Saturday, December 17, 2005

Clarfiications and Correctiors

It seems that my shock at reading that al-Zarqawi had been caught and then accidentally released resulted in me getting just about every detail wrong in the post I wrote about it. Oops. If at first you don't suceed, try again and all that.

The information was actually released in Iraq on Thursday, election day, and not Friday. (It looks like it just took a day for the western media to catch up. Most reports I've read do say Friday.) It was released by the deputy minister of the interior, Hussain Kamal so I did at least get that right. It appears that there's a good chance that this was basically an attempt to damage the credibility of Iwad Allawi on election day. (Allawi was the interim prime minister at the time this is alleged to have occured.) The fact that this has actually been announced before (just before the January elections, surprisingly enough*) and that there's actually nothing new here just makes the political motive even more plausible. It seems that the art of the political hatchet job is alive and well in Iraq.

It does seem as if there is an explanation as to how this was discovered as well; the information was supplied by a captured Saudi terrorist. By all accounts, iIt does appear to be true. My shock was justified. It was also nearly a year late. Apologies all round.

* I wasn't blogging then. That's my feeble excuse for having no recollection of this from back then anyway.

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