MEMRI has posted an interesting clip from a press conference given by an Iraqi tribal chief. Here's the transcript:
Sheik Th'aban Al-Bazoun: [We say] to the terrorists, the supporters of takfir, to Al-Qaeda: If you want Iraq to be as Islamic state so badly, shouldn't you make your own countries Islamic first? What, they come from Morocco to establish an Islamic state in Iraq?! Why don't they turn Morocco into an Islamic state? They come from Saudi Arabia to turn Iraq into an Islamic state. They cross the border and blow themselves up - why don't they blow themselves up in Saudi Arabia? After all, the Americans are present in Saudi Arabia, as well as in the UAE, in Bahrain, in Egypt, and in all the Arab countries. They have bases there. Go blow yourself up there. Instead of blowing up Iraqi children in schools, universities, and markets, go blow yourself up there. Go establish an Islamic state in Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan. But one cannot establish an Islamic state by blowing up children, women, schools, or universities, or by means of terrorism and murder. We've become victims of people who come here from across the borders in order to kill Iraqi citizens, because they want to establish an Islamic state in Iraq. They want to force women to wear the veil. In their own countries women do not wear the veil. They want to force Iraqi Christian women to wear Islamic gowns. Christian women here do not wear these gowns. In their own countries, people wear pants and cowboy jeans. In your country, Saudi Arabia, people smoke marijuana on the beach, yet you come to Iraq to establish an Islamic state?!
A couple of things to note. First off, it's clear that this particular Iraqi seems to be under the impression that al Qaeda is a mostly foreign organization--that is not the impression that the American media would like to give its readers. Here's the New York Times on the composition of al Qaeda earlier this week:
Of the potential successors for General Petraeus, Generals McChrystal and Chiarelli would bring contrasting styles and backgrounds to the fight. General McChrystal has spent much of his career in the Special Operations forces. He commands those forces in Iraq, which have conducted raids against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the mainly Iraqi group that American intelligence says has foreign leadership, and against Shiite extremists, including cells believed to be backed by Iran.
I love that--they qualify the asssertion that AQI has foreign leadership by noting that "American intelligence says," but they need no sourcing to claim that the group is "mainly Iraqi." Apparently Iraqis have a more nuanced view of the group. Second, who knew that Saudi Arabia was like the Jamaica of the Middle East?