The Anchoress

While the rest of the world has its eye on the bouncing Clinton and the tumbling press, the military has released some whimpering from Al Qaeda…you remember AlQaeda, right? The enemy?

The letter, found in the headquarters of Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, after he was killed on June 7, was sent to Zarqawi by a senior Al Qaeda leader who signs his name simply “Atiyah.” He complains that Al Qaeda is weak both in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and in Iraq.

That assessment from Al Qaeda is in stark contrast to the key findings of a declassified national intelligence assessment released to the public by President Bush yesterday. While the National Intelligence Estimate says America has disrupted Al Qaeda’s global leadership, it cautions, “Although we cannot measure the extent of the spread with precision, a large body of all-source reporting indicates that activists identifying themselves as jihadists, although a small percentage of Muslims, are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion.”

The blogosphere is abuzz with the release of the NIE report. Pajamas Media has a continuous roundup of stories and blogposts and AJ Strata has a long analysis of the thing, un-cherry-picked and in context.

I wrote only yesterday about the limits of the alternative media. Bloggers work very hard at presenting factual data but they are no match for an entrenched media that - should they wish to - can make up a story out of whole cloth, kite it up and fly it, with satisfactory results. And no matter how much evidence the bloggers provide to rebut them, no matter the press later “corrects” the story, it will not change the initial perceptions created by those first blaring headlines.

The press knows this, of course. It is why they’ll screw around with headlines, creating utterly false impressions: they know that large numbers of people read a headline and feel “informed.” It is why they’ll put an unsubstantiated leak or rumor on page 1, above the fold, and the eventual correction on page 38, below the kitty litter ads.

Jules Crittenden has the best analysis I’ve read.

Many more are writing better on this than I can, today, and I’m frankly swamped with other work. Captain Ed mentions that the bottom line of the report is pulling out of Iraq will make things worse by embolding the jihadis, but some folks are completely off the rails, at this point. Do check out Dr. Sanity and Gagdad Bob for some insight into the psychology behind all of this nonsense with the press, and read Wretchard’s brilliant and rather depressing piece.

Also check out Allahpundit, Musing Minds and Wizbang.

Oh, and Gateway has interesting Osama/Jihadi info.

If you have not seen this video of Hamid Karzai responding to the AP’s Jennifer Loven, (who is married, btw, to former Clinton advisor Roger Ballentine) do watch it. He speaks with force, clarity, seriousness and a little incredulity that he has to explain to this woman a story she should know very well. It comes after Bush announcing he’ll release the NIE report.