Afghanistan - al Qaeda surrenders and retreats

The killing of thousands of Taleban while suffering only a few casualties isn't the only proof we're winning in Afghanistan, al Qaeda has surrendered the battle field and is retreating.

Interesting how CBS, the ones who used forged documents in an attempt to smear Bush in the last election, choose to run this story 4 days after the midterm elections.

Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore's Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies, and the author of "Inside Al Qaeda; Global Network of Terror," said "We have seen that several hundred, perhaps five to six hundred al Qaeda members who were located on the Afghan-Pakistan border, have now left."

Gunaratna adds that these al Qaeda members have returned "to their own home countries, particularly to Iraq, and also to other Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. We have seen a shift in Al Qaeda's thinking, in strategy."

Some of those who returned to their native countries in the Arab world and were caught have told investigators that the orders only specified al Qaeda's decision for the Arabs to depart Afghanistan.

The choice of a route was left to al Qaeda's local commanders in Afghanistan, according to information given by arrested suspects to their interrogators.

And they were told to retreat quickly.

"The standard answer was: We don't know why we were told to leave. The orders were very specific — leave Afghanistan now without wasting much time." The diplomat spoke on the condition that neither his identity nor that of his country would be revealed.

The bad news is, these al Qaeda terrorists are now available to carry out attacks around the world.

Intelligence agencies have been warned that al Qaeda may be planning to attack air and rail travel in Europe in actions that may occur during the busy holiday travel season, CBS News has learned exclusively.

Don't tell the British though, they're in denial and, sadly, only another successful attack will jar them awake. Maybe.