ALLIES HAVE SPIES INSIDE AL QAEDA
Al Qaida has warned its agents that they have been infiltrated by the United States.An Al Qaida spokesman said the infiltration had been conducted by the United States in cooperation with unspecified Arab intelligence services.
Sounds good to me.
This was the first time Al Qaida has acknowledged that its forces have been penetrated by Western agencies. Until now, Western intelligence analysts said the United States and its allies have failed to infiltrate the middle and senior ranks of the Islamic movement.
Maybe we learned something from Johnny bin Walker and Jose Padilla--if al Qaeda will take those guys, they'll take anybody.
The story also indicates one possible reason we haven't paved over the Saudi entity just yet:
The latest appearance of spies in Al Qaida came from an unidentified Arab ally and neighbor of Iraq, the statement said. The Al Qaida infiltrators were detected several months ago and have infiltrated organization cells in Iraq.Islamic sources close to Al Qaida said the reference was to Saudi Arabia. Over the last few months, thousands of Islamic volunteers have left Saudi Arabia for Iraq to participate in the Sunni insurgency war against the United States.
The United States was said to have placed tracking devices on the infiltrators to target Al Qaida cells in Iraq. The Al Qaida statement warned against accepting Islamic volunteers without screening them to ensure that they do not contain U.S. agents. Al Qaida said all Islamic volunteers must demonstrate a background in insurgency activities.
So the Saudis have become useful, and al Qaeda is having to put its thugs through background checks. Progress! We have to take off our shoes to get on a plane, al Qaeda has to strip search its recruits and make sure they're not wired to a GPS receiver.
How does one go about checking the background of a potential terrorist, anyway? It's not like you can have prior experience in suidice bombing.
The story ends on a happy note:
The Islamic sources said Al Qaida had suspected that the United States tried to infiltrate the upper echelons of the group after the suicide strikes in New York and Washington in September 2001. The sources said a U.S. air strike against the Al Qaida leadership in the Afghan city of Kandahar in October 2001 stemmed from information by a spy within Taliban.
Speaking of spies, it seems one of the Gitmo turncoats may have been an al Qaeda plant. If so, he'll probably find himself in a cell next to Jose Padilla pretty soon.