Operation "HELP OSAMA"

If there is any doubt that Bush, Cheney, and their apologist always speak the opposite of reality, let that doubt be laid to rest.

Not only have we managed to save Al Qaeda by diverting our resources to Iraq, by creating a hornet's nest, we've managed to allow them to use Iraq as the savior of their movement.

WASHINGTON — A major CIA effort launched last year to hunt down Osama bin Laden has produced no significant leads on his whereabouts, but has helped track an alarming increase in the movement of Al Qaeda operatives and money into Pakistan's tribal territories, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation.

In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials said that Al Qaeda's command base in Pakistan is increasingly being funded by cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to the anti-American insurgency as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis and other criminal activity.

The influx of money has bolstered Al Qaeda's leadership ranks at a time when the core command is regrouping and reasserting influence over its far-flung network. The trend also signals a reversal in the traditional flow of Al Qaeda funds, with the network's leadership surviving to a large extent on money coming in from its most profitable franchise, rather than distributing funds from headquarters to distant cells.

Al Qaeda's efforts were aided, intelligence officials said, by Pakistan's withdrawal in September of tens of thousands of troops from the tribal areas along the Afghanistan border where Bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, are believed to be hiding.

Little more than a year ago, Al Qaeda's core command was thought to be in a financial crunch. But U.S. officials said cash shipped from Iraq has eased those troubles.

"Iraq is a big moneymaker for them," said a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official.

Bush's moronic [or as David Broder calls it "courageous"] decision to invade a secular dictatorship in order to create a chaotic terrorist paradise in Iraq has produced the absolute WORST POSSIBLE RESULT. And despite the fact that the surge is just making it worse, they keep going on television and writing op-eds proclaiming the exact opposite of reality.

Go Jimmy Carter go!