VIRTUAL OSAMA

A number of perceptive folks on Capitol Hill have noticed some very odd things about OBL’s latest audio tape.  The principal eyebrow-raiser was his call to take the Jihad against the Crusader-Zionists away from Iraq and into Darfur, Sudan.

Normally it takes at least some time for the CIA to claim an OBL audio tape is authentic.  This time it was almost immediate:  "Yep, it’s him, no doubt about it."

Putting the weirdness about Darfur-focus (aren’t there a lot more "Crusader-Zionists" in Iraq than in the central Sahara Desert?) and Langley’s over-eagerness to authenticate together, and you get the latest Capitol Hill buzz:

The voice on the tape wasn’t Osama but an Arabic-speaking CIA impersonator.  Agents slipped the faked tape to al-Jazeera which cooperatively broadcast it, then the CIA authenticated its own tape.

This put Al Qaeda, Zarqawi, Iran’s mullahs, and other terrorist buddies in a bind.  They know OBL died last December but they can’t admit it.  So they can’t say the tape is a fake, as they can’t produce a live Osama to prove it. 

Osama is useful to Al Qaeda so they pretend he’s still alive.  Porter Goss has decided that such pretense – a Virtual Osama – is useful for the CIA as well.

Soon after the OBL tape was released, out comes Abu Musab al Zarqawi, leader of "Al Qaeda in Iraq," with a tape contradicting his boss, saying, no, no, no, who cares about Darfur, the Main Jihad is still in Iraq.

Then, whamo, seemingly in an instant, "genocide in Darfur" is the passion of the day.  Instant protests are organized with folks who never heard of Sudan, much less Darfur, waving all these angry signs.  Democrat Congresscritters get themselves actually arrested by the Capitol Hill police in the DC protest.

Movie star airheads like George Clooney are sudden experts and testify at an instant Congressional hearing.

How Porter suckered the Left into a passion for Darfur replacing its obsession with an American retreat from Iraq would make an interesting case study some day.  The Left doesn’t care abou Arab Moslems killing and raping Black Moslems in Sudan.  Certainly there was no mention in all the Darfur protests of an Arab-perpetrated genocide.

Somehow, Porter got friends in Hollywood to appeal to Clooney’s enormous ego, planting in the space between his ears that he go to save humanity in Darfur.  He goes with a big media splash – and with perfect timing, Langley plants the Virtual Osama tape with al Jazeera right as Clooney is flying back to the US.

As Darfur becomes a media splash, Bush announces he’s freezing Sudan’s assets in the US, and Condi Rice urges NATO troops be sent to protect Darfurians from Arab "Janjaweed" militias supported by the Moslem government in Khartoum.

The whole thing is a classic of misdirection – the essence of both magic and spycraft.  Both the Left and Al Qaeda recruits are misdirected away from Iraq.  Look – over here in Darfur, folks! 

With classic tradecraft like this, and taking out the Rogue Weasel trash like Mary McCarthy, Porter may be well on his way to rebuilding the CIA into the Company that it used to be.

[Note:  For an update on how badly things are going for Al Qaeda in Iraq, see this week’s Kelly’s Panorama:  The Fat Lady Is Warming Up For Al Qaeda in Iraq.]