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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (237969)	7/26/2007 4:17:00 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Here's an interesting article on a recent US capture of a top AQI officer. On a meta-note, the article is a good example of the AP's style in these matters. The core of the article is an AP report on an announcement by U.S. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner concerning the capture of Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who acted as liasion between AQ and AQI. That's the news part. So this a strong point of evidence for what the US Army has been saying for months, that AQ and AQI are linked at the leadership level. However, if you go back thru the article and read the non-news parts, the parts that say "comes at a time when" and "most analysts say" you will see that they are doing their best to spread doubt on this piece of evidence. They believe the version of events where there is no connection, and they want to downplay evidence to the contrary as much as possible, to say that all the best minds don't believe it no matter who is captured or what the Army says. There isn't a hint that any of the analysts will be swayed in the least by this new piece of evidence. I didn't understand why the article was written like that, esp. with this headline, but when I saw the byline I understood. A NY Post editor wrote the headliine, but AP wrote the article. AL QAEDA POINT MAN IN IRAQ IS CAPTURED AP MASHHADANI Liaison with bin Laden.July 19, 2007 -- BAGHDAD - The U.S. command announced yesterday the arrest of an al Qaeda leader it said served as the link between the organization's command in Iraq and Osama bin Laden's inner circle, enabling it to wield considerable influence over the Iraqi group. The announcement was made as the White House steps up efforts to link the war in Iraq to 9/11, with a growing number of Americans opposing the Iraq conflict. Some independent analysts question al Qaeda's role in Iraq. Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was the highest-ranking Iraqi in the al Qaeda in Iraq leadership when he was captured July 4 in Mosul, U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said. Bergner told reporters that Mashhadani carried messages from bin Laden, and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to the Egyptian-born head of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri. He said Mashhadani had told interrogators that al Qaeda's global leadership provides "directions, they continue to provide a focus for operations," and "they continue to flow foreign fighters into Iraq, foreign terrorists." The relationship between bin Laden and the al Qaeda in Iraq leadership has long been the subject of debate. Analysts have questioned U.S. military assertions that al Qaeda in Iraq is the main threat to U.S. forces here. Former Pentagon analyst Anthony Cordesman quoted a background briefing by U.S. military experts in Iraq this month that said al Qaeda in Iraq was responsible for only 15 percent of the attacks here in the first half of 2007. nypost.com