Greatly exaggerated or fact?

A Baghdad imam believes that Abu Mussab al Zarqawi is dead and has been so since the invasion.

(AGI) - Rome, Sep 16 - According to a Shiite cleric Abu Mussab al Zarqawi is dead and his name and renown are being used by "occupying forces" to rally support for their mission. The Kazemiya mosque's Imam, Jawad al Khalessi, in Baghdad, claims "the truth is he was killed in northern Iraq during the invasion while fighting with Ansar al Islam, in Kurdistan". The man's family, the Imam told Le Monde, held a "brief ceremony" in Jordan. "Zarqawi is a scare story used by the Americans in order to justify their ongoing presence: just an excuse not to leave Iraq". As for Zarqawi's purported calls to "outright war on Shiites" the Imam says "this will entice Shiites into soliciting US protection instead of taking up arms with the resistance".

Oh the questions we must ask:

How much did Zarqawi pay this guy to spread this rumor?

If Zarqawi is really, really dead, why does he seem so lifelike in those periodic jihad videos?

If Zarqawi were really, most sincerely dead, how could George W. Bush not trot out the news, and Zarqawi's remains, just before the last presidential election?

Nah! Zarqawi's alive, and this Shiite imam is probably in cahoots with the nutjobs who run neighboring Iran.