BRIAN SCRIVANI thinks I’m overstating the importance of the Abu Abbas arrest (here’s the post he refers to), noting that:

While this is a great find and I hope that Abbas is rightfully brought to justice, we all know that Abbas is NOT a member of Al Queda- the terrorist connection that the Bush administration was trying to make.

Actually, I think that the Bush Administration was careful to note Saddam’s ties to a wide variety of terrorist groups, not simply Al Qaeda — and, in fact, has been pretty careful not to claim a direct connection between Saddam and the 9/11 attacks. The claim was that Saddam was aiding and abetting a wide variety of terror groups, as a way of waging proxy war against America. That seems to be pretty well established now. And my post never suggested that Abbas was a member of Al Qaeda.

Scrivani also thinks that I’m wrong to suggest that Howell Raines lacks influence — because Martha Burk, despite his zone-flooding support, couldn’t muster a single busload of protesters – but by way of refutation he links to an article saying that the Times is making money. That seems like apples-and-oranges to me. He’s right, of course, that the Times remains an important paper, which is why lots of bloggers link to it. But Raines pretty obviously wants it to be an engine for mobilizing social change. And he made the Augusta National issue a top priority, and the results were dismal. That’s a different bottom line, it seems to me, and one that’s not going as well for the Times.

Note: This post earlier said “Scott Wrightson thinks” at the top — but Wunderkinder is a group blog and Wrightson, though he sent me the email about the link, isn’t the author of the post in question. I didn’t notice, and assumed it was him. My bad.

UPDATE: Interestingly, this story notes that at the time of the Achille Lauro hijacking, Abbas held an Iraqi diplomatic passport.

This is worth mentioning, since I got an email from one guy who said that just because we found a terrorist in Iraq doesn’t prove any Iraqi connection. There was more than that, of course, and this is just the icing on the cake.

(Link via Best of the Web.) Now if it’s a Syrian connection to Al Qaeda that you’re looking for, well, read this story.