al jazeera is reporting that abu hamza al-muhajir, zarqawi's successor in iraq, is, in fact, sitting in taru prison in cairo. according to the report, he's been there for at least 7 years.
when the web site of the mujanideen shura council (allegedly an appendage of zarqawi's "al-qaeda in iraq" group) announced that al-muhajir would succeed zarqawi, several experts of jihadists groups mentioned that they had never heard his name before. what if the council has just been screwing around with us. just after zarqawi's death, everyone was expecting them to name someone to fill the role of big bad zarqawi 2. what if they just picked the name and picture of some random guy languishing in an egyptian jail, put him on their web site, and then sat back to watch everyone go nuts over him for a little while.
or maybe not. still, it's a funny idea. and since we're basically taking the jihadists at their word when they identify a leader, it's worth asking just how reliable a source they are.
