The United States armed forces have captured the leading al Qaeda member in Iraq, one Khaled al-Mashhadani, reports spokesman Brigadier General Kevin Bergner.

He said Mashhadani had told his US interrogators that the supposed Iraqi leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq was fictitious and a front for its Egyptian chief, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

Brig Gen Bergner said the voice representing alleged Qaeda kingpin “Omar al-Baghdadi” on propaganda recordings was that of an actor and that Masri was the real leader of the network’s Iraqi affiliate.

“Al-Baghdadi, who has never been seen, is an actor. To make al-Baghdadi seem real al-Masri swore allegiance to him, knowing he was ficticious,” he said.

“Mashhadani confirmed that al-Masri and the Al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders he surrounds himself with are foreigners,” he said.

Consider this:

Terror experts said that many of the problems associated with terrorist groups in Iraq today had no ties to al-Qaeda, but after the U.S. military spokesman revealed the proverbial ’smoking gun’, those same experts are all of a sudden mute and in Washington this morning, lawmakers that support President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq are taking a fresh stance in combating the so-called liberal Democrats in Congress who want the U.S. to pullout of Iraq entirely due to the fight no longer involving the terrorist group al-Qaeda, who have argued that the presence of U.S. military troops there is only fueling sectarian violence and that the al-Maliki-led Iraqi government is not living up to the benchmarks they were given.

We’re winning. This was the wrong time for the Democrats to make a political move, and it is about time their stunts began to backfire.