Wash. Times distorts Rosa Brooks on Al Qaeda

[Nonno]

"Summary: In an editorial discussing newly appointed Defense Department official Rosa Brooks, The Washington Times wrote that Brooks "has called al Qaeda 'little more than an obscure group of extremist thugs.' " In fact, Brooks used that phrase in 2007 to refer to the view of Al Qaeda in 2001 held by "most experts."

"From Brooks' July 20, 2007, LA Times op-ed (with the phrase the Times quoted in bold):

In 2001, administration stalwarts suggested that Osama bin Laden rivaled Hitler in the danger he posed to U.S. security and insisted that Al Qaeda's power was so great that nothing short of a "global war on terror" was required.

At that time, most experts say, this description of Al Qaeda simply wasn't true. It was little more than an obscure group of extremist thugs, well financed and intermittently lethal but relatively limited in their global and regional political pull. On 9/11, they got lucky -- but despite the unexpected success of their attack on the U.S., they did not pose an imminent mortal threat to the nation."

More at: Media Matters - Wash. Times editorial distorts Rosa Brooks' statement on Al Qaeda