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Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo / Department of Defense via EPA
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (right) exchanges greetings with Saudi Defense Minister Crown Prince Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud.
Nearly one year ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta predicted the strategic defeat of al-Qaida was within reach if the United States could kill or capture up to 20 leaders of the core group and its affiliates.
In an interview with Reuters, Panetta disclosed that only a "small handful" of the individuals on that original list remained on the battlefield and that Saudi Arabia -- the birthplace of late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden -- was reporting a drop-off in recruitment.
"We've not only impacted on their leadership, we've impacted on their capability to provide any kind of command and control in terms of operations," Panetta said Thursday.
The White House has confirmed the death of al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi in a weekend drone strike in Pakistan. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The U.S. defense chief visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and, after paying U.S. condolences over the death of the late crown prince, spoke about al-Qaida with one of his sons, Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who has run the kingdom's operations against the terror network as a deputy interior minister.
"I asked him the question, ‘As a result of the bin Laden raid, as a result of what we've done to their leadership, where are we with al-Qaida?’" Panetta recounted, adding that al-Qaida and bin Laden "came out of Saudi Arabia."
"Bin Nayef said, ‘For the first time, what I'm seeing is that young people are no longer attracted to al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia,'" he said.
Panetta did not single out which leaders from his target list last year remained, but current al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri is one he named last year. He is still believed to be living in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
SITE via AP
Al-Qaida's leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a still image from a web posting by al-Qaida's media arm, as-Sahab, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012.
Asked how many targets remained, Panetta said, "It's a small handful and it's growing smaller all the time."
Panetta to Pakistan: 'Time to move on'
On other topics, Panetta in the interview:
- Defended the U.S. decision not to arm opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but said he was concerned that shoulder-fired missiles stolen from Libya last year could make their way to Syria. He said he had seen no direct intelligence yet suggesting they had.
- All but ruled out an apology over an air strike last year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as Islamabad has demanded, saying it was "time to move on" in the troubled U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
- Said Iraq had given assurances to the United States that it would not release a suspected Hezbollah operative accused of killing American troops, whom the United States turned over to Iraqi custody last December just before the last U.S. troops exited the country.
Drones, computers new weapons of US shadow wars
After addressing questions about the future of al-Qaida's top leadership, Panetta shifted his focus to the group's ability to survive as a movement at all.
"We'll keep the pressure on at the top and we'll keep going after their leadership," Panetta said.
"But the real issue that will determine the end of al-Qaida is when they find it difficult to recruit any new people,” he added.
The killing of bin Laden in a covert U.S. raid in Pakistan last year has been followed by a series of unmanned aerial attacks that have crushed al-Qaida's network along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Taliban kill 9 hotel guests, take 50 hostage in Kabul attack
The latest high-profile al-Qaida leader killed in the U.S. campaign was Abu Yahya al-Libi, the group's second-in-command, who broke out of a high-security U.S. prison in neighboring Afghanistan in 2005 and was a key strategist.
Beyond the Afghan-Pakistan region, another key figure killed last year was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam who became a senior leader of al-Qaida's Yemen-based affiliate.
While successful tactically, the drone strikes have further poisoned U.S.-Pakistan relations and, critics say, raise questions about international law and could boost militant recruiting.
Only about eight hard-core al-Qaida leaders are still believed to be based in the lawless borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, compared with dozens a few years ago.
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We cannot let our guard down. There are still many enemies of the U.S. throughout the world, i.e. hamas, hezelbolah, chavis, aberdejan, (how ever you spell his name and the kook from North Korea, the taliban and so on. They all want the destruction of the U.S. Then we have our own home grown terrorist on both side of the political parties. It is not done. George Bush initiated all of the steps to get these people. It was his inititive, not obamas. But if you listen to the left...his words, It is his White House, I sign the order and so on.
Bush stopped looking for Osama and dismantled the teams working on finding him. This was common knowledge and was verified repeatedly. Just because you weren't paying attention doesn't mean he didn't stop looking.
