Evaluating the National Intelligence Estimate: Al Qaeda's stronger position

The London Times reports from Baghdad:

Fed up with being part of a group that cuts off a person’s face with piano wire to teach others a lesson, dozens of low-level members of al-Qaeda in Iraq are daring to become informants for the US military in a hostile Baghdad neighbourhood.

As the Times continues:

“People in al-Qaeda come to us and give us information,” said Lieutenant Scott Flanigan, as he drove past a line of fruit and vegetable stalls near a shabby shopping street in Doura, where people were buying bread and other groceries.

The informants were not seeking an amnesty for crimes that they had committed. “They just do not want to be killed,” Lieutenant Flanigan said.

Makes sense to me that such an organization would be losing popular support. But wait, didn't the CIA just come out with a report saying Al Qaeda is supposed to be more popular now?

See posts below.