[FreeReign]

From a West Point study of jihadists in Iraq

Another study counts few from Libya.

Link

Both studies contain small sample sizes, and do not conclusively represent the thousands if not tens of thousands of foreign fighters in Iraq.

[Zhang Fei]

The NBC News analysis of Web site postings found that 55 percent of foreign insurgents came from Saudi Arabia, 13 percent from Syria, 9 percent from North Africa and 3 percent from Europe.

The West Point data comes from intelligence collected by GI's in the field. The MSNBC analysis (I would call it guesswork more than analysis) is obtained by looking at websites. The West Point report does point out that Saudi jihadis outnumber Libyan jihadis 2 to 1. But Saudi Arabia has 4x Libya's population. Which means on a per capita basis, Libya has twice as many jihadis as Saudi Arabia.

* But that's like saying Texas has more Democrats than Rhode Island; it's by definition true, since Texas has more Democrats than the entire population of Rhode Island, Democrats, Republicans and independents combined. What is more informative from a political standpoint is that Texas has a less Democrats as a % of the state population.