The al-Qaeda Factor

George Packer notes that while the White House likes to assert that al-Qaeda is primarily responsible for the violence in Iraq, the CIA's internal government reports say otherwise. Joe Klein also tackles this issue:

Recenntly, in his desperation, starting with his speech at the Naval War College on June 28, [Bush] has been telling an outright lie, and he repeated it now, awkwardly, in Cleveland: "The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is the crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims, trying to stop the advance of a system based upon liberty."

That is not true. [...]

No, it isn't.