Introducing your brand new fake terrorist mastermind!

[HamdenRice]

His name is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, according to CNN, "a senior al Qaeda in Iraq operative believed to have taken over the terror network after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi..." Al-Masri is now one of the most wanted men in Iraq, and has a large bounty on his head payable by the US military.



Al-Masri was identified as your new bogey man in mid June, when the Defense Intelligence Agency declassified a picture of the terrorist mastermind at the request of the military. (Note well, that this was provided by the DIA, a branch of the Rumsfeld Pentagon, rather than the CIA, which latter organization has been perpetually in the Bush dog house for stubbornly remaining part of the "reality based" community.) According to a military spokesman, al-Masri has been a terrorist since 1982 and conveniently is an expert in "vehicle borne improvised explosive devices," which, if Iraq were northern Ireland, would simply be called "car bombs." Al-Masri allegedly began working in Iraq after the downfall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, and was allegedly active in Fallujah, among other places.

Perhaps the first thing to note about al-Masri, is that like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his name is meaningless and is not a real name. As I wrote in another post, available in my Journal,

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HamdenRice

"Abu Musab al Zarqawi" is a series of nick names. "Abu" means "father of" a common honorific among Arab men when their first sons are born. So "Abu Musab" simply means "Musab's father." "al Zarqawi" refers to a town of Zarqa in Jordan, the birthplace of Abu Musab al Zarqawi. So in total, his name meant, Musab's Dad, the guy from Zarqa.

Imagine our surprise to learn that the new terrorist mastermind, Abu Ayyub al-Masri has a similarly identity-unhelpful name. "Abu Ayyub" means "Ayyub's Dad." And al-Masri simply means, "the Egyptian."

All in all, I would say that "Ayyub's Dad, the guy from Egypt" will no doubt be as scary and useful a terrorist mastermind as "Musab's Dad, the guy from Zarqa."

Fortunately, the DIA also revealed that another name (read: real name) of your new bogey man is Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.

The problem with this identification is that, as Cannonfire blog recently pointed out,

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/

there appears to be an Egyptian man actually named, "Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer," -- but he happens to have been in an Egyptian prison for the last seven years. According to al Jazeera, al-Muhajer's lawyer disagrees with the Pentagon's crowning of the new Iraqi terrorist mastermind:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/38619/

Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the purported successor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is in an Egyptian prison and not Iraq, a lawyer has claimed.
...
"Sharif Hazaa is in Tura prison, and I met him two days ago while I was visiting some of my clients," Ismail, a lawyer known for defending Islamist groups, told the newspaper.

<end quote>

The US military media center in Iraq had this to say about the Egyptian terrorist mastermind creating the carnage in Iraq from an Egyptian prison:

http://www.kessbenfm.com/news/article.asp?id=653

"We cannot comment on the news that ... al-Masri is in an Egyptian prison and not in Iraq, we have to clarify that from the Egyptian government."

[Junkdrawer]

1. Well, you know how mafia dons run their empires from prison...

that's why we can't let them talk to lawyers... :sarcasm: