They seek him here.
They seek him there.
The Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in Heaven?
Is he in Hell?
Thet demmed elusive Pimpernel!

Sir Percy (Leslie Howard in the 1935 movie classic) recited that bit of doggerel to throw the French envoy, M. Chauvelin (Raymond Massey) off the track of his quarry. Well the Bush administration has not one but two "demmed elusive" quarry after which the Pentagon's Chauvelins are on the hunt from the mountain passes of Pakistan to the twisting alleys of Tikrit. Osama and Saddam seem every bit as elusive as Baroness Orczy's protagonist and their organizations as impenetrable as was the Pimpernel's League. Their taunting messages are not the ponderous poesy of the effete Sir Percy Blakeney but strident threats, warnings and calls to resist. America 's 2003 Chauvelin, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, admits that despite the Defense Department's deployment of overwhelming force we don't know whether we are winning or losing the President's wars on terror. The candor is refreshing if the message is not.

Charged by Congress with establishing the facts and recommending improvements in the intelligence war on terrorism the bi-partisan commission led by Republican Gov. Thomas Kean of New Jersey has run out of bi-partisan patience. Frustrated with the Bush Whitehouse stonewall against revealing documents that might answer the politically embarrassing question, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" the commission is threatening to issue subpoenas precipitating a Constitutional crisis between the Legislative and Executive branches. Members of the commission from both parties are accusing the Administration of trying to run out the clock on the Commission in order to avoid opening that particular book in time for the 2004 elections.

In the 2002 election terrorism was a potent political weapon wielded by the Bush machine to round up and corral votes. Each body bag and folded flag coming home from the Persian Gulf is a reminder that the far from vanquishing the Reign of Terror the Bush Administration is being overtaken by it, step by step and day by day. Its efforts to internationalize the cost of its preemptive war have fallen far short of the $85 Billion estimates to reconstruct Iraq . The casualty count in Iraq hovers just short of 400 dead. It is a record that the President and his handlers want to avoid being made clear as the time to November 2004 grows short.