NOPE, NOT AL QAEDA

The BushBots and radio gasbags keep claiming that Al Qaeda is responsible for the violence in Iraq. Thanx to KnotLookin, a poster on AOL, I read Frank Rich's Sunday column and found that Al Qaeda accounts for a very small percentage of the insurgents. Following one of Rich's references, I found this segment on the 11/28 Countdown with Keith Olbermann:


JIM MIKLASZEWSKI, MSNBC PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Keith, there‘s no question, al Qaeda still remains a threat in Iraq. But U.S. military officials admit, it‘s not the primary threat by a long shot.

(voice-over): U.S. military and intelligence officials claim it was al Qaeda behind the Thanksgiving Day bombings that killed more than 200 Iraqi Shiites in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Al Qaeda in Iraq is looking to dominate Baghdad.

MIKLASZEWSKI: But a week ago, the same major general, Bill Caldwell, said the U.S. military had killed or captured so many al Qaeda leaders and fighters, it was all but incapable of pulling off such a highly coordinated attack.


CALDWELL: Systemically dismantling that organization and taking it down. If there ever was a time when it‘s more disorganized, it‘s right now.

MIKLASZEWSKI: And two weeks ago, the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East told Congress sectarian violence, not al Qaeda, is the primary long-term threat in Iraq.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: And al Qaeda, in particular, in Iraq, is not popular. I don‘t believe that it can become mainstream there.

MIKLASZEWSKI: In fact, according to military intelligence, al Qaeda makes up only 2 to 3 percent of enemy forces in Iraq, or about 1,300 foreign fighters.

LT. GEN. MICHAEL MAPLES, DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY:
Attacks by terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in Iraq account for only a fraction of the insurgent violence.