Watch for more of these in the coming months

God, they're so predictable.

Another "Al Qaeda #2" has been captured:

Iraqi and coalition forces have arrested the second most senior figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Iraq’s national security adviser announced on Sunday, saying the group now suffered from a “serious leadership crisis.”

Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured north of Baghdad a few days ago “along with another group of his aides and followers,” Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.

He was the second most important al-Qaida in Iraq leader after Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took over the group after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad on June 7, al-Rubaie said.

“We believe that al-Qaida in Iraq suffers from a serious leadership crisis. Our troops have dealt fatal and painful blows to this organization,” the security adviser said.

Al-Saeedi was “directly responsible” for Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, the alleged mastermind of the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, al-Rubaie added without elaborating.

How many #2s are there? I guess as many as it takes to get people to vote Republican. Isn't it funny how these things ONLY happen when the Bush Administration is on the ropes?

Hmmmm...what else? Ah, yes: cue the Al Qaeda video:

An American thought to be an al-Qaida activist appeared in a videotape with the terror group’s deputy leader Saturday and called on his countrymen to convert to Islam and for U.S. soldiers to switch sides in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

The 48-minute video, posted on an Islamic militant Web site, had footage of al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and of Adam Yehiye Gadahn, a 28-year-old American who the FBI believes attended al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan and served as an al-Qaida translator.

This reminds me mostly of the Reagan years, when one Columbian after another was said by the media to be "responsible for 80% of the cocaine entering this country", while the country remained awash in cocaine during the Reaganaut Central American wars.

But still -- wouldn't it be nice if one could actually believe that progress was being made? I might be willing to give the Administration some credit if it weren't the same damn announcements being made only when they are in political trouble.

Fear fear fear war war war. That's all they've got. Hey, Americans: Are you going to dance to their fiddle this time?