Strata Lucida

We couldn't make this up if we tried

More on the "Zarqawi memo" which Safire, in a dizzying leap of fantastic logic, claims as proof of the Saddam-al Qaeda link. Jim Henley thinks the memo is fake, and even says so twice, saying "the memo is too good to be true. The voice of an avowed enemy of the United States validates the US's every talking point." Whiskey Bar took it up on Wednesday afternoon, and again Wednesday evening, picking apart contradictions between the original NYT reporting and what Safire wrote yesterday. And Hesiod also says it's just too good to be true, and that the letter is "inspired by an ideological connection to Al Qaeda as opposed to an operational one. Thus, Zarqawi is looking to FORM that operational link."

Hey, everybody! Didn't you read Safire's column? Hear him out:

The messages' authenticity was best attested by the amazed U.S. official who told Reuters, "We couldn't make this up if we tried."

That cinches it for me.

Update 9:55am: Juan Cole provides the definitive smackdown, chock full of names and details, plus this beautiful passage:

Zarqawi's letter ... contains no reference to 'how we used to get such good support from our buddy Saddam in the old days.' The English paraphrases of it don't even mention Saddam or the old days. It is about the future.

Charge against Safire: Anachronism.

Verdict: Guilty as charged.

Posted by Chris at February 12, 2004 07:30 AM