A DISTRACTION?

The war in Iraq isn't the distraction from the war on terror that many (on the left, mostly) predicted. Far from it, as a matter of fact. The Afghanistan-style campaign in northern Iraq to destroy Ansar al-Islam, linked to al Qaeda and to the mullahs in Iran, is turning up a treasure trove of intelligence on the terror networks' global operations.

A U.S.-led assault on a compound controlled by an extremist Islamic group turned up a list of names of suspected militants living in the United States and what may be the strongest evidence yet linking the group to Al Qaeda, coalition commanders said Monday.

The cache of documents at the Ansar al-Islam compound, including computer discs and foreign passports belonging to Arab fighters from around the Middle East, could bolster the Bush administration's claims that the two groups are connected, although there was no indication any of the evidence tied Ansar to Saddam Hussein as Washington has maintained.

Being a police state, these guys could hardly have operated anywhere in Iraq--even in the north--without Saddam's awareness. In fact, they may have been in northern Iraq precisely to provide some distance between the Saddamites and themselves.

Unfortunately, the airstrikes and ground assault didn't get all of Ansar's operatives, as many fled into Iran. But in capturing their camps, our troops have turned up some priceless information:

Among a trove of evidence found inside Ansar compounds were passports and identity papers of Ansar activists indicating that up to 150 of them were foreigners, including Yemenis, Turks, Palestinians, Pakistanis, Algerians and Iranians.

Coalition forces also found a phone book containing numbers of alleged Islamic activists based in the United States and Europe as well as the number of a Kuwaiti cleric and a letter from Yemen's minister of religion. The names and numbers were not released.

"What we've discovered in Biyare is a very sophisticated operation," said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government.

Seized computer disks contained evidence showing meetings between Ansar and Al Qaeda activists, according to Mahdi Saeed Ali, a military commander.

And Ansar, operating within Iraq, may be linked to the ricin toxin that's been turning up in Europe lately:

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday the Sargat compound was probably the site where militants made a biological toxin, traces of which were later found by police in London.

"We think that's probably where the ricin that was found in London came [from]" he said in a televised interview. "At least the operatives and maybe some of the formulas came from this site."

So will the critics who said the war in Iraq would be a distraction from the war on terrorists recant? Of course not. Being anti-Bush and therefore critical of the war means never having to say you're sorry.