Will the Real al Qaeda Please Stand Up?

From Atrios, reporting a story from the BBC.

But the bigger point is that US military has no idea if these guys were "al Qaeda," or, more specifically, "al Qaeda in Iraq," which isn't really "al Qaeda" in the sense of being "the bad guys who attacked on 9/11." They may have thought they were "bad guys," and they may in fact have been "bad guys," but most likely all they know is that they're dead Iraqis and we have a stenographic press.

I'm not the first to comment on the way the insurgents in Iraq (read "sectarian militias") have morphed into "al Qaeda," with the willing connivances of the MSM. They have as much to do with al Qaeda as most of the "terrorists" at Guananamo.

Thank you, Newt Gingrich, for introducing the Republican Party to Newspeak.