Since when is ‘being clueless’ a ‘disinformation campaign’?

When you are the US military in Iraq:

A prominent Cairo lawyer says the Egyptian man identified by the US as the new al-Qaeda leader in Iraq has been in jail in Egypt for seven years.

Mamdouh Ismail is a veteran Egyptian lawyer who was once an Islamist activist and an associate of Osama Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, before he left Egypt.

Mr Ismail says that the apparent contradictions in the information on who succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq is possibly part of a disinformation campaign.

Following the killing of Zarqawi in Iraq last month, the US military there released the picture of an Egyptian man they said was the successor.

Maj Gen William Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Iraq, said at the time: "This is Ayyub al-Masri, probably the person who's going to be responsible for al-Qaeda in Iraq.

This looks like just another case of US intelligence not having a fucking clue what they are actually talking about, but going public non-the-less as there appears to be no way of verifying it.

See also here. When Zarqawi got dumped on by the US military, most around here had a hunch that within 24 hours or so, ‘they’ would know who the successor would be and we weren’t disappointed.

Funny just how predictable they are…

Tags: Intelligence, Clueless