A phony letter from al Qaeda to Zarqawi has been floated and will now be cited forever by useful idiots in the media and on the right as evidence of a link between al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgency. Demand better evidence from them:
http://billmon.org/archives/002260.htmlLetter Opener
Evidence seems to be accumulating that the celebrated letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri (bin Ladin's deputy) to the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- which the corporate media have been gobbling up like a dog in a meatball factory -- is actually what Al Qaeda claims it is: a fake.
Juan Cole notices a curious fact: The opening salutation (blessings upon the Messenger of God etc. etc.) is in a form most commonly used in the Shi'a tradition -- a rather odd way for an Egyptian Sunni fundamentalist to greet a Jordanian Sunni fundamentalist who delights in the massacre of unarmed Shi'a women and children. Juan Cole:
I do not believe that an Egyptian like al-Zawahiri would use this phraseology at all. But he certainly would not use it to open a letter to a Salafi. Sunni hardliners deeply object to what they see as Shiite idolatry of the imams or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, for whom they made shrines such as Ali's at Najaf and Husayn's at Karbala. In fact, hard line Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia attacked and sacked Karbala in 1803.
Dr. Cole also questions the letter writer's efforts to sweet talk Zarqawi by saying how much he misses meeting with him -- Zarqawi was not at all friendly with Zawahiri or Al Qaeda when he was in Afghanistan, and later tried to keep members of his own group, then known as Tawhid wa Jihad, from sending money to bin Ladin. On the other hand, since the letter also includes an appeal for money ($100,000) maybe that was just Zawahiri's way of asking Zarqawi to let bygones be bygones.
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