Bin Laden: Back in Business?

It's more bad news for Bush's war on terrorism:

After the 9/11 plotters hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and missed a strike on the White House or the Capitol, Bush promised to bring in Bin Laden dead or alive. But while the U.S. seems to know little about Bin Laden's whereabouts five plus years later, Al Qaeda instead may have taken a whack at Vice President Cheney in today's suicide bombing in Afghanistan. The group's Taliban ally appeared to claim credit for the explosion outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan that killed and wounded several U.S. and allied soldiers. Said Cheney: "I heard a loud boom."
The Afghanistan blast occurred a day after an attack on foreigners in Saudi Arabia killed four Frenchmen--the first such al Qaeda-style operation in the Kingdom in three years. The dead were part of a group of expat workers based in Riyadh who were camping in the desert and apparently visiting pre-Islamic Nabatean ruins in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Reports said that gunmen lined up the men and machine gunned them in front of women and children in the trekking party.
Both incidents are bound to reinforce criticism of Bush's war in Iraq. Many feel that Bush blundered by invading Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein in part because it diverted resources from the hunt for Bin Laden. There is a growing belief among terrorism experts that the Al Qaeda leadership is actually enjoying a resurgence. Many also feel that the war and resulting chaos in Iraq has fueled the spread of Islamic extremism beyond Iraq's borders. Al Qaeda's war inside Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's native country, began one month after the fall of Saddam and many young Saudis are believed to have gone to Iraq to fight and train. Though Al Qaeda's campaign inside Saudi Arabia was ruthlessly suppressed by the Saudi security forces, Sunday's attack on the French campers indicates that it remains a threat in the Kingdom.

--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo