meta-roj

two stories that cross the wires over a holiday weekend when everyone is out having a beer and roasting their weenies, but somehow… i made a connection. a connection, speculative at best, that i will share with you.

Al-Zarqawi’s wife: Al-Qaida sold him out [ap via yahoo, 2006.07.03]

“My husband has been sold to the Americans,” the woman said in an interview published Sunday. “He had become too powerful, too troublesome.”

…

“I think a secret pact was struck whose immediate goal was his death,” she told the newspaper. “In return, the American troops promised to ease, at least momentarily, their hunt for bin Laden.”

“Al-Qaida is currently especially worried with protecting its charismatic leader,” she added.

and

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden [new york times, 2006.07.04

The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice “dead or alive.”

happy birthday america. do you feel safer?