A new announcement by al Qaeda has called a recently "seized" letter -- supposedly from top al Qaeda lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri to the insurgent leader in Iraq Abu Masab al-Zarqawi -- a fake. The group "al Qaeda in Iraq" released a statement saying that the letter is an obvious forgery by the "Black House," their term for the White House. Analysis of the Arabic usage by Juan Cole lends creedence to this claim, since many phrases used in the letter would be inappropriate in a communication between two Sunni Muslims, one of whom (Zarqawi) is also a Salafi.

The expression that makes the letter suspect, according to Cole, is a reference to the Prophet Muhammad's grandson as an "Imam," which is a Shiite term. Such a term would not be used by a hard-line Sunni like Zawahiri, especially in a communication with Zarqawi, who has called for war against Shiites, and is an equally hard-line Sunni. Cole also mentions "There are other odd things about the letter," that he plans to discuss later.

Cole's best guess, which matches with the claims of al Qaeda's statement, is that the letter is most likely a U.S. psy-ops forgery, although he suggests the possibility that the letter could have come from Iran. If the letter originated in Iran, the mistakes could be explained as a Shiite (as most Iranians are) trying to sound like a Sunni (and doing quite badly).

All I can say is that if our government is going to fabricate communications between terrorist leaders and sell them to the American public as legitimate, they should take some of the billions of dollars we give them and learn to fricking speak Arabic. Just a thought.