Trust me, if the operation to get OBL had failed you guys would have piled on with wild abandon. It would have been ALL his fault. As it was, Fux Not News waited to even mention it till they could figure out a way to spin it.
I don't disagree with you concerning all of the different groups trying to do damage to us. We must remain ever vigilant. To try to make out like Bush was a hero in all of this is pure fantasy. He was a bit player at best. If he had not trumped up WMDs to get us into Iraq and had kept focus on Afghanistan successfully capturing or killing OBL I would have been the first to applaud him. As it was he started something in motion that has been disastrous for this country. That's unforgivable.
Bush did not stop looking for Osama. Let's get it straight...the entire world believed there were Weapons of Mass Destruction, but this was not the only reason we went into Iraq. U.N. Resolution 79 gave us permission to do so. Iraq was a strain on the world economy. The idiot would not allow us to inspect his nuclear, biological and chemical facilities which the U.N. demanded and we could not definitely prove it one way or the other. Hussein himself bragged that there were weapons of mass destruction. We still not know if he transferred them to Syria. Of course, this is a country we can trust. Just look at it now. Bush did not singularly make this decision but most of the western nations and many other nations wanted this. Let us not forget, while America was enforcing the food for oil program, the U.S. knew all along France and Russia and many others were selling arms to him for oil. This is what was really going on. Iraq invaded Kuwait and "we" went to their defense. Yes, Oil was probably also behind it....but you do know that you benifit from this with lower gas prices. Check out what Germany and all of the other nations pay for gas...I know...I paid $4 to $5 a gallon for gas in 1979-1980.
It is NOT Bush's fault>
The day the democrats took over was not January 22, 2009, it was actually January 3, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.
The Democrat Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.
For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault," think about this:
January 3, 2007, was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress. At the time:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB GROWTH.
Remember the day...January 3, 2007, was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
Unemployment....to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!
Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie - starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy.
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress
So when someone tries to blame Bush...REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007....THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"
Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democrat Party.
Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.
In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.
For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budgets. And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009.
If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.
If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.
In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for, and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.
Look at all the experts Sometimes I think that all these people with the posts work for Obama.. This is just another political Line in a election year..
This is GOOD NEWS,...now Barak baby doesn't have to give them so much moneCan you believe he tried to sneak $4billion to the Muslem Brotherhood, the terrorist organization that overthrew Egypt and Lybia? What a guy and we call him Mr. President,.....our Judeao-Christian nation. Just love, love, love. What idiots !
Dennis Price: I couldn't have agreed anymore with your comments; well said. Sometimes I'm saddened by the comments of the arm chair warriors on these blog -
@CommonSense,
Thank you. Then we have guys like Freddy above you that can only spew lies because he has nothing to add to the conversation. The only thing that could be worse is if the poor deluded fool actually believes what he posted. Now THAT would be a travesty.
"Only a Handful of "KNOWN" Al Queda Leaders Left" should be the headline. They have no new intelligence cause they're killing everyone. They're idiots.
Lies, lies and more lies from this administration.
Very true MR ! Between his new Kinder, gentler style of interriogation- " Was your steak cooked to your specifications sir ?, Were your pants creased in the proper manner last time sir ? " To killing anybody with any indepth knowledge, will recieve very, very little information about what they are up to !
BS on this story, for every one killed there are several ready to take his place. They dont like America & never will
Appearently Chuck, this administration believes that the terrorists are incumbered by the same limitation they have, the inability to adapt and respond to changing circumstances with appropiate actions!
Leon, there's always been a small group of top al-Qaida leaders. They get replaced with that large group of followers they have.
Mr. Panetta takes mores time on (expensive) PR trips looking for new enemies than he does getting down to business and getting these last 20 guys and being done with it. Of course, his general buddies wouldn't have much to do then (or be needed), would they? He is clearly the problem, not the solution.
NIce Job President Obama! I love his strategy. If you house Terrorists we will kill them, even on your land. Bush's strategy: give Pakistan $8B and have no accountability to stop terrorism. Oh yeah, millions of those dollars wound up in the hands of terrorists.
