Can Someone Point This Out On A Map For Me?

Gracious hat tip to the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler:

There is an article at NYTimes.com written by Michael Slackman and Souad Mekhennet, published on November 15, 2005. It is an article about the Iraqi woman that had taken part in the deadly Amman hotel terror attacks.

About halfway down the article is this:

On Sunday, Jordanian officials announced that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, was responsible for planning the bombings of the three hotels, which included the Grand Hyatt and the Days Inn.

Just about everyone with a pulse acknowledges that Rev. al-Zarqawi is behind practically all the murdering of innocent civilians in the Middle East today. This is a guy that is well-known and well-identified.

This is a guy that should learn first-hand what it feels like to have hisr legs burned off while he's still alive. This is a guy that should learn how it feels to have parts of hisr intestines blown out of his torso while he's still alive.

But look at the key phrase in the paragraph:

...Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia...

Where is Mesopotamia?

According to Wikipedia Mesopotamia is "...the alluvial plain lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers..."

According to the CIA World Factbook Mesopotamia is at 33:00 N latitude and 44:00 E longitude.

According to the Hollidaysburg Area Junior High School Mesopotamia is "the land between the two rivers", with those two rivers being the Tigris and Euphrates.

... or in plain English, yesterday's Mesopotamia is today's Iraq.

So why all the run-around? Why didn't the authors simply say:

On Sunday, Jordanian officials announced that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, was responsible for planning the bombings of the three hotels, which included the Grand Hyatt and the Days Inn.

Ahhh, notice the difference? Now we have an assumption of an al Qaeda presence in Iraq and that it is headed by Rev. al-Zarqawi, the meanest person on the planet.

Says Emperor Darth Misha I of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler:

Mesopotamia is, of course, the same thing as Iraq, but apparently a lot of media outlets, the New York Swines isn’t alone by far, don’t seem too eager to have the words “al Qaeda” and “Iraq” too close together in their, for lack of a better word, “reporting”.

Now why on Earth could that be?

And this is an emerging pattern, Says James Taranto in the November 14 edition of his Best Of The Web:

Zarqawi is the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, or, as the Democrats call it, al Qaeda Which Has Nothing to Do With Iraq in Iraq Which Has Nothing to Do With al Qaeda. Some news organizations have taken to calling AQII "al Qaeda in Mesopotamia," apparently counting on their readers' being too ignorant to know Mesopotamia is "Iraq" in Greek.

Don't believe me? Then check out this Google search of news reports using the keywords "al+qaeda+in+mesopotamia". Notice the reports from
- New York Times
- International Herald Tribune, France
- Taipei Times, Taiwan
- Indian Express, India
- The Register-Guard, Oregon
- East Valley Tribune, AZ
- Tactical Report, Lebanon
- Focus News, Bulgaria
- Financial Times, UK
- Gainesville Sun, FL
- Arabic News

"Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia". Using a word that hasn't been used in a thousand years so as to hide the truth. And the they dare say that their "core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment"?

Well, I only believe the last word: 'entertainment'.