Since Iraq's security advisor Mowafak al—Rubaie released the contents of a captured Al Qaeda document several days ago, speculation has been rampant as to its authenticity.  Intense skepticism has been registered especially by the anti—war crowd because the document's contents reveal how badly things are going for Al Qaeda in Iraq & how effective Iraqi and coalition forces have been (see document contents here).

Now, when al—Rubaie announced the document's release, he stated it had come from the bombed Zarqawi unsafe house site.  But, when asked about this in Thursday's Baghdad press briefing, Multi—National Force Iraq spokesman MG Bill Caldwell stated: "This information (document) came off some kind of computer asset at a safe house location that had been struck at a much earlier date." Q. So this isn't from the Zarqawi safe house?  Answer:  No, this was prior to the Zarqawi safe house (bombing)."

If I had to guess, I'd say that the May 26 raid by Task Force 145 on a terrorist meeting in a southern Ramadi safe house (see my AT article) produced the document in question.

John B. Dwyer    6 17 06