Looks like he did get to suffer a bit. Still not nearly enough.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lived for 52 minutes after a U.S. warplane bombed his hideout northeast of Baghdad, and he died of massive internal injuries consistent with those caused by a bomb blast, the U.S. military said today.

That’s the entire article. Our press would like us to think about how he suffered, I guess. Awfully patriotic of them…

Of course that begs the question… how do they have his death timed to the minute?
This?

Or something more mundane, like a circling C-130 and a helluva shotgun mike? I imagine the conversation of two soldiers listening in on Z’s last moments:

“Well, sarge, he just croaked.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t catch what he was talking about when he went.”
“Let me replay that.”
CLICK-WHIRRRRRR-CLICK
Hisssssssssssssss…. “Wait, 72 bulls? I thought it was virgins……urk!”
“Heh.”
“Sarge?”
“Soldier, there are some things man was not meant to know. I expect he’s finding out about one of them, right about now….”