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Monday, June 14, 2004

Are the militants in Iraq feeling the heat? 

Or is this planted misinformation?:
A leader of militants in Iraq has purportedly written to Osama bin Laden saying his fighters are being squeezed by U.S.-led coalition troops, according to a statement posted Monday on Islamic Web sites....

Titled "The text of al-Zarqawi's message to Osama bin Laden about holy war in Iraq," the statement appeared on Web sites that have recently carried claims of responsibility for attacks in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

"The space of movement is starting to get smaller," it said. "The grip is starting to be tightened on the holy warriors' necks and, with the spread of soldiers and police, the future is becoming frightening."

The article is interesting, and I'm sure that smarter people than me are pouring over it as I write this. While they're at it, I would love to know why al-Zarqawi would post such a defeatest message on a public web site. In any case, it is strange enough that I would be surprised if our intelligence officers took the message at face value. Is it fraudulent? Is it code? Or is it misinformation? This may be a rare instance when Occam's Razor does not apply.

UPDATE: The memo is a fake, or just a duplicate, confirming my gut feeling that the story didn't make sense (although not concluding that the memo was deliberate misinformation). Citizen Smash has the goods. Via Dean.

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