Letter from al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi

[Bruzilla]

http://www.dni.gov/letter_in_english.pdf

Today the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a letter between two senior al Qa'ida leaders, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, that was obtained during counterterrorism operations in Iraq. This lengthy document provides a comprehensive view of al Qa'ida's strategy in Iraq and globally.

The letter from al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi is dated July 9, 2005. The contents were released only after assurances that no ongoing intelligence or military operations would be affected by making this document public.

The document has not been edited in any way and is released in its entirety in both the Arabic and English translated forms. The United States Government has the highest confidence in the letter's authenticity.

This is a very interesting read!

 

[Larry Gude]

Why is it that...

...every correspondance we get translated to English makes these guys sound like they are completely insecure with what they are saying, fearfully unsure as to what those they are speaking to actually think and believe and thus every sentence is, in effect, an ongoing and repetitive pleading to see if, in fact, everyone is on the same page, step by step.

It is true that we all like hamburgers, right? And because we all like hamburgers, we thus like lettuce on our burgers and we stand together in agreement, don't we, that we do, in fact, like hamburgers, right? With lettuce, of course.

Thus, as we all like hamburgers especially against those who don't, whether they like lettuce or not, we do also like pickles which, of course, go on after the lettuce, which we all like, which thusly goes on our favorite thing, hamburgers. We do all like hamburgers, yes? With lettuce and pickles, of course, even though there be those who falsely like pickles and also like them, wrongly, right, BEFORE lettuce and do not truly like hamburgers, which we all like. Right?

And so on.

Is it just the language? Does the average Muslim follow this stuff or is he functionally illiterate like most Americans, when it comes to say, contract law or such?

 

[vraiblonde]

The meat, for those like me whose eyes start to bleed trying to decipher what these guys are trying to say:

So we must think for a long time about our next steps and how we want to attain it, and it is my humble opinion that the Jihad in Iraq requires several incremental goals:

The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq.

The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority or amirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a caliphate- over as much territory as you can to spread its power in Iraq, i.e., in Sunni areas, is in order to fill the void stemming from the departure of the Americans, immediately upon their exit and before un-Islamic forces attempt to fill this void, whether those whom the Americans will leave behind them, or those among the un-Islamic forces who will try to jump at taking power. There is no doubt that this amirate will enter into a fierce struggle with the foreign infidel forces, and those supporting them among the local forces, to put it in a state of constant preoccupation with defending itself, to make it impossible for it to establish a stable state which could proclaim a caliphate, and to keep the Jihadist groups in a constant state of war, until these forces find a chance to annihilate them.

The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq.

The fourth stage: It may coincide with what came before: the clash with Israel, because Israel was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity.

 

[Bruzilla]

...every correspondance we get translated to English makes these guys sound like they are completely insecure with what they are saying, fearfully unsure as to what those they are speaking to actually think and believe and thus every sentence is, in effect, an ongoing and repetitive pleading to see if, in fact, everyone is on the same page, step by step.

You're overlooking the obvious Larry. al-Zawahiri sounds like that because he don't have a pot to wizz in at the moment, and while he may be the number 2 guy at Al Qaeda, he's stuck in a cave with limited funds, resources, and communications. al-Zarqawi on the other hand has all the funds, resources, press, and other benefits. al-Zarqawi, if he played his cards right, is in a pretty good position to take Al Qaeda over while al-Zawahiri and Bin Ladin are holed up in the rocks. In that situation al-Zawahiri is in no position to dictate terms to al-Zarqawi, hence all the "we're doing this for God" business and the "maybe we should do this instead..." crap. Right now al-Zawahiri needs al-Zarqawi a lot more than the other way around.

Also, Muslims don't do anything very quickly or directly. It takes them 20 minutes to get out a prayer, the Lord's Prayer takes 20 seconds. They take four hours just to eat dinner once you factor in all the pre and post dinner formalities, so why should their writings be any different?