Sixty-one percent also say Zarqawi's death won't have any impact on the terrorist threat against the United States, while 22 percent it will increase that threat. Thirteen percent predict a decreased risk of terrorism.

AS A RESULT OF KILLING ZARQAWI, THE FOLLOWING THREATS WILL:

Attacks on U.S. Troops
Increase
30%
Decrease
16%
Same
50%

Terrorist Threat to U.S.
Increase
22%
Decrease
13%
Same
61%

Fifty-five percent of Americans still say the war in Iraq is going badly for the United States, while an overwhelming majority, 82 percent, describe the situation in Iraq as a civil war between Iraqis.

Still, the poll did find some signs that Americans are becoming more optimistic about Iraq - at least when looking at the long term. Sixty percent now say it's somewhat likely or very likely that the United States will ultimately find success in Iraq, a 5-point jump since last month.

More than half of Americans also say Iraq will eventually become a stable democracy, though it will take more than a year or two.

Zarqawi's killing hasn't helped President Bush with the public, either. His overall job approval rating remains just 33 percent - down slightly from 35 percent last month - while 60 percent disapprove.

BUSH'S JOB APPROVAL

Now
Approve
33%
Disapprove
60%

May 2006
Approve
35%
Disapprove
60%

Mr. Bush's approval rating for handling the war in Iraq is unchanged at 33 percent, while approval for his handling of terrorism remains just below 50 percent.

The president also gets mostly poor marks on domestic issues, with just one in three Americans saying they approve of how he's handling both immigration and the economy.

For security reasons, Bush's trip was kept secret. Only a few aides and reporters had been told in advance.

The president is only supposed to stay in the war-torn Iraqi capital for about five hours.

Al-Malaki's cabinet was sworn in on May 20, months after the Dec. 15 parliamentary election. The installation of the national unity government had been stalled by negotiations between the Shia Muslim politicians who now dominate the Iraqi parliament and Sunnis, who used to wield more power under Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. embassy was once a palace used by the deposed Iraqi leader, who is now on trial accused of war crimes.

Bush said after day-long talks with senior advisers on Monday that talk of a US withdrawal from Iraq was premature, even as he placed new leaders in Baghdad squarely in charge of ultimately pacifying their country.

Bush suggested that Maliki's fledgling government tap Iraq's vast oil reserves to create a special fund to help Iraqis, securing support against militants behind a bloody insurgency.

"The best way to win this war against an insurgency is to stand up a unity government which is capable of defending itself but also providing tangible benefits to the people," he said.

Bush also urged Iraq's neighbors and the international community to do more to help Maliki's new government and vowed to target the successor to Al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last week.

"The successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice," said Bush, who called the Jordan-born extremist's death "a major blow" to Osama bin Laden's group but warned it is "not going to end the war."

Amid mounting pressure to bring some or all US troops home, the president said that the commander of US forces in Iraq, General George Casey, would assess how well Maliki's team was doing in defeating the insurgency.

"Whatever we do will be based upon the conditions on the ground. And whatever we do will be toward a strategy of victory," said Bush. "This is a process of understanding the Iraqi capabilities."

A senior White House official said that the new leadership in Iraq -- the first permanent government since
Saddam Hussein's ouster three years ago -- marked a "break point" that left Iraqis "in charge" of their country.

That rhetoric, and recent emphasis on the role the international community must play, suggest a new effort to shift the burden for Iraq from Washington and a few other countries to a broader base.

The US president also suggested that Iraq's vast oil reserves might be one of Maliki's best weapons against those who seek to destabilize his government, proposing the creation of a special fund to help the Iraqi people.

"The new government is going to have to figure out how best to lease the people's lands in a fair way," said Bush.

"My own view is that the government ought to use the oil as a way to unite the country and ought to think about having, you know, a tangible fund for the people so the people have faith in the central government," he said.

Bush also insisted that "Iraq's neighbors ought to do more to help them. And we're constantly working with our friends in the neighborhood to encourage them to support this new democracy."

"We expect our friends who have made commitments -- 13 billion dollars -- to honor those commitments," he said, referring to the amount pledged by donors other than the United States at an Iraq aid conference in October 2003.

Bush summoned senior advisers and outside experts to Camp David for long-distance talks with military and diplomatic officials in Baghdad on how to help Maliki's government secure its footing.

