Al-Qaeda Exculpates President Bush
October 7, 2005, 11:27 am |
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If you follow the news, you have gotten used to hearing two critiques of President Bush: 1) the war on Islamo-fascism is a failure, and 2) invading Iraq was a mistake or distraction. Not according to Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda’s second-in-command.
In a letter intercepted by the Pentagon, believed to have been penned in early July:
…al-Zawahiri warns that some of the tactics currently employed by the insurgency, including the slaughtering of hostages and the suicide bombings of Muslim civilians, may risk alienating the “Muslim masses,” [Pentagon spokesman Bryan] Whitman said Thursday.
Reading from a summary of the letter, Whitman said al-Zawahiri concedes that al Qaeda has lost many key leaders, is resigned to defeat in Afghanistan, and that its lines of communication and funding sources have been seriously disrupted. Al-Zawahiri includes a plea for financial support, indicating he is strapped for money, Whitman said.
Regarding the importance of Iraq to the Islamo-fascists:
U.S. officials say they were struck by the letter’s emphasis on the centrality of Iraq to al Qaeda’s long-term mission. One of the two excerpts provided by officials quotes Zawahiri, a former doctor from Egypt, telling his Jordanian-born ally [Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq], “I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam’s history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era.”
It credits President Bush to receive confirmation of his strategy from his greatest enemy, al-Qaeda. What could be a better exculpatory affirmation?
Related: War Against Islamo-fascism
October 7th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
[…] War to mobilize democracy It credits President Bush to receive confirmation of his strategy from his greatest enemy, al-Qaeda. What could be a better exculpatory affirmation? […]
October 7th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
US intercepts an Al Qaeda letter about the strategy; what happens next?
Someone is really going to pay for this. Who? The US administration or the islamofascists?
…
October 8th, 2005 at 2:01 am
Not sure what you mean. Pay for what?
October 8th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
Well, I perceive this whole ordeal as a big thing. These statements, once made by the White House, can’t really be retracted. It’s not like they can say “Oops! We didn’t really mean we found a letter saying that Al Qaeda is more than planning to take over the world”. If the announcement is true, US is getting carte blanche to do whatever is necessary to take Al Qaeda down. If this is false, then the Bush administration can start packing up things right now.
So either way, someone’s gonna pay for it.
October 8th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
My gut is that this is the real deal:
“The senior official said it has been authenticated ‘based on multiple sources over an extended period of time.’”
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100601819.html)
“He did not show the letter or say how or where it was obtained, but said it was considered authentic and recent.”
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4318478.stm)
I will track the authentication process here at netWMD. Check back.
October 12th, 2005 at 12:47 pm
[…] The full text of a letter written by al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been published by the U.S.’s Director of National Intelligence (in English; in Arabic). The letter, from al-Zawahiri and addressed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in charge of al-Qaeda’s terrorism operations in Iraq, basically confirms the Bush administration’s strategy in the war against Islamo-fascism. […]