Al-Qaida says letter from its No.2 leader to al-Zarqawi is a U.S. fake

CAIRO, Egypt- A posting on an Islamic website Thursday accused the United States of fabricating a letter in which al-Qaida's No. 2 leader asked for money and laid out the terrorist group's plans for expanding the insurgency in the Middle East. "We in al-Qaida declare that there is no truth to these claims, and they are baseless, except in the imagination of the politicians of the Black (White) House," according to the statement on a website known as a clearing house for al-Qaida material. The statement was signed Abu Maysara, who claims to be spokesman for al-Qaida in Iraq. It could not immediately be authenticated. "We call on Muslims not to pay attention to this cheap propaganda and to remember that the media will always be the infidels' sole weapon until the end of the battle," the statement said. U.S. officials said the letter dated July 9 to al-Qaida-linked Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, first disclosed by the Pentagon on Friday and released in full on Tuesday, was acquired during American operations in Iraq. In the letter, taking up 13 typed pages in its English translation, al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri recommends a four-stage expansion of the war in Iraq that would take the fighting to neighbouring Muslim countries. "It has always been my belief that the victory of Islam will never take place until a Muslim state is established . . . in the heart of the Islamic world," al-Zawahri wrote. The letter laid out his long-term plan: the expulsion of American troops from Iraq, the establishment of an Islamic authority and the expansion of the war to Iraq's secular neighbours, including Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. The final stage, al-Zawahri wrote, would be a clash with Israel, which he said was established to challenge "any new Islamic entity." The letter, translated by the U.S. government, also asked al-Zarqawi to provide financial support and urged him to avoid bombings mosques or slaughtering hostages to avoid alienating the masses.