Al-Qaeda Called To Action In Afghanistan

Agence France-Presse reports that Major General Eric Olson, second in command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, says that al-Qaeda is believed to have called its followers to action in response to the Afghan election:

"I think there now is a call out to do something to reverse the momentum that right now is going in the direction of freely elected governments," Olson said in an interview here.

According to AFP, U.S. intelligence has found evidence of Taliban anger and disarray because of the success of the elections, which drew millions of Afghans to the polls despite the threat of insurgent attacks:

Olson said "there is a lot of recrimination and finger pointing about the failure to get something going, some kind of spectacular event."

"There are some groups that splintered off from the mainstream of the Taliban. They are going to try their own way," he said.

On the other end of the spectrum we've had Taliban fighters come to us, and tell us that they are through, they want to come over and they will put down their arms and stop fighting.

Karzai's inauguration on December 7 and parliamentary elections targeted for early April offer the Taliban and al-Qaeda tempting targets.

This is further evidence of the success of our efforts and strategy to bring freedom and democracy to the greater Middle East.