Back to the excellent WP story on the hunt for Osama bin Laden. While the story goes on at length about how Bush pulled operatives out of the region for use in the invasion of Iraq and about how the trail is now "stone cold," it also contains this pertinent piece of reporting:

But in the last three months, following a request from President Bush to "flood the zone," the CIA has sharply increased the number of intelligence officers and assets devoted to the pursuit of bin Laden. The intelligence officers will team with the military's secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and with more resources from the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies.

The problem, former and current counterterrorism officials say, is that no one is certain where the "zone" is.

Playing politics with terrorism? See, just as I'm trying to break the stranglehold cynicism has on me, something like this comes along. I'm not sure there is such a thing as too cynical with these guys.