Zarqawi?

Still no follow-up stories on Zarqawi, but several Alert Readers have given examples of why the US might stay mum: 1. To roll up the rest of a network -- basically to exploit his capture. This reader also notes that two senior aides to Zarqawi were reported captured over the weekend -- they could have used them to find him. 2. Out of concern that announcing his capture will trigger new pre-planned attacks. We don't think this is the case: the terrorists don't seem to be the types to plan an attack just right, then sit on it and wait -- unless it is a balls to the wall, Gotterdammerung style final throwdown. UPDATE: There seems to be a delay in the release of capture stories: This article reports the capture of a senior Zarqawi aide on Dec 23rd -- but the article didn't come out until Dec 31st, and The World Tribune seems to have no shyness about publishing stories as soon as possible. It is tempting to go back and examine the chain of events in Saddam's capture -- but there are many different factors in play now. now we have a sovereign Iraqi government, not the CPA. And Zarqawi seems to be much more of an operational commander than Saddam -- who was really a figurehead for the former regime loyalists. We'll continue treating Zarqawi's capture as a rumor until more comes out.