Antiwar.com Blog

The media seem to be taking pretty seriously the claim by alleged al Qaeda franchisee Abu-Hafs al-Masri /al-Qaeda Brigades that they’re calling off attacks on Spain for the time being and are targeting Japan, Italy, Britain or Australia — The Australian‘s headline: “Al-Qa’ida puts us on target list.” Yet this alleged group also claimed responsibility for last year’s huge US/Canada blackouts, which the FBI claims is absurd. In fact Abu al-HM isn’t connected to any known act of terror, & some experts question the group’s existence.

Meanwhile France has been threatened in a letter signed by a previously unknown alleged Islamist group. Some news reports claim that the letter is signed “Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise” and others “the Brigade of Movsar Barayev.” About this letter, France’s interior minister said: “The specialized services believe that the phrasing does not correspond to the rhythm typically used by extremists in these kinds of messages.” He later suggested that French right-wingers could be responsible.

The alleged group’s namesake, Movsar Barayev, was the chief Islamist leader in Chechnya, before he was killed in the Moscow theater siege. Barayev’s successor is quoted as saying: “There is no such thing as a ‘Brigade of Movsar Barayev.'” Meanwhile, the Socialists have accused the French PM of fearmongering before the regional elections.

As Jonah Goldberg asks on today’s Corner, “Who woulda thunk it was possible to like him more? Check these out.”

(I’ve changed the title and link, of course, but note that his link and mine are to the same Web site. Let’s put all of this “appeasement”-screeching in its proper context.)

A post from an Aussie to Americans.

“In a morning meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Bremer warned the Iraqi leaders that they risked isolating themselves and their country if they continued to snub the United Nations.”

NY Times

Poland’s president: “That [U.S. officials] deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that’s true. We were taken for a ride.”

And yet, this giant walking spleen goes on to dismiss any talk of withdrawing “his” country’s troops from Iraq, adding, “We cannot alter our mission to stabilize Iraq to one to destabilize the country” and “Passiveness will lead us nowhere.” Don’t dust off your Polack jokes yet, warbots, cos’ this guy is your kind of foreign leader: a fatalistic serf.

The anti-imperial Maccabees, that is. Thank goodness the Seleucids were made of sterner stuff than some modern-day Euroweenies we could mention.

(Please don’t send me any pro- or anti-Gibson screeds. I plan to remain one of the last dozen people in all Judeo-Christendom without their knickers in a twist about The Passion.)