U.S. Orders Freeze on Zarqawi Network Assets
Fri Oct 15, 2004, 10:41 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday ordered a freeze on assets of the militant group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group to its list of suspected terrorists and terrorism financiers.
The move, which came a day after Britain ordered banks to seek out and freeze any assets of the group, blocks any accounts, funds and assets of Tawhid and Jihad in the United States.
Zarqawi's network has emerged as the United States' top enemy in Iraq, and has claimed responsibility for a long list of attacks including two suicide bombings in Baghdad on Thursday which killed at least five people including three Americans.
The group also beheaded British hostage Kenneth Bigley last week and Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley last month.
The United States suspects Zarqawi and his group of links to al Qaeda and of conducting some of the deadliest attacks of the Iraqi insurgency.
That's right it says 2004, not 2002 at the top of the story. When I read something like this, I have to wonder how the hell anyone can think this Administration knows what the fuck they're doing in the War on Terror?!? They were linking Zarqawi to al Qaeda two years ago!!!! He was the guy running the camps in Northern Iraq that the Administration themselves said was making nerve gas, training terrorists, etc. and "we better invade right now...see?" *
This is the guy leading the insurgency in the country we are occupying, and we've known about him since before we set foot in Iraq. Now they get around to freezing his assets? This is the "smarter...law enforcement...detail-oriented" stuff the Right likes to make fun of Kerry for. Our Incompetant in Chief will point ot this as "proof of our efforts to defeat these enemies" when it is, in fact, proof of his utter inability to execute this war in any capacity. If Bush is reelected, and his strategy is just more of this same level of rank incompetence, this War is doomed.
* I've been meaning to write about Zarqawi for a while now. Every time I read about him or see his face I can't help remembering that the Administration knew his location, knew he was running a camp, and claimed he was trying to make Ricin to use against Europeans. This was a situation perfectly tailored for a Tom Clancy-style Special Ops mission... Instead of pre-emptively striking an actual threat, they chose to leave him in place because it would bolster the case for the War. They claimed his presence in Iraq was proof that Saddam had links to al Qaeda, never mind that Zarqawi's activites were in the part of Iraq beyond his control. In fact, his camp was in an area patrolled by our planes. Politics won out over military strategy and basic logic, and he's been kicking our ass in Iraq ever since. Now we find out he's had the financial freedom to make that effort easier. Un-fucking-believable.
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