What Should We Make of the Zarqawi News?

Two U.S. Air Force F-16s killed Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and five other people Wednesday in a house near Baquba, Iraq. How did U.S. and Iraqi intelligence find the elusive al-Qaida figure? How important is his demise to the war on terrorism and the conflict in Iraq?

Guests:

Lt. Gen. Gary North, Commander 9th Air Force and U.S. Central Command Air Forces

Ellen Knickmeyer, Baghdad correspondent for The Washington Post

Tom Bowman, NPR Pentagon correspondent

What This Means for Ongoing Military Operations and Security in Iraq

Maj. Gen. (retired) John Batiste, Army commander, led first infantry division in Iraq war

Maryanne Weaver, writer with The Atlantic Monthly, wrote a profile of al-Zarqawi for the July issue

Rita Katz, director and co-founder of the SITE Institute

Ahmed Rashid, journalist and author of three books, including Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia

Adeed Dawisha, political science professor at Miami University of Ohio; author of Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Dispair

Faisal Istrabadi, Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations