Let it be true. Let it be true. Especially let the part about the pain and infection be as true as true can be.
CBS News has obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from sources in Pakistan, which urgently requests a doctor to treat [al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman] al-Zawahiri. He’s believed to be somewhere in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas of Pakistan.
The letter refers to Sheikh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri by name – and says that he is in “severe pain” and his “injuries are infected.”
It is reportedly written by local Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, whose signature and seal are visible on the letter.
The Taliban logo and the Mehsud’s seal have been confirmed by experts as legitimate.
As Allah cautions, this is still an unconfirmed report, but since Stratfor got the same rumor, this puts it in unusual territory. He also pulls up an article from May that says, at that time, we were getting some very good intelligence from Islamists we were nabbing in Afghanistan. CBS has yet to confirm Mehsud’s signature itself, but I’m not going to worry too much about that. CBS hasn’t had very much luck with handwriting experts. The real experts will authenticate it in due time, and then we’ll know.
Until then, we can hope that he’s in some God-forsaken cave somewhere tossing and turning in the throas of an agonied fever-dream where he’s haunted by the thousands of innocents he’s killed. And I personally hope that somewhere in his tortured illness, he finds repentance. Because the only thing sweeter than an Islamist gone to the afterlife is one who survives and finds the light of good.
Tags: Afghanistan, Fighting the Islamists, Pakistan, Taliban
