Bush 'turned down' Zarqawi kill offer

RAW STORYPublished: Monday May 1, 2006

Mike Scheuer, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency's bin Laden unit for 6 years, told Australian Broadcasting Company's "Four Corners" that U.S. President George W. Bush turned down a chance to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Excerpts from the ABC TV website follow:
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He says a plan to destroy Zarqawi's training camp in Kurdistan was abandoned for diplomatic reasons.

"The reasons the intelligence service got for not shooting Zarqawi was simply that the President and the National Security Council decided it was more important not to give the Europeans the impression we were gunslingers," he said.

"Mr Bush had Mr Zarqawi in his sights for almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq."

The full story will air on Four Corners tonight on ABC television.
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Note: This story does not refer to the American ABC television network.
Go here for ABC's full written story.

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