I hate to use the word “war” for this, since I believe a more appropriate rendering of english would be the beautiful American euphemism – “police action”. It symbolizes the very fact that no declaration of war was made, and that such actions can take place anywhere. However, it is accurate in the sense that people, soldiers and civilians alike, are dying and have died on both sides.

And you know, that’s all we seem to hear about isn’t it? The car bombings, the suicide bombings, the other euphemism for the word bomb - – Improvised Explosive Device (IED), Iraqi recruits being killed left right and center, nothing but horrors. And of course, we ALWAYS hear about how everyone wants us out of there, we hear nothing about the schools we’ve built, the infrastructure we’ve repaired and rebuilt, the security of some areas, and so on.

So I enjoy with great enthusiasm hearing about how al-Qaeda’s “007″ has been caught by the Brits, a spy in their midst. Hurrah! This was no Gestapo agent slipped in via submarine, or parachuted in by a lone Heinkel, apparently this fellow was homegrown in the cricket fields and pavillions of Old Blighty. It makes me sick to think that someone who calls himself a citizen of Great Britain could do this (although I’m not sure he is).

This man, a West Londoner (which is why I presumed him to be a UK citizen) called himself Irhabi 007, and was a competent hacker. Not only that but he ran many websites dealing with how to hack computers, and the distribution of propaganda for al-Zarqawi. He quickly became a conduit for their vitriolic and disgusting material, how-to’s, instruction manuals, videos, films and so on.

Let’s not celebrate too quickly though, he had many followers and took steps to make sure that his work would continue in his absence. As Kern and Katz write, it WILL be a long time before Irhabi gets online again (thank God), but his effect has spread to others who, while they may not be as good as Irhabi, make up for his loss in numbers.

This all comes via the Stygius blog, who quotes a Washington Post op-ed piece by Rita Katz and Michael Kern.