"Who does number 2 work for?"

Admist the rumors and fighting between Pakastani forces and Al-Qaeda-like ones, DEBKAfile, is good for another dish: "Pakistani forces resume onslaught on al Qaeda and Taliban elements holed up in Waziristan after Taliban defense minister Mullah Akhund denies presence of bin Laden"s No. 2 Zuwahiri in area. He believes both are safe in Afghanistan and moving around all the time."

DEBKA was a great source of Israeli-intell during the war in Iraq. And we all know that the Israelis a life and death stake in their info being spot on. After all, even though they are attacked all the time (last this week with 10 dead for instance), they do stop a bunch of attacks and catch a lot of bad guys. Unfortunately, their leader antagonizes more terrorists to crop up. "Mr. Sharon, tear down this wall!" When will an American president have the cajones to say that?

Meanwhile, in the Madrid Masacre case: "Madrid judge orders five suspects held for further investigation – 3 Moroccans charged with belonging to armed group responsible for at least 190 murders, 2 Indians with collaborating with armed group. Suspects can be held two years without formal charges. Train bombing deaths reach 202 and 1,600 injured.

"London counter-terror officers report: Moroccan al Qaeda bombers who carried out Madrid train attacks received logistical assistance from al Qaeda cells in Britain" Oh, and I wanted to note that the terrorists didn't win, Bush lost. This was another clear rebuke of Bush's foreign policy. Every foreign leader who has run on supporting Bush has lost, every one that has run away from him has won (Bush is 0-3). Even the new Spanish PM said he would keep troops in if the UN was in charge.

But NeoCons won't let that happen; because who needs allies right? It's not like the Pakistanis are the only ones fighting Al-Qaeda right now. We just need a "coalition of the willing." The trouble with this idea is that every time you mess up a foreign operation, like the Bush administration did, you have less countries willing to stick around and help pay the bill. There is a reason why for 50+ years the US had lots of long standing allies who were with us via treaty and thick and thin; it's because it worked. And clearly, Spain (and Japan and South Korea) shows that a Cheney-style "coalition" does not.