Death of a terrorist

The death of terrorist leader Zarqawi in Iraq is certainly good news. Folks on the right and left can take solace in his passing:

From Daily KOS:

CHEERS to finding a really evil needle in a really big haystack.  U.S. forces rocked terrorist Abu Musab "Dick" al-Zarqawi's world last night when they tossed a thousand pounds of explosive whupass down his gullet.  They found his body in the bedroom.  And the kitchen.  And the den.  And the garage.  And the neighbor's apartment.  And I think I found an eyebrow in my Cocoa Puffs this morning.  My only regret: he didn't know what hit him.

But I find it worrisome that according to U.S. Major Gen. Bill Caldwell,

...the tips leading to the safe house had come from within Zarqawi's network.

This would seem to indicate that Zarqawi’s betrayal was a calculated move by al-Qaeda and rather than viewing his death as a defeat, they see it as us doing them a favor. It is possible that Zarqawi had become too much of a loose cannon and had outlived his usefulness for al-Qaeda. The story notes that in recent days Zarqawi’s group had begun to shift from attacks on military forces to the targeting of civilians, most of them Shiites.

In an audio statement last week Zarqawi called for the killing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite cleric.

Hmmmmm. One week he threatens the top cleric, the Grand Ayatollah, and the next week he gets a 500 pound bomb dropped on his head courtesy of the U.S. military. Coincidence? Probably not.

So now I have one more question. Who gets the $25 million bounty that we had placed on Zarqawi’s head? Will we reneg on giving out the prize because the tipster is probably tied to al-Qaeda?