Bush Let Zarqawi Go Not Once, Not Twice.. But at Least 3 Times

Zarqawi is the man the US says beheaded Nick Berg. But read on:

From Fred Kaplan writing for Slate via Mark Kleiman:

I had seen references to this before, and didn't really believe it could be true. But Fred Kaplan, who knows his business, believes it.

Apparently, Bush had three opportunities, long before the war, to destroy a terrorist camp in northern Iraq run by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al-Qaida associate who recently cut off the head of Nicholas Berg. But the White House decided not to carry out the attack because, as the [NBC News] story puts it: "the administration feared [that] destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam."

... In the two years since the Pentagon's first attack plan, Zarqawi has been linked not just to Berg's execution but, according to NBC, 700 other killings in Iraq. If Bush had carried out that attack back in June 2002, the killings might not have happened. More: The case for war (as the White House feared) might not have seemed so compelling. Indeed, the war itself might not have happened.