Madam, - Having denounced Noam Chomsky as a purveyor of "cartoon conspiracy theories", Kevin Myers deploys his ever-sharp eye to identify the real conspiracy in today's world: the "five columns" of the Islamist insurgency (An Irishman's Diary, January 24th).
It is revealing that he identifies Al-Jazeera as one of these columns. In reality, the only independent news channel in the Middle East has often been denounced as "pro-Israeli" by Arab dictatorships. They fear and despise it for challenging the monopoly of state media, and have pressurised the Qatari government to shut it down. Al-Jazeera has done a great deal to promote the opening up of Arab societies.
Noam Chomsky and the western left apparently constitute another column of this grand conspiracy. Never mind that Chomsky condemned Al-Qaeda and their ilk from the very beginning, when they were the allies of the CIA in Afghanistan. This Jewish socialist must be an friend of Bin Laden, because he dares to question the saintly mission of the Bush administration.
Meanwhile, Bin Laden himself boasts that the bloody occupation of Iraq is helping his followers to recruit new jihadists every day. Maybe we should identify the American neo-cons (and their media apologists) as the real "fifth column" in Western society. - Yours, etc,
DANIEL FINN, Roebuck Castle, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.