Look for the transcript of Brit Hume's interview with Mansoor Ijaz, the Pakistani-American, who "has the best sources in that part of the world of anyone we know." The triumph of the capture of Khalid Sheik Muhammed is the timing. Bin Laden and Saddam have been working together and on the day we commence attacks on Iraq, bin Laden wanted to unleash retaliation around the world. We have disrupted the poison plot in Europe, which as to be part of it, and now we have the key guy, the cornerstone of the operation in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and maybe even in the Far East. It enables us to dismantle the Middle Eastern cells before taking the next step in the war against terror. Iraq, he says, is not a side issue, but the "next most important step" in dismantling the terrorist networks around the world.

The ISI, Pakistani Intelligence, has never in the past used surveillance and tailing people in their operations. In the past, when they got a tip, they just smashed and grabbed. With the aid of the FBI and CIA, they kept track of members of the terrorist organization, who led them to the higher ups. It's nice that a little old lady reported the commings and goings at one of the al Qaeda safehouses, and will get a tidy reward. Ijaz says that this arrest makes it clear that we are systematically unraveling the central nervous system of the al Qaeda framework. This means that we know how they communicate, who their couriers are, and are closing in on other top figures. Funny how Mike Farrell and Janeane Garofolo never cite people like Ijaz, who has real contacts in the Middle East and South Asia. Their sources seem to always be in the U.N., if they have any. Usually they just change the subject to the standard talking points.

Ijaz gently rebuked Senator Biden's claim that we couldn't conduct war in Iraq and go after al Qaeda at the same time, with the comment that he "really doesn't understand what he's saying." Gently, as in ripping off adhesive tape over chest hair.

Update: Here's the transcript.