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| Terror Networks |
| U.S. Officials: Al-Qaida Leadership Cadre 'Decimated' |
| 2009-02-04 |
| From the NPR's "Now it can be told" files... CIA-directed airstrikes against al-Qaida leaders and facilities in Pakistan over the past six to nine months have been so successful, according to senior U.S. officials, that it is now possible to foresee a "complete al-Qaida defeat" in the mountainous region along the border with Afghanistan. The officials say the terrorist network's leadership cadre has been "decimated," with up to a dozen senior and midlevel operatives killed as a result of the strikes and the remaining leaders reeling from the repeated attacks. "The enemy is really, really struggling," says one senior U.S. counterterrorism official. "These attacks have produced the broadest, deepest and most rapid reduction in al-Qaida senior leadership that we've seen in several years." Another senior U.S. official described "a significant, significant degradation of al-Qaida command and control in recent months." |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #11 It's been a long time since my Latin studies, but I think equivalent of 90% casualties would be "nonagintamated". |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2009-02-04 22:37 |
| #10 Chear up. He might've said "Presently, Al-Qaida Leadership Cadre 'Decimated'". |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-02-04 20:44 |
| #9 I don't like the commonly used definition of decimate, so I'll change it. It means to snap rabbit heds until they sing in unison. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2009-02-04 16:05 |
| #8 Bill Roggio reports US Military has a different (contrary) opinion of airstrikes a senior U.S. military intelligence official who is an expert on al Qaeda's organization wrote in an email to me earlier today, a portion of which is excerpted below: "I'm not even going to get into the karmic quality of these types of cavalier declarations being offered on the day that our supply lines got cut into Afghanistan. With Swat now recognized by the press as being under TNSM control after more than a year's worth of fighting there and Peshawar essentially in a state of siege, these types of triumphalist declarations from Langley are dubious at best." Of the 7 senior Al Qaeda leaders killed in these strikes, only three were members of al Qaeda Shura Majlis,or executive council. "Losing three Shura Majlis members in the span of 12 months is probably considered acceptable losses to AQSL [al Qaeda senior leadership] given the far more horrific tallies that were inflicted against them in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004," the official stated. We need to recognize successes in the war, but need to be extremely careful about making such over-optimistic statements. Taliban and al Qaeda control in Pakistan and Afghanistan has expanded since the 2007 NIE. The U.S. attacks have had an impact on al Qaeda's ability to strike at the United States, but by no means does this mean the group has been "decimated." Making such overly optimistic claims only damages our ability to properly assess the nature of the threat. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2009-02-04 15:29 |
| #7 liberal progressives... |
| Posted by: bman 2009-02-04 14:49 |
| #6 Just keeping Al Q under pressure and keeping the network stressed out by seeing comrades killed is about the best we can expect for the present. FWIW, this is what Israel did to Hamas. This is what has not been done to many other such groups, e.g. Hezbollah, Lashkar-e-Taiba , Jaish-e-Mohammed, Jemaah Islamiya, etc. |
| Posted by: mhw 2009-02-04 13:38 |
| #5 we want AlQ annihilated. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-02-04 12:23 |
| #4 One sense of the word decimated means 9 out of 10, but it's not the Roman usage. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-02-04 12:01 |
| #3 USAGE NOTE Decimate originally referred to the killing of every tenth person, a punishment used in the Roman army for mutinous legions. Today this meaning is commonly extended to include the killing of any large proportion of a group. Sixty-six percent of the Usage Panel accepts this extension in the sentence The Jewish population of Germany was decimated by the war, even though it is common knowledge that the number of Jews killed was much greater than a tenth of the original population. However, when the meaning is further extended to include large-scale destruction other than killing, as in The supply of fresh produce was decimated by the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, only 26 percent of the Panel accepts the usage. (answer.com) |
| Posted by: Injun Angulet2150 2009-02-04 12:01 |
| #2 I hope they're more than decimated. That's only 1 in 10. I'm hoping for 9 in 10, at least. Is there any word for that? Half (which would also be nice) would be demi-mated, I guess, but I don't think that's a word. Any Latin scholars out there who can chime in? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-02-04 11:20 |
| #1 War's over. We won. Bring the troops we supported home. How to spend the peace dividend? It's 1992 in America, again. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-02-04 10:59 |