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Fakeout

Now that everyone’s had a chance to read what was originally described as a “Chilling” email from Zawahiri and realized its actually a pretty damning status report from within the organization, there is a need to spin it into "what does it all mean"? So predictably, Al-queda now releases a statement saying “ it’s a fake” and everyone in the press immediately gives the statement credence.

Just what the hell did you expect them to say? Something like this?

“Yeah, that’s our guy Zawahiri talking to our other guy Zarkawi, and yeah, he says were screwed, and yeah, I guess we are. Listen, do you guys know where we can get a job?”

At the same time, we have the press clamoring to declare that the President committed a fraud with his most recent press conference. But haven’t we seen this show before? What about “The plastic turkey incident”? The “what was Bush wearing under his shirt in the debates” controversy. And the list goes on and on.

Both Al-queda and the worlds press are stuck in the same trap. The world doesn’t want to accept that Al-queda is NOT a heroic group of freedom fighters (or “minutemen” as Michael Moore called them) that cant loose

and

that George W. Bush was actually right about Iraq and the Arab world!

It’s impossible for Al queda to accept the reality that it’s losing, that its not accepted by Islam as the righteous holy men their self image says they are and its impossible for the press to accept that ‘Bush is President’. What’s worse, that he is actually smarter than they are for being able to see how to change the world!

But facts are hard, persistent things and no matter how much we wish to waterpaint the world in an image that is more pleasing to us, reality is still there to wash away the brush strokes.

The Zawahiri letter is very bad news for al-queda. I’m not quite done with it yet, but by comparison to all of the earlier communications from Zawahiri, this note is decidedly not the bloodthirsty man of action we see in earlier communication. In addition, Zawahiri only mentions Israel and the word “Jewish” once.

Now, everyone has commented on the revelation of the “plan”, but this not the first time the “plan” has been discussed between Zarkawi and others. In January of 2004, Zarkawi wrote a similar note that describes a similar outline of action. However, in his version Zarkawi is much more action oriented – Do this – make this happen – this must occur! Zawahiri is much more reflective in his letter. He draws a plan of general principles, but doesn’t address how the plan, which has been underway for some time, has utterly failed to bring these items into reality. In fact, after laying out the plan, Zawahiri spends some time critiquing how Zarkawis actions haven’t just failed, but in many cases have made the situation worse.

It’s fair to say that this email could be summarized in western language like this:

Dear Zark,

During your last quarterly performance evaluation, we agreed that these would be the goals on which your performance would be measured.

1. Drive out the Americans.
2. k\Kill the jews.
3. Establish the new caliphate
4. Move to the next country to the right
5. Rinse, wash, repeat
6. Kill the jews again.

These goals seemed easy at the time we made them. Unfortunately, you have failed to realize any of them to any great level. What’s worse, you may have also made it more difficult for us to continue. For example, let’s talk about your plan of killing of the Shia to start a civil war. Did you notice that the country we are hiding in, Iran- is mostly Shia? Well they take it rather personal when you blow up their mosques and their people, so knock it off, ok? It’s costing us a fortune to pay these guys off and the price goes up every time you blow up a mosque. Frankly, its ‘thin soup’ here lately, so we don’t want to make the situation worse than it already is.

Oh and while we are on the subject, lets talk about the beheadings, shall we? They don’t help with our little “image problem”. So lose the cameras and slogans, lose the machetes and stick with the IED’s. If you have to kill a hostage, use a bullet, ok?

“Go with what you know “as they say.

I’m not saying were a lost cause here, I mean anything could happen. I mean you know more than I do, you are actually there, but from here, things don’t look too good. Look at it this way; in Vietnam the Americans lost a war with a vastly inferior enemy, thanks to the use of the press to set the tone of the battle to the people paying the bills it always looked like a hopeless cause.

There’s a lesson there my friend, its not so easy to beat Marines, so stop trying, because the easy mark and the one that really furthers our cause is the manipulation of the Western Press. Frankly, they will believe anything we tell them, I know its hard to believe, but they want us to win. So stop killing our brother Muslims and find better targets.

