WHO wasn't in Iraq, again?

An editorial in Investor's Business Daily on the purported death of the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq (a term which, according to Democrats, belongs up there with "military intelligence," "government organization," and "Microsoft Works") brings up a pretty interesting point:

Of possibly greater importance, however, is an insight that slipped out in the Guardian, a left-wing British newspaper, in its background reporting on al-Masri's death.

"He probably entered Iraq in 2002," the Guardian said, "before (former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu-musab) al-Zarqawi, and may have helped establish the first al-Qaida cell in the Baghdad area."

So let's get this straight. Al-Masri was in Iraq before the war began. He had set up an al-Qaida cell in a nation controlled by a totalitarian, Stalinist ruler, Saddam Hussein, whose secret police were known for their ruthless grip on the population.

One of the chief claims made by those who now say they were "duped" on the Iraq war — that is, congressional Democrats — is that there was no al-Qaida presence in Iraq to go after. The real war was in Afghanistan against the Taliban, they say.

The Guardian report, if true, puts the lie to that notion.

This is mostly significant for the source. A source like the Guardian admitting to a right-wing talking point may not be quite at the same level as a right-wing source like World Net Daily admitting to something that might cast the Democratic Party in a favorable light (mainly because the right wing would be a lot more likely to believe a Guardian story than the left wing would be to believe anything from WND) but it's still something to hammer.

--Shack