US officials said they were most concerned with finding ways to help Maliki achieve stated goals like boosting electricity generation, securing Baghdad, and curbing sectarian violence.

The pressure on Bush has grown as his Republican party worries increasingly about key November congressional elections that are expected to be dominated by the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.

"A short time later Iraqi police reported an explosion at a building in the town (Hibhib) that killed two Iraqi civilians, injured four others and damaged six houses," the statement said.

One of the wounded civilians was evacuated to a military medical facility but later died, it added.

Ties soured

Just two weeks after al-Maliki took office, relations between his government and the US appear to have been soured by accusations of US troops killing Iraqi civilians.

Al-Maliki told Reuters in an interview last week: "We are worried about the increase in 'mistakes' ... I am not saying that they are intentional. But it is worrying for us."

Last Wednesday, a joint Iraqi-US security body said US forces had killed "by mistake" two women who were en route to a maternity hospital north of Baghdad.

The US military is also under pressure over accusations that US marines may have killed 24 civilians in the western Iraqi town of Haditha last November.

The US military separately reported on Sunday that Iraqi soldiers had detained 19 "terrorists" during a search operation in eastern Baghdad on Saturday.

One of the detainees "reported having difficulty breathing" and died of a heart attack, it said.

US military leaders in Iraq said they had been expecting renewed attacks in the wake of Zarqawi's death while security measures in Baghdad were being beefed up in anticipation of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's long awaited new security plan for the capital.

The attacks came after the first of two days of high-level talks US President George W. Bush held with top diplomatic and military officials to reassess the war effort in Iraq focusing on greater security responsibility for the Iraqi government.

"The best way to win this war against an insurgency is to stand up a unity government which is capable of defending itself but also providing tangible benefits to the people," he said at the Camp David retreat in Maryland.

US troops, however, would not be drawn down until conditions improve on the ground and the Iraqi security forces can clearly secure the situation.

The five car bombs, several of them suicide bombs, in Kirkuk hit an ethnically diverse city that has not been known for large car bombs, but rather mostly individual assassinations between ethnic and sectarian groups.

"The total casualties for the five car bombs are 18 killed and more than 45 wounded," said Brigadier General Burhan Hamid Tayyib, police chief for Kirkuk center.

Another suicide car bomb attempt in central Kirkuk targeting headquarters of the PUK party was foiled when guards shot dead the driver of a booby-trapped car as he drove towards them, without detonating the car.

The first car bomb exploded at around 7:30 am (0330 GMT) in the city's Tisaeen market in an area largely inhabited by Shiite members of the city's Turkmen community, killing 13 people, including two policemen, and wounding 18.

Approximately half an hour later, a suicide car bomb attempted to ram the main police headquarters, prompting police to open fire on it. The car exploded, missing its target, police commander Major General Torhan Yussef, but two policemen died and eight civilians were wounded.

The three other car bombs, one of which was a suicide attack, exploded in different parts of the city, killing three more policemen and wounding over a dozen, including Colonel Taher Salah al-Din, the police chief for the southern Kirkuk Hurriyah neighborhood.

The bombing campaign comes after the arrest of eight suspected insurgents by US and Iraqi forces in two operations on Sunday in Kirkuk.

On Wednesday, the US military dropped a pair of 500 pound bombs on Zarqawi's safe house, killing him and yielding a "treasure trove" of intelligence about the organization.

In Baghdad, there were a number of attacks, including a bomb targeting a police patrol in central Baghdad that killed one policemen and wounded four others, as well as injuring a detainee they were transporting.

A professor at the College of Engineering was shot dead as he left his house and 14 bodies, shot and bearing signs of torture, were found in and around the city.

In Karbala, gunmen shot dead a police captain in the criminal investigations department.

A bomb targeting a police patrol in the Samarra market missed its target but killed four civilians and injured seven.

According to the Iraqi friend, many people have been killed in Ramadi because they simply do not know which parts of the city are now no-go zones.

One such area is the main street through Ramadi. After the first traffic light you are not allowed to proceed forward, only to the right or left.

"The way is blocked, not by concrete, but by snipers. Anyone who goes ahead in the street will be killed. There's no sign that it's not allowed, but it's known to the local people. Many people came to visit us from Baghdad. They didn't know this and they went ahead a few metres and were killed."

Sheikh Majeed was in Ramadi just a few days before speaking to IPS in Amman. He described a city where the fighters are very much in control.

