GOOD NEWS (NO THANKS TO KAREN HUGHES)

Hughes was Fredo's choice to combat Al Qaeda's propaganda and she failed miserably. Now it seems Al Qaeda itself is having second thoughts about its violent methods. (h/t NPR) Author Lawrence Wright notes in The New Yorker that the leading Al Qaeda ideologist has renounced violence except in very limited situations. The article is 14 web pages. Here's an excerpt from the beginning.

The Rebellion Within
An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism.
by Lawrence Wright
June 2, 2008
The New Yorker

Last May, a fax arrived at the London office of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al Awsat from a shadowy figure in the radical Islamist movement who went by many names. Born Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, he was the former leader of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad, and known to those in the underground mainly as Dr. Fadl. Members of Al Jihad became part of the original core of Al Qaeda; among them was Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenant. Fadl was one of the first members of Al Qaeda’s top council. Twenty years ago, he wrote two of the most important books in modern Islamist discourse; Al Qaeda used them to indoctrinate recruits and justify killing. Now Fadl was announcing a new book, rejecting Al Qaeda’s violence. “We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that,” Fadl wrote in his fax, which was sent from Tora Prison, in Egypt.

“There is a form of obedience that is greater than the obedience accorded to any leader, namely, obedience to God and His Messenger,” Fadl wrote, claiming that hundreds of Egyptian jihadists from various factions had endorsed his position.