(18. Juli 2007) Al-Mashadani and his masters understood that Iraqis wanted some sense that al Qaeda in Iraq had indigenous leadership, so what they did is they created a fictional head of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. They even hired an actor to provide voice-overs for al-Baghdadi‘s statements that were posted on the Internet. (…)

Q Tony, do you know what compares with last year, how many people were captured or killed or —

MR. SNOW: I will get you a comparison. No, a perfectly good question, Martha, and I‘ll give you a basis of comparison. What is clear right now — and I think you know this from your own reporting — is that there does appear to have been what Pete Pace was calling a sea change in the way that the Iraqis, themselves — particularly Sunnis — are regarding al Qaeda. They look upon it as an interloper, an invader, and one that is clearly flying not only under false colors, but knows it, even to the somewhat comical point of creating a fictional head of a fictional Islamic front within Iraq.