John posted an excellent analysis of the Zawaheri letter here. The MSM have shown a shocking lack of serious interest in the letter. In his weekly column Tony Blankley showed righteous indignation regarding his colleagues’ nonfeasance: “Such brilliant, substantive journalists.”
On the substance of the letter, also worth reading are this Wall Street Journal editorial and this FrontPage column by Walid Phares. Our friends at Centcom take an interesting look at the letter’s key themes.
UPDATE: In the original version of this post I linked to a story purportedly carried by Al Jazeera that contested the authenticity of the letter. Timothy Usher writes:
Alert: Aljazeera.com is not “the” Al Jazeera, but an imposter site…”The” Al Jazeera is indeed biased against the United States, although less so than they used to be, due either to pressure from our friends in Qatar, or that the Jihadis have lost their appeal. Anyhow, its address is http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage.
The actual Al Jazeera seems rather skeptical of the denial (see this story): “A purported al-Qaida web posting”…”who claims to be spokesman for al-Qaida in Iraq. It could not be authenticated.”
And speaks of the putative authorship as fact: “In the letter, taking up 13 typed pages in its English translation, al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri recommended…al-Zawahiri wrote…The letter laid out his long-term plan…”
Al Jazeera has contacts in Al Qaeda, as seen in the Spanish conviction, and they are the preferred outlet for AQ communiques. We should assume that their estimate is well-grounded; i.e., the letter is real.
I have deleted the link to the story from the imposter site and regret the error.
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