Look, I have my issues with the Americans, they killed my wife and kids, remember? So its not like I don’t know what you are going through, I’m just saying that sometimes you have to change your tactics if you want to win, ok? We thought the Americans wouldn’t dare come into Afghanistan after what we did to the Russians, but frankly we blew that one and now they control the whole country and the Taliban who once gave us some great cover instead of hiding us are now out in hiding with us. So my advice to you is to not let that happen in Iraq. Make sure the Sunnis vote, in big numbers and make sure the Sunni opposition is well fed and knows us to be their friends. Everyone loves a winner, you know what I mean?

Listen if you need some good background info, check out the books I wrote when I was in jail in Egypt. They should help you in this trying time.

Oh, did I tell you? I have a new daughter. Oh, and your pals, the Algerians send their love too. Listen, I’m going to try to get out and see you soon, just as soon as the heat is off of us and we can dig up a little spending money. Keep your chin up, and keep the flags of discontent flying brother.

Yours truly,
Dr. Zawahiri.

That’s essentially what the email sounds like. I have some questions about it, and I will continue to do more research on it, but that’s it in a nutshell. This is not a victory tome; this is not a “more of the same buddy” email. It’s a “gut check“ email; it’s a critique, one that’s not particularly positive. He complains about losing key staff, the need for money and how Zarkawis actions are costing the movement support of the populace. This is not something that Zawahiri seems to have even considered as possible before.

Up till this email, Zawahiri has been a fire breathing dragon of hate, on video and in written material. This time, its much more introspective and critical. There is a very deep realization that the ideas of democracy have stolen the fire from the Jihadists and they aren’t really clear what to do about it. Sure, democracy is evil and a tool of "the Jews", but for gods sake, don’t sit the election out, remember what happened last time we did that!

This is precisely what President Bush intended, and this letter shows that’s exactly what it’s done.

Here’s something else I noticed. Zawahiri doesn’t say:

1. Thank God they came to Iraq, because we are just swamped with
new applicants for suicide bombers and rolling in cash since
they went there.

2. Boy, we sure got those Jews on the run now that they left Gaza

3. They sure fell into our trap in Lebanon, didn’t they?

4. Thank God we still control the countryside in Afghanistan

5. Hey Zark buddy, can you kick a few of your guys loose, id
like to go knock off Kuwait real quick so we can get a
nice seaport thing going for all our ships that we have at
sea.
6. Hey, I’m going to send some friends down to say hi and check
out your operations, so treat them well, ok? I think we can
use them later to expand our operations overseas.

There’s nothing like this at all in this email. It’s all dialogue that goes decidedly the other direction. This is the ‘Coulda-shouldda-wouldda’ email, not the “you da man” email.

In the illusory world that the worlds press lives in, this email was “chilling” because he talks about the plan to take over the world. But its like listening to David Duke talk about how the white man is going to rule the world, its sick, its sad, but its just pickle headed nonsense. David Duke is a dork. He is not “Chilling”; and frankly neither is Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Dr. Zawahiri is no longer changing the world; the world is changing Dr. Zawahiri.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri and the man he once called “the contractor”, Osama Bin Laden set out to change the world into an “Islamic Paradise” by driving out the western influence wherever it was. First in the holy Islamic lands, and later by converting the western world, by any means necessary. Instead, Bush has changed their world. His armies control one of the three key cities in Islam, Baghdad. He brought Democracy and stability to a country that has never known it. Bush’s revolution has liberated and freed 35 million people from the depths of hate and horror that formed the core of Islamic fundamentalism. Lebanon, Afghanistan and even to an extent Kuwait are free countries. The job is not done by any means, but the trend is much more towards what Bush has wanted to see and far less towards what Zawahiri set out to do.

Yet to many of the worlds left, Bush is the fool and Al-queda is the hero.

Now, that’s a fake if I ever saw one.

Posted @ October 13, 2005 11:20 PM | Current Affairs