During the President’s speech yesterday, he made this startling boast.

I learned a lot of lessons on 9/11, and one lesson is this: In order to protect this country, we will keep steady pressure, unrelenting pressure on al Qaeda and its associates. We will deny them safe haven; we will find them and we will bring them to justice.

Steady, unrelenting pressure? If that’s the case, why did two Democratic Senators have to rush in and fix another bureaucratic screwup that happened on your watch?

By a 96-0 vote, senators approved $200 million to revive a CIA unit dedicated to hunting down bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders. News accounts in July said a CIA unit dedicated to capturing bin Laden had been disbanded.

"What does it say to violent jihadists that a terrorist mastermind remains alive and well five years after killing 3,000 Americans?" said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. "Our bill tells the terrorists that protecting our nation is the first priority _ and that we are going to deliver to bin Laden the justice that a mass murderer deserves," said Conrad, who sponsored the legislation with Sen. Bryon Dorgan, D-N.D.

Intelligence officials have said the realignment of CIA efforts on al-Qaida reflects a view that the terrorist group is not as hierarchical as it used to be, as well as a concern about al-Qaida-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.