Evidently embarrassed by all the attention it has gotten, despite the spurious conclusions to which it has led, Al-Qaeda is now disavowing the Zawahri letter. “Al Qaeda in Iraq says Zawahri letter is fake – Web,” from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
DUBAI (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s wing in Iraq on Thursday rejected as a fabrication a letter by a top group leader that was issued by U.S. officials and suggested deep internal rifts among militants.
According to the letter, released this week by U.S. intelligence officials, al Qaeda’s second in command Ayman al-Zawahri urged the group’s leader in Iraq to prepare for an Islamic government to take over when U.S. forces leave.
The letter warns Zarqawi the killing of Shi’ite civilians and hostages risked alienating Sunnis at a time when al Qaeda in Iraq should be seeking support for a religious state.
But Al Qaeda’s wing in Iraq said the letter’s release showed the “bankruptcy plaguing the infidels’ camp.”
“We in Al Qaeda Organization announce that there is no truth to these claims, which are only based on the imagination of the politicians of the Black (White) House and their slaves,” the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site.
“All of this is in a letter attributed to our Mujahid sheikh … and naturally we do not know how and where this letter is to have been found,” said the statement signed by the group’s spokesman in Iraq.