[Reader Mail]   . . . Published 3/22/2007 12:01:34 AM   . . .

 

 

AMERICAN CASSANDRA
Re: Laurie Mylroie's What Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Saying?:

Former Clinton campaign Iraq adviser Laurie Mylroie was America's "Cassandra" of the 1990s. She correctly discovered terrorist Ramzi Yousef's plant in Kuwaiti government files by Iraqi Intelligence during the 1990 occupation. She traced fellow terrorist Abdul Yasin back to Iraq after the 1993 WTC bombing, and U.S. troops found his payment records in Tikrit after the invasion a decade later. She has repeatedly noted how the terror attacks in the early 1990s were never tied to al Qaeda. Ms. Mylroie, in her post 9/11 book Bush vs. the Beltway, quoted U.S. scientists who found the weaponized anthrax mailed to Congress far more sophisticated than any ever seen, beyond the scope of individuals. She predicted the attempts by the CIA to discredit the war on terror in Iraq. Many other predictions she has made have come to pass, and yet she is cursed to be disbelieved.
-- Tim O'Neill
Pompano Beach, Florida

 

 

[Reader Mail]    . . .    Published 3/20/2007 12:01:03 AM

 

WAR OF THE WORDS
Re: Laurie Mylroie's What Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Saying?:

Ms. Mylroie is persuasive. Readers familiar with her books and able to appreciate the breadth and profundity of her knowledge of the Islamic world know well the meticulous, detailed evidence supporting her view of the nature of our enemy. Odd, isn't it, that she's got to adduce such a torrent of argument to persuade us of a simpler, more parsimonious account than the one we've bought into willy-nilly.

That would be the Vast Islamic Wing Conspiracy theory, the one requiring us to believe in all sorts of entities and, well, djinns that have never before existed. The conception of the enemy we cling to, refusing to revoke our suspension of disbelief.

The conventional view of Al Qaeda is endothermic. Very much so. We're burning a lot of fuel propping that view up with all sorts of Rube Goldberg conceptual devices. I'm surprised the Greens haven't condemned it as a contributor to climate change. Why don't we all just relax, chill, and keep it simple? Laurie Mylroie is asking us to remember that there's nothing new under the sun. She's got parsimony on her side.
-- Paul Kotik
Plantation, Florida