TWO OUT OF THREE AIN'T BAD (via Kevin Whited):

MAKING SPANISH FLY (ANDY SOLTIS, July 1, 2004, NY Post)

Al Qaeda brazenly — and accurately — predicted it could drive Spain out of Iraq by bomb attacks, according to a secret terrorist handbook.

The handbook also called for daily attacks on American forces but emphasized that U.S. allies would be easier to expel from Iraq, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

"It will not take long for pawns to fall, but the headpiece (U.S.) still has to be knocked down," the booklet said

The handbook was apparently prepared for the mujahedeen as a terror master plan for driving coalition forces from Iraq.

"We consider that the Spanish government cannot suffer more than two or three strikes before pulling out under pressure from its own people," the handbook, obtained in Beirut, said. [...]

The 54-page booklet was written in Arabic and has been authenticated by Western analysts as the work of Osama bin Laden's network, AFP said.

It called for focusing attacks on U.S. forces in Sunni Muslim regions of Iraq in view of the failure of "the explosion of the situation in the Shiite southern regions and the Kurdish north."

The handbook called for attacks on oil export operations since "oil exports are the main American hope to gain the financial resources necessary for the occupation."

Well, they were right that the Spaniards would turn tail and right that the Shi'a and Kurds wanted no part of an uprising. They were just wrong to think we cared about the oil--they must read the American press.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2004 1:05 PM