Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Those who believe that President Barack Obama had put Al Qaeda to flight, conveniently, before and during his presidential election, had better pay attention to this Institute for the Study of War update . The ISW usually gets it right, while Foggy Bottom, nearly always tied to the apron strings of any current administration, gets it wrong. Al Qaeda is on the upswing everywhere in the Levant – even in Iraq, where the United States spent its treasure in blood, sweat and tears trying to sow democracy in the area. There, too, Al Qaeda is active, and Iraq may be up for grabs. “Escalating violence in Iraq crossed a new and very dangerous threshold this week.  Al Qaeda in Iraq launched a concentrated wave of car-bomb and other attacks specifically against civilian Shi'a targets in and around Baghdad.  Shi'a militias are mobilizing and have begun a round of sectarian killings facilitated by false checkpoints, a technique characteristic of the 2006-2007 period.  Prime...

Al-Qaida’s man in Iraq, al-Zarqawi, is now being attended by scores of virgins in heaven. He was reduced to his present estate, according to recent reports, as a result “of intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by residents in the area” and Jordanian assistance. According to an Associated Press report, A Jordanian official said that Jordan also provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking al-Zarqawi down. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have intelligence agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants. Some of the information came from Jordan's sources inside Iraq and led the U.S. military to the area of Baqouba, the official said. Baqouba has in recent weeks seen a spike in sectarian violence, including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. It was also near the site of a sectarian atrocity last week in which masked...