President Bush decided to declassify an intelligence report which indicated Osama bin Laden urged the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to turn Al Qaida in Iraq into an international terrorist group and specifically attack the U.S. within the homeland.

Forgive me, but I’m not sure what is actually new news here.

Bush said the intelligence community also reported that bin Laden asked another one of his deputies, Hamza Rabia, to send Zarqawi a briefing on operations against the United States and that another deputy suggested bin Laden send Rabia to Iraq to plan attacks with Zarqawi. That deputy, Abu Faraj al-Libi, later speculated that if this effort proved successful “al-Qaeda might one day prepare the majority of its external operations from Iraq,” Bush said.

And we’ve known that for some time now.