I wish Obama would stop pussyfooting around and if he really wanted to cut off the snakes head wouldn't it be far more effective to take out the kaaba in Mecca and obliterate the Muslims center of worship which is the black stone... Muslims believe it can forgive their sins which once was white but now is black because of all their sins upon it...A rock that can forgive sins...yea right...
Why is it that when the terrorist kill Afghan civilians intentionally the Afghans say, "Oh this is not right." But when we unintentionally kill the wives and children of terrorists, who are intentionally held up as human shields, we are the worst most heinous murderers in history?
Why even try to reason with such people.
Other countries despise the United States because of all the illegal wars the CIA creates, or have ANY of you realised the TRUTH yet..?
It doesn't matter who sits in the Oval Office, democrat or republican...BOTH parties are corrupt and owned by Wall Street, who in turn is owned by the zionists...
If we're not at war with Pakistan, how is it we can bomb them with drones..?
WE KILL INNOCENTS ALL OVER THE WORLD IN THE NAME OF "TERROR"...IT'S ALL BULL@!$%#, PEOPLE..! WAKE UP!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AidBugvVqpw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_p92dECEpQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxbfUHAJ9E0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u-u90vaV00&feature=relmfu
DO SOME RESEARCH, FOLKS!
STOP RELYING ON MAINSTREAM MEDIA FOR YOUR INFORMATION, BECAUSE GUESS WHO OWNS THEM AS WELL?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxKZX4zw2IE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdF5guXFOew
Ok... The original Al Quaeda leadership might have been eliminated in total. BUT, that doesn't negate the fact that for every head of the hydra that has been cut off, more have grown to replace them.
The only difference is they might be smaller in organization. That also makes it more difficult to track. AQ had a quasi formal leadership structure, the smaller groups don't have central reporting or direction... they're on their own and are left to their own devices to accomplish whatever they want.
It's an ideology backed by religious fanaticism. There is no way to eliminate it. All we can do is hope we can contain it, and hopefully find out about any plans before they happen. Ultimately, they will succeed in their attack plans. While our intelligence people and their sources are good, the "bad guys" only need to get lucky once.
The only way we can have peace is call the bad guys thugs. We have never went to war against the name thugs.
From your peanut factory of knowledge
Well, everyone seems to know who they are voting for. Let's vote the early part of August. Giving room for some football.
One day it's "Give me a bigger budget or the US will fall", next day it's "I've almost killed all of our enemies">
Which is it?
Religion. Wow.
And the BEATDOWN goes ON! CRUSH the Muslim Infidels!NOT Muslim People! Give Peace to the MIDEAST! and the WORLD!
When can we expect the follow up announcement about how they are being tracked, who is helping the U.S. locate them and by what methods?
Panetta is so full of it I can tell by the shade of his skin......The organizational setup of the majority of these groups are all the same where they actually train people to step in immediately upon the death of the leader and Panetta will rue the day he said this when our last units leave Afghanistan and AQ takes over with a vengeance...what an idiot...
Our Screwed up in Chief gave them the details of our Pull out plan, so their just laying low biding their time, building up their weapon stocks recruiting and training new members and keeping the Leadership out of view.
I wouldn't doubt they have stopped using Cellphones and have gone back to messengers who are easily lost in the cities crowded marketplaces and such....He is just "posturing" for his Dark Lord, because it is brown nosing the voter time.....and has nothing to do with reality.....Basically the Dark Lord sold out the people of Afghanastan and he too will rue the day he did that.. The Dark Lord has created so much worldly hate towards America than any President I can remember, at one time America was looked at for help but not any longer....Thanks Obama,,,you are a major screw up....Jerk.
With so few targets left Obama can get in more golf, particularly since the private sector economy is doing so fine.
"Panetta: Only a 'small handful' of top al-Qaida targets left."
He and Mr. Obama wish they could announce victory by November, but it won't happen.
Sounds like posturing and propaganda for the election year.
does anyone consider their may be some that are not publicly proclaimed. they are after all pretty sneaky