Recycling the AQ numbers…
Dear US administration
Wheeling out the same figure you used in OCTOBER LAST YEAR to indicate progress against al Qaeda, and then claiming you’ve taken out half the leadership, is not reassuring.
Last year General Jim Jones:
JONES: Well, I think this is one of the central issues and, you know, it could. Obviously, the good news is that Americans should feel at least good about in Afghanistan is that the al Qaeda presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country. No bases. No ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0910/04/sotu.05.html
And last week: Leon Panetta
Panetta estimated there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida militants operating inside Afghanistan, with the rest hiding along Pakistan’s mountainous western border. He said U.S. drone strikes and other spy operations have helped to ”take down” half of al-Qaida’s senior leaders.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/27/us/politics/AP-US-US-Afghanistan.html?_r=2
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I would highly recommend Bruce Hoffman’s recent piece on this subject; http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=23200
(and if you’ll pardon the self-promotion, my thoughts on the piece: http://raffaellopantucci.com/2010/06/01/bruce-hoffman-in-the-national-interest/)