Iran-Contra operative and general purpose Middle Eastern warmonger Michael Ledeen, in the National Review:
First [bad news for Iran] is the loss of one of [Iran's] terrorist stars, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the deus ex machina of the terror war against us in Iraq. Not only does that deprive the mullahs of a prime instrument for generating civil war — his constant incitement to the Sunnis to rise up against the Shiites was the cutting edge of their three-year program to turn major Iraqi ethnic and religious groups against one another — but it is a serious blow to recruitment throughout the terror network .... The quick Iranian deception, pretending they were pleased at the death of Zarqawi, shouldn’t fool anybody. They have lost a basic building block of the terror structure.
Actual documents seized from al-Zarqawi's network, as outlined by the US military:
The document, purporting to reflect al Qaeda policy and its cooperation with groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein, also appear to show that the insurgency in Iraq was weakening. According to the summary, insurgents were being weakened by operations against them and by their failure to attract recruits. To give new impetus to the insurgency, they would have to change tactics, it added.
"The question remains, how to draw the Americans into fighting a war against Iran? … Hence, it is necessary first to exaggerate the Iranian danger and to convince America and the west in general, of the real danger coming from Iran," the translated document said.
Ledeen is doing a heck of a job in that regard.
First [bad news for Iran] is the loss of one of [Iran's] terrorist stars, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the deus ex machina of the terror war against us in Iraq. Not only does that deprive the mullahs of a prime instrument for generating civil war — his constant incitement to the Sunnis to rise up against the Shiites was the cutting edge of their three-year program to turn major Iraqi ethnic and religious groups against one another — but it is a serious blow to recruitment throughout the terror network .... The quick Iranian deception, pretending they were pleased at the death of Zarqawi, shouldn’t fool anybody. They have lost a basic building block of the terror structure.
Actual documents seized from al-Zarqawi's network, as outlined by the US military:
The document, purporting to reflect al Qaeda policy and its cooperation with groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein, also appear to show that the insurgency in Iraq was weakening. According to the summary, insurgents were being weakened by operations against them and by their failure to attract recruits. To give new impetus to the insurgency, they would have to change tactics, it added.
"The question remains, how to draw the Americans into fighting a war against Iran? … Hence, it is necessary first to exaggerate the Iranian danger and to convince America and the west in general, of the real danger coming from Iran," the translated document said.
Ledeen is doing a heck of a job in that regard.