Slain Writer's Book Says US-NATO War Served Al-Qaeda Strategy By Gareth Porter*

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55964

Slain Writer's Book Says US-NATO War Served Al-Qaeda Strategy
By Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Jun 7, 2011 (IPS) - Al-Qaeda strategists have been assisting the Taliban fight against U.S.-NATO forces in Afghanistan because they believe that foreign occupation has been the biggest factor in generating Muslim support for uprisings against their governments, according to the just-published book by Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistani journalist whose body was found in a canal outside Islamabad last week with evidence of having been tortured.

That Al-Qaeda view of the U.S.-NATO war in Afghanistan, which Shahzad reports in the book based on conversations with several senior Al- Qaeda commanders, represents the most authoritative picture of the organisation's thinking available to the public.

Shahzad's book "Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban" was published on May 24 – only three days before he went missing from Islamabad on his way to a television interview. His body was found May 31.