Posted on 10/17/2005 5:54:48 PM PDT by neverdem
Doubts are mounting here about the authenticity of a letter from Al Qaeda's deputy chief to the terror organization's field commander in Iraq.
The letter was made public October 11 by President Bush's new director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, in a press release that said, "The United States Government has the highest confidence in the letter's authenticity." If the letter were to be proven a forgery, it would be a blow to the credibility of an office that was created last year at the urging of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States following the intelligence failures of September 11, 2001.
Mr. Bush quoted the letter Saturday during his weekly radio address. "We intercepted this letter, and we have released it to the public," the president said of the July 9 letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu-Musab Zarqawi.
The letter includes criticism of Mr. Zarqawi's tactics of targeting Shiite civilians in the war in Iraq. It also includes a warning that Iran would retaliate for the targeted suicide bombings aimed at Shiite communities, stressing that angering Iraq's neighbor was poor strategy, given that the government there is still holding 100 of Al Qaeda's operatives.
The CIA and the State Department have said the 6,000-word correspondence provides a unique window into the thinking of the enemy in the war on terror. But over the weekend, Al Qaeda in Iraq issued a statement from Mr. Zarqawi claiming the letter was a fake. "Everything in the letter attributed to Ayman al-Zawahiri is false," the statement said. Some analysts inside and outside the administration now are also taking this line.
"This does not read like an Islamist text," a terrorism analyst at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute, Chris Brown, said in an interview yesterday. "It only uses the word 'infidel'...
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Which, of course, explains why the MSM is determined to cast as much doubt on it as possible.
Well regardless of it's authenticity I am sure the Jihadist of foreign blood, local Jihadist, Sunni Ba'athist Saddamist supporters that continue to be captured, chased from their hiding holes with no place to run, and put in the ground to pop up as daiseys could care less about what the letter said as they are getting their hides seared. The gig is soon to be up for these folks. It was different some six months back and previous when there where not trained Iraqi forces of all types to fully occupy all the Al Anbar towns and cities along the river plane. And as the Iraqi people continue to make phone calles as to where they are holed up they shall have more JDAMS dropped on their miserable sheetheads. But obviously it would be a shame if this breeds new fuel for the L/MSM to wade in on. To damn many Americans still don't have a clue as how the insurgency is being taken out.
Personally I hope it's valid, but even if not, what of it? Excellent psyops and propaganda effort.
Al Qaeda: Letter is a U.S. fake
Fox News and Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt — A posting on an Islamic Web site Thursday accused the United States of fabricating a letter in which Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader asked for money and laid out the terrorist group's plans for expanding the insurgency in the Middle East.
"We in Al Qaeda declare that there is no truth to these claims, and they are baseless, except in the imagination of the politicians of the Black [White] House," according to the statement on a Web site known as a clearing house for Al Qaeda material.
The statement was signed Abu Maysara, who claims to be spokesman for Al Qaeda in Iraq. It could not immediately be authenticated.
"We call on Muslims not to pay attention to this cheap propaganda and to remember that the media will always be the infidels' sole weapon until the end of the battle," the statement said.
Riiiiiiiiiiight.....
What did Churchill say about the truth during war ?
"What did Churchill say about the truth during war ?"
That truth is the first casualty of war. No, it was something more insightful and elegant than that. Or maybe he foreshadowed Dan Rather: "Fake but accurate."
"Which, of course, explains why the MSM is determined to cast as much doubt on it as possible."
Yeah, they've got a lot of room to talk with their "fake but accurate" hero Dan Rather, and the rest of their lies and smears. Credibility gap, indeed.
Let me see if I have this straight. Al Qaeda denies it; therefore there's legitimate reason to doubt Negroponte?
BS!!
Exactly! We should be able to produce this type of stuff. I mean after all, THIS IS WAR!
Too late...(hee hee hee)
LETTER ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY JUDITH MILLER STOP
SIGNED NYT EDITORS
"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
What did Churchill say about the truth during war ?
"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
tnx,
The Sun is a right wing paper in NYC.
It doesn't change my point at all.
Ah!
The Sun's editorial team is headed by two veterans of The Forward, the New York-based Jewish weekly newspaper, Seth Lipsky and his protégé, Ira Stoll. Lipsky founded The Forward but was forced out by the board of directors, which disliked his conservative political views. After following Lipsky out, Stoll founded SmarterTimes.com, a web site dedicated to pointing out errors of fact and evidence of political bias in The New York Times.
They have said that the Sun's editorial stance will be "neoconservative," and a list of contributors released yesterday certainly confirms that.
Among the editorial page contributors is Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, a frequent Wall Street Journal contributor and author of "When Character Was King: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan" and "The Case Against Hillary Clinton."
There’s also R. Emmett Tyrell Jr., founding editor of The American Spectator, the conservative political magazine which made its name digging up dirt, authentic and otherwise, on President Clinton.
Tyrell will write a column on the presidency titled "The Bully Pulpit."
Other editorialists include John P. "Fipp" Avlon, chief speechwriter for ex-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and "outspoken conservative" Alicia Colon.
The paper will carry columns by Amity Shlaes, author of "The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What To Do About It," who writes for the Financial Times, and Barbara Amiel, who writes for the Daily Telegraph of London. Amiel is married to Canadian newspaper baron Conrad Black, one of the Sun's investors.
The Sun’s features will include a column for bridge enthusiasts written by Bear Stearns chairman James E. Cayne and Michael Ledeen, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
It's those crazy Frenchies, at it again!
Seriously, which foreign intelligence service would fake it, and why? It's not as if Zawahiri/Zarqawi come off looking particularly good. If there is an agenda here, I know too little about how these folks really write to find it.
So ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NYT, WAPO, Al Jezera and Al Qaeda are all agreed. The letter is a fake.
If only the MSM would have examined Bush's forged Natioanl Guard records with such diligence...
Just goes to show you, they rather believe Al Qaeda.
When asked about the recent statement from Mr. Zarqawi, Mr. Nematt pointed out that no such denial has yet been issued by the letter's alleged author. "Zawahiri has Web sites, too," he said.
Exactly.
I just downloaded it and printed it out. Tomorrow I'll drive over to the Abilene, find the Kinko's, and fax it to CBS. They will never for one moment doubt it authenticity then!
Well, you're new here. Are you talking about the lamestream media and many of their pundits who want to see us fail in Iraq at any and all costs? Or Are you talking about al Qaeda?
Let's suppose it's fake for the moment, although I think it probably isn't. We know Zarqawi and Zawahiri watch our news. What must they feel when American media carries stories of Zawahiri asking Zarqawi to send him money? What do you think Zarqawi thinks of being publically spanked by Zawahiri regarding the beheadings?
Look, this is real simple. Let Zawaheerie appear live on a local (Pakastani/Afghan/Iranian) television station and tell us that it isn't his letter.
Then we can play guided munitions and islamofacists.
Good point. The mere fact that it was "Al Qaeda in Iraq", and not the home office in Pakistan, which issued the semi-belated denial is proof enough of authenticity (however much the Left in this country may wish to spin this). This is Zarqawi's way of telling Zawahiri/Bin Laden to get stuffed, without airing the dirty laundry in public.
I see no evidence whatsover that its a forgery. This is just leftwing, nutjob, moonbat, wacko liberalism that probably fostered on some hate America, hate Bush website or blog. They have been doing this since Dan Rather was rightfully exposed for the fraud that he was. I remember they accused Bush of having something in his jacket at one of the debates and now there is this type of nonsense.
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