Are you suggesting that Bin Laden might have told the clerics to like the US, in order to convince them to join his cause or that he asked them to join his course in order to make them like the US?

Other reasons he might not use tricks on Islam clerics in Iraq are: because he sees them as (potential) allies, because they are fellow Arabs and/or because they are not any voter that will fall for it, but the more educated and intellectual members of their society. Also he does not want to piss them off.

PS: The trick Bin Laden used was not exactly reversed psychology. He was speculating on some people in the US thinking along the lines of: Bin Laden is my enemy, Bin Laden sees Bush more as an enemy than Kerry, therefore Bush is more my friend then Kerry.

PPS: It's not sure the al-Zarqawi request was Bin Laden's idea in the first place.

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