Al Qaeda Cracking Under Pressure

Rick Moran posts an interesting article on American Thinker about the interplay between two parts of the Iraq insurgency. Excerpts (some from Counterterrorism Blog):

Al-Qaida's official online distribution network responsible for disseminating messages from Usama Bin Laden--known as the "Al-Fajr Media Center"--has issued a new statement strongly criticizing the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera satellite television network, which it has accused of "deceitfully manipulating" the latest audio recording from Bin Laden regarding the growing infighting within the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. According to the Al-Fajr Center, "Aljazeera editors in chief have counterfeited the facts by making the speech appear as exclusively targeting the brothers and sons inside Al-Qaeda organization. It looked as if it was an acknowledgment of their mistakes, a renunciation of their jihad and their loyalty to it." The letter went on to condemn the directors of Al-Jazeera for "shamefully choosing to back the crusaders’ side, and the defenders of hypocrites and the thugs and traitors of Iraq."

[W]e should be hearing shortly from the terrorist who heads up al-Qaeda in Iraq who is apparently miffed that the insurgents in Iraq - his former allies - have now turned against him and his group at the urging of the Americans and may soon make a statement taking them to task for it:

Kohlmann said the next development could be critical. He said that Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the head of AQI’s political wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, is expected to speak in the next few days about the rift between al-Qaida and the insurgents.

"If he continues to be nasty, to call for violence, against the insurgents, this could lead to a real fracturing between the two," said Kohlmann.

And that, of course, would be very good news for American forces in the area.

There's my two cents.