Z - MAN'S GREEN TATTOOS - THEY WEREN'T VERY LUCKY WERE THEY?

From the Australian Herald Sun:

"The informer pointed them to the al-Qaida meeting attended by the sheik at the building on the outskirts of Habhib village, 8km north of the town of Baquba.

A task force, called 77 or 145, of Delta Force commandos, Navy SEALs and British special operations experts had first pinpointed the property near Baquba, 60km north of Baghdad.

The white stucco, two-storey farmhouse near a grove of palm trees was in the area where the Jordanian experts had most likely placed Zarqawi from the video.
Maj-Gen Caldwell said: "The strike did not occur in a 24-hour period.

"It was a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human resources, electronic signal intelligence that was done over a period of time -- many, many weeks."

But Wednesday was the first time the US was certain Abd-al-Rahman was at a hideout where it was certain Zarqawi was, which could be struck without risk of mass civilian casualties.

A local, Mohammed Ismael, said he saw three utes drive to the house late on Wednesday, but only one stayed.

By 5.30pm local time commandos from task force 145 surrounded the house, then Habhib village itself.

Mr Ismael said American soldiers began swarming the town, seemingly coming from nowhere, with some soldiers sliding down ropes dropped from Black Hawk helicopters.
"The entire village was seized," Mr Ismael said.

He said someone inside the house began shooting as the American commandos took up positions. The Americans returned fire but the fight did not last long.

Senior officers in Baghdad called in an air strike at sunset on Wednesday.
Two F-16 US Air Force Falcons circled high above and dropped two 225kg laser-guided bombs. The first flattened the house, which disintegrated into three dust clouds.

Early reports claimed Zarqawi and others had lived for about 10 minutes after Iraqi police arrived on the scene.

But when the 4th Infantry of the US 101st Airborne Assault Division arrived a few minutes later, everyone in the rubble was dead.

Six corpses were initially taken from the ruins: a woman, a child, two unidentified males, Abd-al-Rahman and finally Zarqawi. The last had green tattoos, just like Zarqawi, who was known among other terrorists as the "green man".

Within hours, the US launched 17 raids on suspect houses around Baghdad, gathering what Maj-Gen Caldwell says was a treasure trove of information.

Checks of the scars and tattoos on the body suspected to be Zarqawi were confirmed by an FBI fingerprint check."

I love the thought of those SOB's being surrounded like rats in a cage before the JDAM hit the fan but did anybody find that emphasis about the green tattoos kind of strange. Were his tattoosGreen Tattoos because he had tried to remove them in an effort to avoid id?

Two words: Dude, DNA.

Green tattoos - here to stay?

[Posted: Mon 29/01/2001]

For anyone who regrets getting the name of a partner they are no longer with tattooed across their chest, there are always laser removal techniques.

However, scientists have discovered that some colours are more difficult to remove by laser than others. In fact, green is considered the most difficult. It is thought that the difficulty comes from the addition of titanium dioxide, a pigment added to some tattoos to enhance the colour.

The pigment is also used to brighten yellow, blue and purple inks, however more of it is found in green ink, which is typically composed of 30-40% titanium dioxide.

The research involved examining biopsy samples of tattoos that had been laser treated. In some cases, the tattoos actually darkened when treated.

As Kermit says, "It ain't easy being green."