Al Qaeda Claims 12,000 Iraq Fighters

(CBS/AP)  Al Qaeda in Iraq taunted President Bush on Friday to keep American troops in the country because the terrorist organization had not shed "enough of your blood," bragging that it now has 12,000 fighters in the war-torn country.

The terror group also welcomed the U.S. Republican electoral defeat that led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and vowed to continue its fight until the White House is blown up.

"The al Qaeda army has 12,000 fighters in Iraq, and they have vowed to die for God's sake," a man who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir said in an audio tape released Friday. He also claimed to have another 10,000 unequipped fighters ready to go into battle.

In the tape, al-Muhajir praised the outcome of Tuesday's elections in which Democrats swept to power in the House and the Senate, in large part due to U.S. voter dissatisfaction over the handling of the war in Iraq.

"The American people have put their feet on the right path by ... realizing their president's betrayal in supporting Israel," the terror leader said. "So they voted for something reasonable in the last elections." He did not explain his logic.

"The change in leadership will not have a direct impact on what we could or don't do in Iraq," U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Peter Pace said Friday on CBS News' The Early Show.

The authenticity of the 22-minute tape and al-Muhajir's identity could not be verified, but it appeared on a Web site commonly used by Islamic militants.

The CIA said it was analyzing the tape but declined to comment further.

In other developments:

Car bombs exploded among shoppers in downtown Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least eight people, police said. At least 20 others were injured when a pair of bombs hidden beneath two cars detonated at 11:45 a.m. at Hafidh al-Qadhi square, Lt. Ali Muhsin of the Rissafa police station, said.
The area lies at the heart of Rasheed Street, Baghdad's main commercial center.

A mortar attack on the U.S. government's representative office in central Iraq reportedly sparked a fire in part of the complex. There was no immediate word on damage or casualties in the attack in Hillah, at least the second on the office in recent weeks. The office oversees government and diplomatic interests in the central Euphrates region, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Slovakian officials say a Slovak and a Polish solider have
been killed by a roadside bomb. Slovakia's prime minister says his
country will pull its troops out of Iraq in February.

Some National Guard combat brigades could be sent back to Iraq for a second tour of duty, says the guard's top general, Lieutenant General Steven Blum. The Pentagon's plan would force it to depart from a previous decision not to deploy reserves for more than a cumulative 24 months in Iraq. For some units, a second tour would mean they would likely exceed that two-year maximum. The Pentagon also is preparing to release a list of active units, and perhaps reserves, that are scheduled to go to Iraq. A senior defense official says the Pentagon wants to maintain the current level of forces in Iraq — about 152,000 troops — over the next two years.

President Bush is giving the nation's highest award to a fallen Marine who shared his birthday with the Marine Corps. The president has awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor to Cpl. Jason Dunham, a native of western New York. During a dedication ceremony for the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., Mr. Bush said Cpl. Dunham "showed the world what it means to be a Marine." President Bush explained how Dunham heroically threw himself on an enemy grenade and saved two others in his squad after a Marine convoy was ambushed in April 2004 near the Syrian border in Iraq.

President Bush and his national security team will meet Monday with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group trying to devise a new course for the war in Iraq. Robert Gates, picked by Mr. Bush to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, has been a member of the group. He is resigning and will not take part in Monday's meetings. Lawrence Eagleburger, the secretary of state at the end of President George H.W. Bush's term, will replace him.

One-third of the way into November, the number of U.S. troop deaths in Iraq now stands at 26 for the month. The military today announced the deaths of three soldiers and two Marines. Two of the soldiers died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. Another was killed when a patrol was hit by a bomb buried in the road in a town about 140 miles northwest of the capital. One Marine died from wounds suffered in fighting in Anbar province, and the other Marine died from what are described as "non-hostile causes" during operations in Anbar.

In all, 30,000 new recruits come into the Marine Corps each year — and almost all will end up in Iraq. The recruits undergo 13 weeks of intense physical and mental training to teach them honor and values. But, as the marines now under investigation for possible war crimes exemplify, the training might not be enough to prepare recruits for the mental and ethical challenges they will encounter in the field. David Martin reports.

Iraq's health minister estimates 150,000 Iraqis have died in the war, reports McCormick. That's three times higher than previous estimates, but nowhere near the figure of 650,000 published recently in the British medical journal Lancet. Still, there has been no official count, and there may never be accurate numbers.

A suicide bomber in an explosives-rigged car killed six Iraqi soldiers he'd lured from behind a checkpoint on Friday, while the Iraqi Army said it captured the Egyptian leader of an al Qaeda cell in restive Anbar Province.

Iraq state television said the speaker of the parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, was visiting neighboring Iran for an international conference

Al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, took over as leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, one of the country's deadliest terror groups, after his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad in June.

The terrorist chieftain called Bush "the most stupid president" in U.S. history and declared that was allowing al Qaeda to move to victory more quickly than expected.

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[feelfree1]

snflwr4real,

You should take your comedy routine to Tel-Aviv. I think you would be a big hit there.

