No legacy is so rich as honesty - William Shakespeare

Monday, February 28, 2005

It’s all about the oil, remember?  Because, as we know, different terrorists would never work together.

New intelligence indicates that Osama bin Laden is enlisting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his top operative in Iraq, to plan potential attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said Monday.

Al-Zarqawi has been involved in attacks in the Middle East but has not been known to have set his sights on U.S. soil.

The Homeland Security Department issued a classified bulletin to officials over the weekend about the intelligence, which spokesman Brian Roehrkasse described as “credible but not specific.” The intelligence was obtained over the past several weeks, officials said.

The U.S. has no immediate plans to raise its national alert level, Roehrkasse said. However, the intelligence “reiterates the desire by al-Qaeda and its associates to target the homeland,” he said.

Bin Laden was in contact with al-Zarqawi within the past two months in an effort to enlist him in attacks, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity. U.S. analysts believe this shows the al-Qaeda leadership needs to reach out to al-Zarqawi to get him involved in considering such activities outside Iraq, the official said.

Al-Zarqawi is blamed for scores of attacks in Iraq and pledged allegiance to bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network last year. Yet he has had differences with bin Laden and his efforts are considered somewhat distinct from central al-Qaeda operations.

But that lack of centralization is what makes these organizations so dangerous.  It’s not like Get Smart, where we can just go to KAOS headquarters and drop a bomb on them.  And do the authors of this article really expect us to believe that the differences between OBL and Zarqawi are so great that they would never work together?  Give me a break.