Is it stupidity or denial?

MEMRI has another winner:

In a June 15, 2005 editorial titled 'All the Evidence Proves that Al-Zarqawi is an American Agent,' a leading Egyptian government daily Al-Akhbar's states that Al-Zarqawi is working for the U.S. and is massacring Iraqis in an effort to extend the occupation in Iraq. [1] The following are excerpts from the article:

'All the evidence proves that Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi is working for America, because his victims are Iraqis and not [members of] the coalition forces under the command of the American occupation forces in Iraq. Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi's official title is 'leader of Al-Qa'ida's faction in Iraq.' Osama bin Laden is the commander of the Al-Qa'ida organization, and this proves that [Al-Zarqawi's commander,] bin Laden, has [also] been an American agent ever since he operated against the USSR forces in Afghanistan in favor of the Americans!'

So the question is, are Arabs that publish and presumably believe such idiocy struly imbecilic, or is this just an extreme manifestation of the absurd Arab pride that cannot admit that any Arabs can ever do anything wrong?