al-Zarqawi dead?

This is nothing new, but it won't go away. The popular press says nothing about it, but the meme still has currency among the anti-war crowd abroad. This from Nur al-Cubicle, translated from Le Monde.

Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has declared “total war” on Shi’ites and on Wednesday, September 14th, perpetrated Baghdad’s bloodiestmassacre. What do you think of this statement?

In think that Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is no longer alive. It’s merely an invention of the occupiers of our country to divide the people. Al-Zarqawi was killed in northern Iraq at the start of the war when he was with Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan. His family in Jordan held a memorial ceremony for him. Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is a decoy used by the Americans as an excuse to continue the occupation. It’s a pretext to stay in Iraq.

But why a declaration of total war on Shi’ites?

To create sympathy for the occupation forces. In that way the Shi’ites will feel compelled to rally around the Americans instead of joining the resistance in the South. There are some Shi’ites who do participate in the insurgency in the south, as we’ve seen from the recent bombings in Basrah.

But there was an announcement that the security of Najaf has been entrusted to Iraqi forces and that this was going to occur in other cities in the South.

It is not true. The announcement was made for the consumption of the media. In fact, Iraqi forces do not control the situation and the occupation forces remain on periphery ready to intervene in case of problems.

There is something fishy here. This same theme has been around since last year. I have come across it several times and it still has not gone away.

The report obviously can't be both true and false at the same time.
Somebody's not speaking the truth.