you might chastise her for attributing every action of those groups in his terrorist network to him, but let’s remember that Islamic Jihad is a part of Al Qaeda, and one of Atta’s big complaints about the Egyptian government was that they shut down Islamist day care facilities (NYT October 10, 2001).
Now if anyone wants to complain that she was being stupid for just saying Bin Laden, remember the current occupant of the White House has been happy to spread the idea that Iraq and Al Qaeda are closely linked. If Iraq is somehow responsible for Al Qaeda, certainly Islamic Jihad qualifies as a branch of Al Qaeda given Ayman al-Zawahiri is OBL’s second in command.
The right wing circus has made even the normally combative Tom Spence lay down on this one. Right wing lies and ignorance tried to take the day again. Murray was largely accurate if imprecise in her comments. In fact, an author on Al Qaeda, had this to say:
Michael Swetnam, co-author of a book on bin Laden and al-Qaida, said Murray’s comments were mostly on the mark. He said bin Laden since 1988 has been on a mission to build schools, roads and homes for widows of those killed in the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
In a fuller article he says she got it right. Of course, slandering someone is more fun than knowing what the hell one is talking about.