FLASH: ZARQAWI CAPTURED?

Drudge is reporting that both a news story out the UAE, and a Kurdish radio station are reporting that Zarqawi has been captured in Iraq. The White House is thus far denying this . . . Thoughts: 1. The news agency in UAE is Russian, Itar-Tass. Interesting . . . 2. The Kurdish radio network also was among the first to report the capture of Saddam in 2003. 3. Could be that the news cycle has beaten the command and control cycle and the White House doesn't know what it knows yet. 4. Could private citizens have captured Zarqawi for the $10m reward? Chester's position: this story looks like a dud. If the White House didn't know, they wouldn't deny, they'd just not say anything yet. You never know though . . . This week, the majority of our posts are about the massive US relief operation in SE Asia under JTF-536, but we'll keep our eye on the Iraqi ball too. While we're on the subject of Iraq, the Middle East Media Research Institute recently released the second part of its series on Arab press coverage of the upcoming Iraqi election. It's worth a read.