Tuesday, October 18, 2005

What's All this Then? ANOTHER Bogus Missive?

Andrew C. McCarthy on Iraq on National Review Online

Not just conservatives see fifth-columnists under every rock...

Faking It: Seeing things in the Zawahiri-Zarqawi letter that aren’t there.

Bruce B. Lawrence, a professor of Islamic studies at Duke University, is in the snare of conspiracy theorizing in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times, arguing in an op-ed that the letter sent this summer by al Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri to the network’s Iraq chief, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is probably fake and will eventually blow up in the Bush administration’s face. His rationale is loopy.

Lawrence, who has depth in the writings of al Qaeda leaders, does not contend that the letter seems unlike things typically said by Zawahiri. Rather, he points to five pieces of what he regards as circumstantial evidence of fraud: (1) the three-month delay between the time the letter was written and when it was released; (2) the Sunni Zawahiri’s suggestion that Zarqawi ease up on attacks against Shiites and even collaborate with these traditional rivals; (3) the fact that Zarqawi seems to have ignored this counsel; (4) Zawahiri’s request for $100,000; and (5) the seeming oddity that a letter obviously addressed to Zarqawi concludes by telling the addressee (whom Zawahiri does not name outright) to send greetings to Zarqawi. These things don’t come close to implying fraud, neither on their own nor taken together."

Now, don't you just love all of these "experts" who come along after the fact pretending that they have insider information on this or that raghead? Responding to their ludicrous protestations is akin to scrubbing messy coffee grounds from an angora sweater, but I do suppose that someone's got to do it, and that someone might as well be Andrew McCarthy, who at times seems to enjoy exerting the intellectual effort of wading through one unsightly mess after another.
Beg pardon? You say that Andrew is not only a lawyer but a former federal prosecutor?

Mea maxima culpa. Who better to refute a moonbat professor than an ambulance chaser. Oh yes, and give the link a clickto follow the whole line of reasoning if you've a mind to, or rather if you've the stomach for ivory tower versus shylock.

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