"They are controlling the ground and they are very self-confident. They don't cover their faces with masks, and the Americans are running away from them. The Americans cannot win an infantry war with them, so they began using massive airpower to bomb them.."

While in Ramadi, he saw many damaged homes, and said there were no civil services functioning.

"You will see that they bombed the power stations, water treatment facilities, and water pipes. This house is destroyed, that house is destroyed. You will see poverty everywhere. The things that the simplest human in the world must have, you won't have it there."

The Iraqi friend described a similar situation. "I saw four houses until now, but I didn't see all of Ramadi, it's a big town. There are also houses destroyed in the farms, I saw some, but most of them I couldn't see it because they are huge farms."

Ramadi is at present cut off from the rest of Iraq. Within, sometimes the electricity works, and some homes have generators, but the local phone service has been completely destroyed.

"The phone station was attacked by U.S. troops, and now even the building is completely destroyed. And the train station also, one hundred percent destroyed, day after day F16s bomb it."

Life in Ramadi has not always been this difficult. When Baghdad fell, Ramadi had not yet been entered. When Baghdad was wracked by lawlessness and theft, Ramadi remained relatively calm.

"It was a very quiet city, there was order," Sheikh Majeed said. "Though there are many different tribes there, and there is tension between the tribes, there was order. They respected each other, they respected the law."

The Iraqi friend suggested why Ramadi remained calm and, unlike Baghdad, was not entered in the first days of the occupation.

"They made a deal with the tribes to not enter the city. But the political parties spoiled this agreement. They wanted to control Ramadi, so they gave wrong information to Americans. There was a small demonstration but not by Saddam loyalists; it was a peaceful demonstration against the occupation."

After this demonstration of just 30 people, the agreement was broken and the military invaded Ramadi. Iraqis were killed, and following tribal policies of revenge, a cycle of violence began.

Qasem Dulaimi, who lives in Ramadi, told IPS his home was occupied by American and Iraqi troops in May.

"They crushed the main doors and entered the house. I got out of my room and said some words in English, 'we are a peaceful family, ok its ok'." But the family members were locked up in a small room downstairs.

"From time to time we heard shooting from our roof. They used our house as a killing tool, they used the roof as a killing tool."

Eventually his family was released and the American troops moved on.

The Iraqi friend witnessed the killing of a young boy. "He was going to his school at about eight in the morning, carrying his books and crossing the street. Suddenly he fell down. I thought he just had a problem in his leg and fell, but he stayed for a long time like this. I knew or I felt there was a sniper who shot him."

Stories such as this one are common amongst Ramadi's residents.

"Haithem, one of the brothers of this kid, tried to find a way and took two steps to take the boy away. Snipers shot and missed him. So he didn't try again. The boy remained there four hours, bleeding. He had been shot in the head."

The definitive analysis, "Who is Musab al Zarqawi?" (recently updated to include analysis of the purported Zarqawi hit), chronicles the entire Zarqawi operation from its inception. In this piece, Chossudovsky reveals:

" [...] a recent Washington Post article provides details on leaked internal military documents which confirm the existence of a PSYOP 'Zarqawi program' at the Pentagon. (WP. 10 April 2006 ) The latter consists in creating a 'Zarqawi Legend' by feeding disinformation into the news chain:

"The Zarqawi campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents. "Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated. It listed three methods: "Media operations," "Special Ops (626)" (a reference to Task Force 626, an elite U.S. military unit assigned primarily to hunt in Iraq for senior officials in Hussein's government) and "PSYOP," the U.S. military term for propaganda work . . ." (WP . 10 April 2006, further details).

"In this regard, the senior commander entrusted with Pentagon's PSYOP operation is General Kimmitt who now occupies the position of senior planner at US Central Command (USCENTCOM), responsible for directing operations in Iraq and the Middle East confirms that

'There was clearly an information campaign to raise the public awareness of who Zarqawi was, primarily for the Iraqi audience but also with the international audience.'

"A goal of the campaign was to drive a wedge into the insurgency by emphasizing Zarqawi's terrorist acts and foreign origin, said officers familiar with the program. 'Through aggressive Strategic Communications, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi now represents: Terrorism in Iraq/Foreign Fighters in Iraq/Suffering of Iraqi People (Infrastructure Attacks)/Denial of Iraqi Aspirations,' the same briefing asserts . . . (Ibid)'"

Once it was exposed, this psy-op had to be shut down in the most opportune and timely fashion, obliterating the trail behind an explosive final blast of propaganda.

Bush administration's final lies

The Bush administration's mighty Wurlitzer is in overdrive, pushing again to inflate Bush's macho image, distract attention from unfolding scandals (that won't go away) and continuing losses in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an election year, Bush-Rove is seeking to boost lowest-ever poll numbers, and silence political opposition, with help from both corporate media and "alternative" media. News broadcasts continue to show self-congratulatory Bush White House players gloating about its glorious hunt for Islamic "quarry," and posturing over photos of the alleged Zarqawi corpse.

As Chossudovsky notes, the spin is obvious and transparent:

"The Bush administration is already announcing 'a post-Zarqawi era,' suggesting that with the death of its presumed leader, the 'insurgency' is in the process of being defeated. Zarqawi's death was an opportunity for the new government to 'turn the tide,' Bush said. 'The ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders.'

"The killing of Zarqawi has occurred at a time when Bush's public support is at an all time low, as confirmed by the opinion polls. In a press conference at the White House, Bush underscored the role of Zarqawi as 'commanders of the terrorist movement in Iraq. He led a campaign of car bombings, assassinations and suicide attacks that has taken the lives of many American forces and thousands of innocent Iraqis. Osama bin Laden called this Jordanian terrorist the prince of Al Qaida in Iraq. He called on the terrorists around the world to listen to him and obey him.'

"'Now Zarqawi has met his end and this violent man will never murder again,' suggesting that the US has from now on the upper hand in Iraq. 'Zarqawi's death is a severe blow to Al Qaida. It's a victory in the global war on terror, and it is an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide of this struggle.'"

More importantly: "Zarqawi's death has also served as a convenient cover-up of the extensive war crimes committed by coalition forces in Iraq. The news coverage suggests that Zarqawi, rather than coalition forces, are responsible for countless atrocities and civilian deaths. In the words of Don Rumsfeld, the man who led the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq: 'I think arguably, over the last several years no single person on this planet has had the blood of more innocent man, women and children on his hands than Zarqawi.'"

(In fact, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the other murderers of the Bush administration have more blood on their hands than any US presidency in history. They know it. They like it.)

The Bush administration has momentarily succeeded in one respect: hapless congressional Democrats and Left intellectuals (who have enthusiastically supported the "war on terrorism") have been maneuvered and cowed into congratulating Bush's "success," and echoing the administration's lies verbatim. They, along with a large portion of the American sheeple, still jump through the time-honored 9/11 propaganda hoops in Pavlovian fashion, each time Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and the New York Times and Fox News, say "jump." But even this trick has lost its power. Even mainstream reports have noted that any momentary popularity bump for Bush and his war have been "fleeting" at best.

No psychological operation can hide the fact that the Bush administration and its neocon "plan" has failed in catastrophic fashion: failed to do the job it was installed into power to do; failed to conquer Central Asia and the Middle East; failed to secure and control cheap oil; failed to gain geopolitical advantage over superpower rivals. In fact, Bush-Cheney has obliterated what little international respect the New World Order once believed it commanded.

The Zarqawi "crescendo" signals what is likely the beginning of a final chapter in the Bush administration's "war on terror" fiction, as the administration itself faces its own fall. In an attempt to save face, the mentally ill Bush and his criminals know they must act now to create the illusion of victory, even as their violent, criminal acts have left the New World Order, and the entire world, in flames.

Could a spectacular pursuit and execution of "Osama bin Laden" be far behind?

The U.S. military said soldiers fired on the car after it entered a "clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post" after failing to stop despite "repeated visual and auditory warnings." The U.S. military said in a statement that "shots were fired to disable the vehicle."

The brother of the pregnant woman, Redam Nisaif Jassim, who was driving the car, told IPS that he neither saw nor heard any warnings by the U.S. military. Two men who witnessed the incident from a nearby home also said they saw no signs of any warning.

"These kinds of killings by the Americans happen daily in Iraq," said Jassim, "They gave no warning to us before killing my cousin and sister. Of course we know they have no respect for the lives of Iraqis."

The U.S. military claims the incident is being investigated.

