Well that withdrawal from Iraq worked out well. Now Al Qaeda is on the path to defeat and can never threaten us again. Obama said so.

But in the real world, Iraqi authorities busted an Al Qaeda cell plotting to carry out a chemical weapons attack using drones. This is really bad news as it combines WMDs and technological sophistication.

Troublingly, Turkey busted an Al-Nusra Front cell (Al Qaeda in Syria) that also had stockpiles of chemical weapons.

Turkish authorities are denying the nerve gas part of the story, which they have every reason to do as the Islamist regime is deep in bed with Syrian Sunni terrorists.

The Iraqi claim alone might have been written off as propaganda from a Shiite regime, but the addition of the Turkish story tells us we’re dealing with a much bigger problem.

It would appear that Al Qaeda elements in three countries have gotten their hands on chemical weapons out of Syria. The weapons are probably in the pipeline now.

Iraq credited foreign intelligence agencies with alerting them to the problem. That probably means the United States. It’s about the only country that could coordinate busts with Iraq and Turkey. Iraq is obviously jumping on the propaganda opportunities. Turkey, just as obviously, is lying about it. But it’s hard to believe that busting two cells takes all the WMDs out of Al Qaeda’s hands.

We may be headed for a much bigger problem. Yet the eagerness of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria to focus on using chemical weapons to kill Shiites may buy us some time.