[WS:] This may be true of Bin Ladin & Co, but certainly not of Iran or pre-invasion Afghanistan that did involve total control the state. Furthermore, the Saudi Arabian state looks pretty authoritarian to me, although calling it fascist would probably be a hyperbole.
In any case, the claims that Hitch made may be moot, to say the least, but that does not warrant contempt of him as it would be the case of a war criminal. This was my point, and the truth function of Hitch's claims are not germane to this argument.
Wojtek