The Pentagon said on Thursday the United States had obtained a letter written by al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, to the network's leader in Iraq saying tactics being used such as bombing mosques and killing hostages might alienate the Muslim masses. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman described the letter as written by Zawahri, the No. 2 in al Qaeda behind Osama bin Laden, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who heads al Qaeda's branch in Iraq that is engaged in a guerrilla war with U.S. troops and Iraqi forces. Whitman said the United States considered the letter authentic, but refused to say how, when or where it was obtained or by whom in order to protect "sources and methods" used. Whitman described the letter as "recent," but was not more precise."Zawahri does say that the insurgents in Iraq should avoid using tactics such as bombing of mosques and slaughtering of hostages in order not to alienate the masses. In this letter, he talks about believing that the eventual governance of Iraq must include the Muslim masses, and that they are at risk of alienating those," Whitman told reporters.
Whitman declined to release the letter, which was in Arabic. Whitman also said Zawahri makes a plea to Zarqawi for financial support. Whitman declined to say whether Zarqawi responded in any way to the letter. "Zawahri says that they've lost many of their key leaders and that they've virtually resigned themselves to defeat in Afghanistan, that their lines of communication and funding have been severely disrupted," Whitman said.
Whitman said the letter emphasizes that Muslim extremists intend to create a broad Islamic state centered on Iraq and expanding into neighboring Muslim countries, although he declined to state which countries were mentioned.
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