Uh, oops.

Progress in the War on Terror, as reported by the Times of London:

THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as "a critical victory in the war on terror". According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists' third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as "among the flotsam and jetsam" of the organisation.

Al-Libbi's arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as "a major breakthrough" in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

It turns out the the "#3 guy" is named Anas Al-liby. He is on the FBI most-wanted list, suspected of a role in the East African Embassy bombings in 1998. Whereas:

No European or American intelligence expert contacted last week had heard of al-Libbi until a Pakistani intelligence report last year claimed he had taken over as head of operations after Khalid Shaikh Mohammad's arrest. A former close associate of Bin Laden now living in London laughed: "What I remember of him is he used to make the coffee and do the photocopying." ...

One American official tried to explain the absence of al-Libbi's name on the wanted list by saying: "We did not want him to know he was wanted."

Riiight. That's why there is a most-wanted list, to keep the real bad guys from knowing we're after them. Of course, now that we've said that, they will all know. But then again, we'll know that they know. So, then we'll put them on the list, so that they'll think we aren't after them, but we really are. Clever.

OK, so, I understand we're having trouble with this whole Arabic transliteration thing, and the way so many Middle Easterners seem to have multiple names, but isn't this a little like arresting the head guy at the Budweiser factory and claiming you've got the President? (Except for the fact that they still can't even claim they've got the #1 guy, of course?)