October 20, 2006: Abu Isama al Iraqi, the self-proclaimed leader of the jihadis (non al Qaeda Islamic terrorists) in Iraq, wants al Qaeda to shape up. Al Iraqi has asked Osama bin Laden to repudiate the leadership of Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq, because of various "un-Islamic" things it's been doing, like targeting civilians, attacking mosques, etc. Al Iraqi has threatened to take action against Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq if Osama doesn't bring it to heel. This could be a good thing, since this means Islamic terrorist factions are threatening to fight each other over tactics. Al Qaeda is still killing lots of Iraqis, but believes that, because these civilians are Shia Arabs, it doesn't count as counter-productive. But your average Iraqi doesn't like all these suicide bomb attacks on civilian targets. Even when you target Shia, you're going to get a few Sunni (unless you are bombing a Shia mosque, but mosques, in general, are supposed to be sacrosanct.)
Meanwhile, Abu Umar al Baghdadi, the Amir (leader) and spokesman for the new "Islamic State" that's been proclaimed by some of the jihadis recently, has been a source of interesting gossip on who's threatening who inside al Qaeda. The main goal of all Islamic terrorists is supposed to be the maintenance of this "Islamic State" safe zone, in western Iraq, for Islamic terrorists. But it isn't working out that way, since most of the Sunni Arab tribes have signed a deal with the government, to help hunt down Islamic terrorists. This has driven many of the Islamic terrorist groups into Baghdad, where they are on a major killing spree. So we can expect some interesting spin out of al Baghdadi, at least for as long as he survives in the wild.
