Al Qaeda 8 years since 9-11-01

Eli Lake:

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Both Gen. Burgess and Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, said al Qaeda's popularity may be waning among Muslim populations.

"Al Qaeda's own vicious ideology, founded on the murder of innocent people, has proven to be a major weakness," Mr. Panetta told the agency's work force on the eve of Sept. 11 commemorations. "But we cannot wait for popular disgust to isolate and overcome the extremists. We and our allies must continue to press the offensive, eroding their ability to plot and kill."

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden pointed to recent successes in targeting al Qaeda's leadership.

He said there have been a "dozen or so al Qaeda leaders who have died since last July [2008]" and that this "has been the most compressed or rapid-fire loss of leadership that Qaeda has had to adapt to, and I think it has had a dramatic impact on them."

"... You can replace one person at a time; when you have a series of folks who have been dying, it is harder," he told The Washington Times.

Among those killed in the past 14 months are Khalid Habib, a veteran combat leader and operations chief; Rashid Rauf, considered the mastermind of a 2006 plot to bring down trans-Atlantic jets; Abu Khabab al-Masri, an expert on explosives and chemical and biological weapons; and Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban affiliated with al Qaeda.

While Mr. Hayden would not provide details on how the men died, current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials credit a decision by President Bush in July 2008 to increase the tempo of drone and other attacks into tribal territory in Pakistan along the Afghan border.

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There is more.

The UAV strikes have been a game changer and they point out what can be accomplished when Pakistan works with us against our common enemy. They still need to do more. The Haggani Taliban have not been as hurt as some other groups and they are al Qaeda's main attack force in Afghanistan. They also need to do a better job of locating bin Laden and Zawahiri.

One of the effects of the strike has been a disbursal of al Qaeda leaders to other countries like Yemen and Somalia. We will eventually need to have UAV assets attacking them in those countries too. That would be an ideal task for a Navy UAV that is still not in service.