Accidents will happen

No need to noise this about

THE NEWSPAPER the other day, specifically Saturday, read like a Robert Ludlum novel. Complete with flashbacks. But this narrative would have been better if it had been stored away in a library somewhere for nobody to read for 20 years. Maybe a library in, say, Langley, Virginia. Or in some bland-looking office building near Tel Aviv.

Word has it that two people were killed in northern Tehran back in August. They were in a car in a residential neighborhood when, witnesses said, men on motorcycles rode by and opened fire.

The Iranian news agency—so take this for what it’s worth—initially said one of the dead was an academic type from Lebanon. His name was “Habib Dawood,” and he was almost 60, and was in Iran doing … academic stuff, obviously.

Except nobody in academic circles in Lebanon knew anybody by the name, and no names were even close. Then the Iranian news agency decided to drop all references to identification. All went quiet. (And should have stayed that way.)

Then bloggers from the Middle East and writers for the western media began to report, in the last few weeks, that the real victims were Abu Muhammad al-Masri, the current second-in-command of al-Qaida—and one of its founding fathers—along with his daughter. According to the (sigh) papers:

“The attack was carried out by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States, according to four of the officials [involved]. It is unclear what role if any was played by the United States, which had been tracking the movements of al-Masri and other al-Qaida operatives in Iran for years.”

As the kids say: too much information. It would have been better if everything stayed unclear.

The surest way to know that the people involved were indeed al-Qaida:

Iran’s foreign ministry people have called the reports lies by the infidels in Washington and Tel Aviv, who are trying to “portray Iran as associated with these terrorist groups.” Another way to know the story is true: The Israelis aren’t saying anything.

We’re not blaming the western press for being the western press. Birds gotta fly, a free press has to report what it finds. We just wish the government officials involved would go about their business without issuing so many press releases. Even if it’s good news and they deserve a ton of praise.

AND THEY do. Deserve praise, that is. For this is good news for our spooks, and free people everywhere. Abu Muhammad al-Masri, aka Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, was one of al-Qaida’s best terrorists. That is, worst terrorists. According to CNN, “he was widely thought to have been the brains behind the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998.”

It just so happens, when he left this world, it was on Aug. 7 this year. Those running the show in the West are experienced planners, too.

One expert on al-Qaida told CNN: “Throughout its existence, whenever al-Qaida has evolved, Abu Muhammad al-Masri has been at the forefront of the change. With [current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri] reported to have a potentially serious heart complaint, the group may be on the verge of only the second transfer in its history.”

And now, “Al-Qaida has lost one of their founding fathers and their most experienced and capable operational planner.”

Down the hatch. But may we suggest a better approach for those working these cases, and how they leak such news to the press:

Shhhhh. Follow the Israeli lead. They know how to do it. And know when not to say too much.