From the “We can’t do anything right” files

The AP has a piece up entitled “Al-Qaida has rebuilt, U.S. intel warns” that leads off thusly:

WASHINGTON - A new threat assessment from U.S. counterterrorism analysts says that al-Qaida has used its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border to restore its operating capabilities to a level unseen since the months before Sept. 11, 2001.

Um, what the fuck?

Al-Qaida is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," the counterterrorism official said, paraphrasing the report's conclusions. "They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States."

So I guess the whole Global War on Terror thing is not going so well. Could someone please let the President know because this might be a problem?

UPDATE: Not to pile on here but the Post is reporting that last November, Michael Hayden, Director of the CIA, met with the Iraq Study Group and revealed that he thought Iraq was pretty much hopeless. Naturally, the President was Mr. Happy Talk.

Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table in the windowless Roosevelt Room of the White House.

For more than an hour, they listened to President Bush give what one panel member called a "Churchillian" vision of "victory" in Iraq and defend the country's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. "A constitutional order is emerging," he said

Later that morning, around the same conference table, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden painted a starkly different picture for members of the study group. Hayden said "the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible," adding that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around," according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants.

"The government is unable to govern," Hayden concluded. "We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function."

This shit just makes my head hurt. And please stop invoking Churchill when referring to Bush as it gravely insults the former and unwisely encourages the latter.