The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, said Mr Bucherer, was a specific objective of the al-Qaeda leadership, whose purist Wahabi beliefs preach a worldwide Islamic government and the destruction of national symbols.
Then came an anonymous campaign in which e-mails were sent out claiming Obama "is a Muslim, " attended a "Wahabi" school in Indonesia, took his Senate oath on the Koran, and refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
And if they continue to prove their anti-Shia credentials day after day, they will not have lost their utility for the Sunni-Wahabi sheikhdoms of the Middle East as well, from where they receive the bulk of their funding.