Al Qaeda says it fled Mosul

Washington Post:

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In a phone interview, Abu Obaida al-Janabi, an al-Qaeda spokesman in Anbar province, said the group's top leaders, including Abu Ayu al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, are no longer in Mosul. He said they are in "quiet areas, not hot zones."

Janabi said that most fighters were warned in advance of the operation because the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government had trumpeted its plans for the offensive for weeks. The fighters, Janabi added, had moved their heavy weapons, along with "our explosives experts" and "engineers of our missile attacks," to other areas, while a small group of volunteers stayed behind to fight "a war of exhaustion" against Iraqi and U.S. forces.

He said that those detained by Iraqi forces were not al-Qaeda fighters but merely men "with long beards and who attend mosques," who were known to be anti-American. "So far only eight of our men have been captured," Janabi said.

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Even if true the dislocation of al Qaeda leadership and its infrastructure disrupts the terrorist ability to plan and organize strikes. Also getting them on the move makes it more likely that they will be stopped at a check point and captured. By keeping them on the move, it is difficult for them to execute a movement to contact with a bomb. In any delaying operation like that described al Qaeda is using up what is left of its resources. It will soon be down to a few guys doing information operations by telephones at the current rate.

Pelosi has to be stunned by even this call since she claims al Qaeda is not in Iraq and here they are calling while she is in the country..