Al Qaeda Websites Shut Down? Not Really

On July 31, The Sunday Times of Britain ran a story headlined, "Finger points to British intelligence as al-Qaeda websites are wiped out."

"Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-Qaeda’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain, write Uzi Mahnaimi and Alex Pell."

Apparently not true.  Uzi Mahnaimi, characterized to me as "not credible" by Yigal Carmon of MEMRI.org, is a purported former Israeli "spymaster" who writes books.  Alex Pell's byline appears on entertainment and media reporting in British newspapers.

My guess is that Pell wrote the unbylined Times story, and that he and Mahnaimi are shopping a book proposal.  See my column today on www.spectator.org for the whole story.