More evidence that Al Qaeda is losing its base in Iraq

Time Magazine reports:

Al-Qaeda has lost its most powerful friend in Iraq: Harith al-Dari, the country's most influential Sunni cleric and a prominent anti-American figure, has rejected al-Qaeda's vision of an Islamic state, telling TIME that Iraqis "will not accept such a system." In a sharp departure from his long-standing view of the terror group, al-Dari now says al-Qaeda has "gone too far." He also repudiates recent statements on Iraq by Osama bin Laden's deputy, saying: "Ayman al-Zawahiri doesn't represent Iraqis."

Of course this doesn't mean that he's suddenly fallen in love with the "U.S. occupation" as Time characterizes it - or the Shiite-led Iraqi government.

Now who exactly is this guy? U.S. military commanders told Time al-Dari "is the spiritual head of the insurgency, and [they] accuse his son Muthanna of personally commanding a deadly terror group known as the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution (named after an anti-British uprising led by Harith al-Dari's grandfather)."

He's also the guy, Time goes on to report, that "has given religious sanction to some of the insurgency's more controversial tactics, such as kidnapping and killing foreigners, citing precedents from Islamic history."

So why the sudden change of heart? He told Time that the suicide bombings and attacks on civilians finally got to him.

But, as Time goes on to report, there may be a more personal motive here: Al Qaeda just happened to have murdered his nephew, a top commander of the Brigades, in March.

Hey, I'm just happy he finally figured out how despicable these guys are.