The Letter
The Letter.
Supposedly, "second in command" of Al Qaeda and Bin Laden deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has written a detailed ideological treatise to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, self-assumed leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The letter purportedly discusses at some length the ideological goals and shifting intentions of Al Qaeda's participation in the insurgency in Iraq, including the danger of Al-Zarqawi's followers brutal slaying of hostages of inspiring moral outrage in moderate Muslims in the war for "hearts and minds."
The letter was intercepted in July, and leaked slowly in early October. It was published fully a few days ago. And very recently, online sources frequented by Al Qaeda soldiers, media contacts, and occassionally leaders, have discounted the letter as a forgery.
Is there any reason to believe in this letter? Is it not more valuable to the interests of America- a direct commune between the old guard and the Iraqi guard, a link they've tried futille to determine since the pre-Invasion period; between the near-caught and the unknown? Isn't it more valuable for American politicos and ideologues to have a piece of dynamic evidence, than the value of the letter itself would be between these two figures?
If it is real or fake, so be it.
I wonder if the 101 Keyboarders, as Eschaton labels them, will seek to vet the authenticity of this letter [or rather, to simply raise the specter of doubt of the authenticity without proving them inauthentic] as they did with American media figurehead Dan Rather. If not, they prove their complicit nature in a valueless Administration. If they refuse to even call for authenticity for the purported evidence of the worst of the terrorists while vehemently striking out at bad TV, there's a serious problem with value standards among them.
Supposedly, "second in command" of Al Qaeda and Bin Laden deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has written a detailed ideological treatise to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, self-assumed leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The letter purportedly discusses at some length the ideological goals and shifting intentions of Al Qaeda's participation in the insurgency in Iraq, including the danger of Al-Zarqawi's followers brutal slaying of hostages of inspiring moral outrage in moderate Muslims in the war for "hearts and minds."
The letter was intercepted in July, and leaked slowly in early October. It was published fully a few days ago. And very recently, online sources frequented by Al Qaeda soldiers, media contacts, and occassionally leaders, have discounted the letter as a forgery.
Is there any reason to believe in this letter? Is it not more valuable to the interests of America- a direct commune between the old guard and the Iraqi guard, a link they've tried futille to determine since the pre-Invasion period; between the near-caught and the unknown? Isn't it more valuable for American politicos and ideologues to have a piece of dynamic evidence, than the value of the letter itself would be between these two figures?
If it is real or fake, so be it.
I wonder if the 101 Keyboarders, as Eschaton labels them, will seek to vet the authenticity of this letter [or rather, to simply raise the specter of doubt of the authenticity without proving them inauthentic] as they did with American media figurehead Dan Rather. If not, they prove their complicit nature in a valueless Administration. If they refuse to even call for authenticity for the purported evidence of the worst of the terrorists while vehemently striking out at bad TV, there's a serious problem with value standards among them.
posted by General Stan at 11:27 PM
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