The Haditha slaughter in which 24 Iraqis were killed is under investigation for the incident itself, and further for the cover-up, since the initial report given by the Marine Corps stated only that 15 civilian deaths were caused by a roadside bomb and fighting with insurgents.

In this case too, all signs point to a cover-up. "The area where they were killed by the Americans was completely unmarked," the human rights investigator told IPS. A warning sign at the place was put up after the two women were killed, he said.

Like the Haditha massacre, this incident too should be investigated both for the killing and the cover-up, he said.

According to the investigator, the U.S. troops who killed the two women made no attempt to assist them after the shooting.

The next day Redam Jassim was summoned to a local police station. "The Americans offered me $5,000, and told me it wasn't compensation but because of tradition," Jassim told IPS. The U.S. military pays usually $2,500 compensation for killing an Iraqi. Jassim says he refused the payment.

The U.S. military recently announced in a Defense Department report provided to Congress that it paid out $19 million in compensation to Iraqis last year - half of which paid out by Marines in al-Anbar province west of Baghdad.

The military claimed the amount was paid in 600 separate incidents, but it is common knowledge in Iraq that the usual payout for a non-combat civilian death is $2,500.

A payment of $19 million compensation at $2,500 a person would suggest such killings in thousands.

Jassim told IPS and the human rights investigator that he was asked by the Americans' translator to sign a paper written in English. The family and their relatives live in a village called al-Muta'assim, a 40-minute drive from the main hospital in Samarra.. Most people there, like the Jassims, neither speak nor read English.

After he signed the paper, Jassim was offered $2,500 by U.S. soldiers, which he again refused.

"It is clear the Americans tried to cheat him as well as cover up their tracks at the same time," the investigator told IPS. "Like in Haditha, this incident, along with so many others we cannot keep track of, requires a truly independent investigation, rather than one by the U.S. military."

Phone calls and e-mails to the U.S. military spokesperson in Baghdad have not been returned.

The military said coalition forces received machine gun fire from a rooftop upon arriving.

"Two other individuals with AK-47s had been seen fleeing that area just prior to the assault. Coalition aircraft supporting the ground force immediately suppressed the enemy fire, killing seven."

It said there were women and children at the scene.

"Following the assault, coalition troops discovered two children had been killed. One child was wounded and evacuated for treatment," the military said.

It added that troops secured one rocket propelled grenade launcher, five rockets, nine AK-47 assault rifles and 20 loaded ammunition magazines.

On Wednesday, al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed near Baquba in an air strike.

Guard error

Witnesses said the raid on Monday left a total of nine killed.

Muhammad Abbas, a relative of those killed, said the raid was started after an error on part of the local guard in the village of al-Hashmiya, west of Baquba, where the air strike was carried out.

"We were sleeping on the rooftop at midnight when one of the local guards fired in the air as he saw individuals who he thought were insurgents ... unfortunately they turned out to be US troops on foot patrol," he said.

"The US forces responded fiercely and struck several houses first and later concentrated on one house. We later discovered that nine members of the house, including seven children and youngsters were killed while four members are missing."

'Fierce attack'

Another witness, Shahin Abdullah at the local hospital where the bodies were brought, described the US attack as "fierce."

"We were sleeping on the rooftop at midnight when one of the local guards fired in the air as he saw individuals who he thought were insurgents ... unfortunately they turned out to be US troops on foot patrol"

Muhammad Abbas, a relative of the dead

"We heard sound of explosions and airplanes in the sky. The result was that nine were killed and four are missing," Abdullah said, and added that the local guard mistook the US troops for armed groups as "we are not used to the troops doing foot patrol. They usually come in tanks and vehicles."

In other developments, an early morning blast on Monday killed six people when it struck a minivan carrying oil refinery workers in Baghdad.

Also, a roadside bomb was detonated next to a police patrol east of Kirkuk, but missed and struck a civilian car.

One person was killed and two were injured in the explosion.

Stronach said Swift at first did not say who she was but was identified by tattoos described in the warrant and was arrested at her family's home without incident.

She was listed as AWOL late last year and her unit left for Iraq without her. She served her first tour in Iraq with a military police unit in 2004, her mother, Sarah Rich, told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Rich said her daughter broke down and said she could not return because of the war and the way she was treated. She said her daughter was belittled, called names, and frequently propositioned.

Swift is expected to be returned to Fort Lewis on Tuesday.