Zarqawi betrayed?

In a follow-up to profmarcus' post below, this morning's NYT asserts that Zarqawi was indeed betrayed by one of his own. But the article really raised more questions for me than it answered. It seems comforting to think that al-Qaeda is in a power struggle (and by inference, ineffective and in disarray), but it neglects the fact that there really is no al-Qaeda. Even Bush got it sort of right yesterday when he said that it is a network of networks. No. It's a bunch of wannabes and copy cats.

Indeed, what the Americans had always lacked was someone from inside Mr. Zarqawi's network, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, who would betray him — someone close enough and trusted enough to show the Americans where he was.

According to a Pentagon official, the Americans finally got one. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the raid are classified, said that an Iraqi informant inside Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia provided the critical piece of intelligence about Mr. Rahman's meeting with Mr. Zarqawi. The source's identity was not clear — nor was it clear how that source was able to pinpoint Mr. Zarqawi's location without getting killed himself.

"We have a guy on the inside who led us directly to Zarqawi," the official said.

In a news release on Thursday morning, American military commanders hinted strongly that a member of Mr. Zarqawi's inner circle had pointed the way. "Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to al-Zarqawi," the release said.

Iraqi officials confirmed that Mr. Zarqawi had indeed been sold out by one of his own.

"We have managed to infiltrate this organization," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser. He declined to elaborate.

Just how the Americans were able to get the information from the source was also unclear. In an interview, a Jordanian official close to the investigation said the mission that killed Mr. Zarqawi was a joint operation conducted by the Americans and Jordanian intelligence. The source inside Mr. Zarqawi's group, the Jordanian official said, had been cultivated at least in part by Jordanian intelligence agents.

"There was a man from Zarqawi's group who handed over the information," the Jordanian official said.

Looks like they all have their story straight.

Pretty interesting too, this taxi driver, Mr. Ismael, who seems to have seen everything related to the raid. I would have been running for cover.

In Hibhib, Mr. Ismael, the taxi driver, said American soldiers began swarming the town, seemingly coming from nowhere, with some soldiers sliding down ropes dropped from Black Hawk helicopters. His account largely tracked with the one offered by the American military.

"The entire village was seized," Mr. Ismael said.

[...]

The decision to bomb Mr. Zarqawi was made in large part because military officials feared he might escape again if American and Iraqi forces moved in on the ground, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during an appearance at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

"They came to the conclusion that they could not really go in on the ground without running the risk of letting him escape," he said. "So they used airpower and attacked a dwelling he was in."

The entire village was seized, according to Mr. Ismael...yet, they were afraid he would escape? Uh huh.

And I don't know about you but, no matter what one thinks of Zarqawi, the constant, ad nauseum displaying of Zarqawi's corpse really grossed me out. It was disgusting. I was watching Olbermann last night and during his interviews they kept cutting away to the two shots of Zarqawi's head shot. Over and over again. I found myself hiding my eyes. And I am not squeamish. It was just so unseemly.

And finally, now that Zarqawi is gone, who will be our next Goldstein?

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