beautiful [hmmm.., ed. note], and such women as change the features created by Allah. Why then should I not curse those whom the Prophet has cursed? And that is in Allah's Book. i.e. His Saying: 'And what the Apostle gives you take it and what he forbids you abstain (from it).' (59.7) (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Dress, Volume 7, Book 72, Number 815)"

The Pentagon has been caught trying to exaggerate the importance of Zarqawi in propaganda disseminated in Iraq and the United States. Now, a Pentagon spokesman is claiming that a strict adherent of Islam and a jihadist was identified through examination of his tattoos. It has previously been reported that Zarqawi once removed a single tattoo from his forearm with hydrochloric acid. Other reports said that Zarqawi was once nicknamed the "green man" because he had as many tattoos as a carnival worker. The U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad clearly stated the Zarqawi body found after the U.S. air strike had been identified from "tattoos." The tattoos are as baffling as the gold ring worn by someone said to be Zarqawi in the video of the gruesome beheading of Nick Berg. The Quran forbids Muslim men from wearing jewelry, specifically gold and silver. Also, the gold ring was on "Zarqawi's" left hand, the unclean hand used for going to the toilet. Also, the U.S. military made no mention of Zarqawi's prosthesis device. It has been reported that Zarqawi lost his leg during a battle in Afghanistan.

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Killing al-Zarqawi: End of a Pentagon-Dairat al-Mukhabarat Collaboration?

Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire

Wayne Madsen writes:

The U.S. military spokesman’s revelation that Zarqawi’s body was partly identified from tattoos is noteworthy. Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi, described as the Deputy Emir of Al Qaeda in Iraq on an Al Qaeda web site, stated that Zarqawi was a martyred mujahed sheikh. Zarqawi was a lieutenant of strict Wahhabi Islam adherent Osama Bin Laden. However, why Zarqawi would have had tattoos is baffling. Islam specifically forbids tattoos. According to Islamic texts, the Prophet Mohammed forbade tattooing…

Of course, like the al-Zarqawi wearing a gold ring (also forbidden for devout Muslims), the al-Zarqawi sporting tattoos probably was not and never was a Wahhabi Muslim. More likely, the al-Zarqawi we recognize (with a barrage of recent images in preparation for his theatrical exit from the corporate media stage), was a Jordanian patsy, probably a garden variety criminal who served prison time and was groomed by Jordan’s Dairat al-Mukhabarat intelligence service to believe he was engaged in a jihad against the Great Satan.

For some odd reason, according to the State Department, nobody has rushed out to collect the $25 million bounty placed on al-Zarqawi’s head. “I’ve seen a lot of news reports that either a Jordanian individual or group provided information or perhaps a neighbor provided information which led to the strike being carried out successfully,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Maybe this “Jordanian individual” is independently wealthy and a good Samaritan. As for the neighbor, considering the damage inflicted by the explosives used to supposedly kill al-Zarqawi (see this photo), there is a good chance he suffered the same fate as al-Zarqawi.

Good news is bad news and it really does not matter. “Oil fell briefly below $70 a barrel Thursday, after U.S. aircraft killed al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, raising faint hopes for a let-up in attacks on Iraq’s wrecked oil industry,” reports Reuters. Some believe Iraq was invaded not to steal Iraq’s oil, but rather take it off-line as a way to jack up prices. I’m not sure I buy this. More likely, Iraq’s oil is a casualty of the neocon plan to destroy the country and balkanize it. Oil is oil and it sure the heck ain’t going anywhere. It will be ready to pump after Iraq is split into three pieces—one Kurdish, another Shia, and the last Sunni. Of course, al-Zarqawi, or the legend of al-Zarqawi, played an instrumental role in moving along the sort of sectarian strife required to break the country into bite-sized pieces.

As noted above, if al-Zarqawi (or somebody called al-Zarqawi, as the actual al-Zarqawi was likely killed some time ago) was indeed killed earlier today, he was betrayed and set-up to be killed, as patsies often are. “The successful targeted assassination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was clearly part of a larger package deal between PM Maliki and the Sunni leadership,” writes Judith Apter Klinghoffer for the History News Network.

It included an agreement to release 2000 “detainees” and the long awaited completion of the cabinet, most especially the installation of a Sunni as defense minister. Thus, Maliki appointed Shiite Jawad Polani as interior minister, Sunni Abdel Qader Al Obeidi as defense minister and Shiite Shirwan Al Waili to head national security. It was that agreement which secured the cooperation of Jordanian intelligence and the Hilmi locals and provided the US special forces with the intelligence needed to function effectively…. It is important to note that killed along with Zarqawi was his spiritual leader Abdul-Rahman and that “17 more raids were conducted on other suspected hideouts for Zarqawi associates in Baghdad and its outskirts a few hours after he was killed. They produced a ‘treasure trove’ of information.”

The externally imposed artificiality of Iraqi politics aside, it appears a decision came down from on-high that it was time to off al-Zarqawi, as he long ago outlived his usefulness (or the black op going by the name “al-Zarqawi” had run its course), and the “safe house” used by Jordanian operatives (it should be noted that the CIA now prefers to collaborate with Jordanian intelligence over Mossad, and for obvious reasons, as the latter is extremely treacherous) was targeted after the handlers escaped, leaving behind “al-Zarqawi” and his so-called spiritual advisor. No doubt, even as the walls came crashing down and his body was torn apart by shrapnel, the patsy we know as “al-Zarqawi” believed he was working for jihad, even though a strict Wahhabi would consider him a tattoo-emblazoned infidel.