Good GRIEF! Can you believe this AP headline?! "Police report killing 21 al-Qaida members"

[Roland99]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/01/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Al-Qaida.php

...

The fighting, near the border town of Qaim in Anbar province began after midnight and lasted several hours, said Col. Tariq Youssef, a police official in the city, 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Baghdad.

The colonel said "a small number of the tribal fighters suffered minor wounds" and all 21 al-Qaida members in the unit were killed.

"The operation was launched by police forces backed by the Abu Faraj and Abu Shaaban tribes against members of al-Qaida," he said. "We believe that they were trying to flee the country because they are surrounded now in Anbar by the growing number of tribes that reject al-Qaida."

...

Youssef did not say whether those killed were Iraqis or foreign fighters.

So, Youssef and the AP both go off of the assumption that these people killed were al-Qaida when, in reality, as we all know it, al Qaeda is a very small group tightly associated with bin Laden and are all likely surviving along the Afghan/Pakistan border areas.

It just disgusts me how the "liberal media" falls so quickly in line with furthering the concept of a huge Al Qaeda boogeyman.

[Kagemusha]

1. Even though they must mean "al-Qaeda in Iraq"...

...This in no way should suggest I believe a word of it. Sounds like a fish tale.

[global1]

2. I Have A Dumb Question - How Do They Know They Were al-Qaida?......

Really - do they wear uniforms? Are they card carrying? Do they have dogtags that say they are al-Qaida? How do they know that they weren't renegade Sunni's or Shite? How do they know they weren't just some pissed off Iraqi's that had their families killed and were striking back?

Can somebody help me here?

[EstimatedProphet]

4. And the answer is - they don't

Unless these guys were high up in the Al Qaeda organization, high enough to make police lists, there is no way they would be identified. So, of course they become Al Qaeda, to make the bushies happy.

[truebrit71]

6. Silly, they were all wearing their Al-Queda decoder rings...

..and their Al-Q ID tags...

:eyes:

[Javaman]

10. By the secret decoding rings they were wearing...nt

[DCKit]

3. Of course they didn't say that. These people may have been defending their homes

That's not the way to spin a massacre.

[shadowknows69]

5. They must have all had their union cards on them

Al-Qaida Local #24 Iraq chapter. Sorry not funny I know but if I don't laugh I'll go mad.

[azurnoir]

7. File under the

"We kilt'em so they must be al kaida rule

[Roland99]

8. Right next to "We don't do body counts."

[Ninja Jordan]

9. Evidence points to the existence of al-qaeda in Iraq.