As we saw recently in Spain, Al Qaeda has a pretty sophisticated understanding of the larger political world in which they operate. There's further evidence of that today:

AP: The al-Qaida group responsible for abducting and killing an American engineer says it was aided by sympathizers in the Saudi security forces, a claim that was denied by Saudi authorities.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula made the claim in an account of the operation posted on an Islamic extremist Web site Sunday.

It said Saudi security forces provided uniforms and police cars to militants who then set up a fake checkpoint to kidnap Paul M. Johnson Jr. The militants say they posed as police to stop Johnson's car, anesthetized him and carried him to another car.

"A number of the cooperators who are sincere to their religion in the security apparatus donated those clothes and the police cars. We ask God to reward them and that they use their energy to serve Islam and the mujahedeen," the article said.

Regardless of its accuracy, this story is clearly the product of a smart, effective communications strategy. And what's our answer to this challenge? Well, suffice it to say that as long as the kind of numbskulls who keep insisting that public relations disasters like Abu Ghraib don't really matter are running the show in DC, we're not even in the game.

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