[feelfree1]

The fact of the matter is, no serious analysis of Iraqi resistance groups has ever placed the numbers of "foreign fighters" in Iraq at more than a couple of thousand members. Are we to believe that the entire U.S. military is being defeated by a couple of thousand foreign irregular fighters?

Hardly. The Iraqi people are obviously tired of their friends and familiy being humiliated, wrongfully imprisoned, tortured, raped, and murdered at the hands of U.S. agents.

The Iraqis have every right to defend themselves against the brutal and illegal invasion of their country, and the efforts of the Bush regime apologists to try and blame their horrific failures on the Iraqi-puppet government is beyond belief.

If CBS chooses to dutifully report everything that is "linked" to the non-existent "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" without investigating, and without challenging these reports, they should not be posing as a News source.

CBS may choosed to accept everything and anything that is "believed" about this obvious PSY-OPS effort, but it is certainly not "believed" by me or anyone else that chooses to determine the facts about these laughable reports.

[feelfree1]

This looks more irresponsible psuedo-journalism from CCBS Newz.

From:

www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Report_Head_of_Qaeda_in_Iraq_0706.html

Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri al-Yawm is reporting that Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, reported successor to of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as head of al Qaeda in Iraq, has been spotted in an Egyptian prison.

According to Mamduh Ismail, an attorney for Islamist groups, al-Muhajir has been in Tura prison in Egypt for the past seven years. "I met him two days ago while I was visiting some of my clients," the lawyer claims.

[nmsuip]

To Abu Hamza al-Muhajir:

Bring it on, cupcake.

[POLMARDDaniel]

I am French and when USA decided to attack iraq, I said OK because I thought it was the only way to free the country from dictatorial regime and embargo. Military atack was the only way to make it. Price paid to it is very high. (Human and financial price).
I do not know how all that will finish but I would like to say to American people they can be proud doing it. It is a fight for freedom.
Thank you

[wayfedup]

one_American....

Dude, you and your ilk are SO freakin' pathetic in your refusal to accept that YOU LOST!

George W. Bush was, is and forever will be the most incompetent President to Ever occupy the OVAL OFFICE.
Actually he is nothing more than a PUPPET; controlled by HIS FATHER, CHENEY, ROVE, RUMSFELD
and CONDOLEEZA RICE. HE is a trained Chimp who doesn't possess even the most rudimentary communication skills required to BE the COMMANDER IN CHIEF.
THERE IS NO GREATER EVIDENCE OF THIS THAN his pathetic stumbling press conference on Wednesday. GET OVER IT... WE DEMS WILL OCCUPY THE WHITE HOUSE IN '08 AS WELL, and then you and all of Rush's other "dittoheads" will see how government SHOULD BE RUN.

[bellal-2009]

"Just because some terrorists say they're glad to see Dems elected does not mean Dems are weak on terrorism."

Right.

[alphaa10-2009]

One_American said, "Republicans have been working since 9-11 to clean up the mess, but you Democrats only offered criticism and hate-speech..."

(and only seconds later, in true Archie Bunker style, One_American couldn't help himself as he expostulated, "And for your information, little one, we're gonna share the front seat, unless you like getting pushed out of the car at top speed.")

---

So much for the patriotic unity and bipartisanship Bush likes to preach about, lately. Sounds so, um, 911, you know? (So much for hypcrisy.)

But maybe Bush at least could let his own bozos know what he is saying, first, so they don't embarrass him at every turn. They desperately need training in lip synch, even if they already have the DoubleThink part down pat.

[alphaa10-2009]

One_American said, "Gee, Democrats... the terrorists REALLY LOVE YOU for what you have done for them..."
----

Only hours after losing the election, you can't wait to pass the buck to somebody else-- how typical of Bush and his GOP bozos, and how utterly symbolic of why you lost. Don't you get it? The American people found you incompetent, corrupt and a threat to their own security and well-being. What could be more devastating? You cannot escape their indictment or blame somebody else, because you had the run of government for six long years of virtually total power-- yet still imploded in a fiasco of incompetence and utter corruption. You have met the enemy, and that enemy is you.

[alphaa10-2009]

One_American-- 2
At times, some wonder whether you even can recognize what you have become. Only last year, for example, Bush openly denigrated the Constitution he took an oath to defend, calling it "... nothing but a GD*&#! piece of paper!" before members of his own party (November, 2005). Your Lawbreaker-in-Chief not once but repeatedly violates the very rule of law, denying Americans basic civil rights, privacy and protections under that Constitution. Wiser GOP heads retreat in dismay as they recognize Bush as a shallow, unprincipled and reckless opportunist who has no concept of their conservative (or personal) principles.

On 911, Americans overcome by surprise and grief were patient and trusting even when Bush did not remotely deserve that trust, even as Bush and his party spread deceit and hatred among Americans they had pledged to unite. But that is all over now. At long last, Bush and his camp followers have the reward they so richly deserve.