Download letter_in_english.pdf
I have read the letter in English and looked at the Arabic on a "sampling" basis and my conclusion would be that it was writen by someone who was not a native speaker of Arabic but who had been well educated in the language. I would guess that an Iranian, A Pakistani or the odd Westerner with such a capability would be likely possibilities.
I would opt for the Westerner because it reads the way a Westerner with an education in Political Science would lay out strategic guidance and argumentation in sending a directive to a subordinate. All that stuff about – first we do this and then we do that and lastly we do such and such is a bit much for me and does not sound like your basic Islamic fanatic however well educated in Egyptian schools.
Also, the eagerness to list all those heroes of Islam with great concern for their patronimics seems excessive. They generally take such knowledge for granted. Doesn’t eveyone know who Nur ad-Din Zengi was?
I think it is a phony, but why it was written and by whom, I know not. I would not rule out a third world person educated in our methodology.
The Arabic is, to me, a little simplistic and too simple for the way an Egyptian like Zawahiri would write. This is the way I would write if trying to do this..
Pat Lang
Cole agrees with you as to the authenticity of the letter buit comes to broader conclusions; Iran, black psy-ops operation of the US, or Shi’a groupr attempting to manipulate the US. I’d say someone is getting their leg pulled.
http://www.juancole.com/2005/10/zawahiri-letter-to-zarqawi-shiite.html
http://www.juancole.com/2005/10/zawahiri-letter-other-thing-that.html
Given how easily the Shia convicted bank fraud and Iranian spy, Ahmed Chalabi, manipulated the American government — not to mention the New York Times — into overthrowing Saddam Hussein for him, I’d say it doesn’t take much for Iranian-connected Iraqi Shias to get bogus documents published on America’s War Department web site.
Then again, it didn’t take much for the French-Catholic North Vietnamese, Ngo Dinh Diem, to manipulate America into transporting him and his extended community from Hanoi down to Saigon after 1954 and then set him up in his very own “country” for almost a decade before the enraged South Vietnamese overthrew and killed him in 1963.
Self-interested foreign ex-patriates seldom find it hard to make their way straight to the highest levels of America’s corrupt and clueless government — enriching themselves and ensnaring the American people every step of the way.
I wonder who will get Chalabi’s reserved seat at Bush’s next State of the Union Speech?
How much do these letters matter?
Why/how do they get released?
It is interesting to me that we seem to get very selective leaking on intelligence.
Geoff,
I don’t think there is evidence for Cole’s larger conclusion.
pl
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/17/101317/07
Attack on the Ahwazi region Iran to build a buffer zone (and get the oil)?
This weekend they had bombs going off there again. MEK or Brits?
Hersh also reported that such an attack is coming
Pat, do you have any idea if this is possible?
b,
As I said I think the letter is phony.
As for Khuzistan/Ahfaz, there are long standing Arab irredentist claims to the region.
PL
Cole is a master of speculation; you got to be careful when reading him or anyone for that matter.
G
As for Khuzistan/Ahfaz, there are long standing Arab irredentist claims to the region.
I did know that. Do you expect US/UK to “intervene” any “revolution” in that area?
I´ll take that for a “yes”