Today, the Washington Post has yet another piece claiming that Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda terrorist captured in March 2002, was not really all that important. I say “yet another piece” because this is just the latest article in a long string of reporting by various outlets, including the Post, making the same argument: Abu Zubaydah was not really a high-level al Qaeda member and the Bush administration hyped his importance when he was captured in March 2002.

The idea that Zubaydah was not a top al Qaeda terrorist is utter nonsense. Zubaydah’s “accomplishments” include: running the Khalden training camp (which graduated many al Qaeda terrorists, including at least three 9/11 hijackers), most likely recruiting one of the 9/11 hijackers for al Qaeda, managing the relocation of al Qaeda from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996, orchestrating al Qaeda’s millennium plots against Jordan and the U.S., working with other senior al Qaeda terrorists in post-9/11 plotting against the American Homeland, relocating al Qaeda terrorists to Iran after 9/11, fundraising for al Qaeda, managing al Qaeda sleeper cells, etc.