THANKS, W AND UR:

U.S. May Be Near Vanquishing Al-Qaida (Greg Miller, 11/24/11, The Washington Post)

The leadership ranks of the main al-Qaida terrorist network, once expansive enough to supervise the plot for Sept. 11, 2001, have been reduced to just two figures whose demise would mean the group's defeat, U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence officials said.

Aymen al-Zawahri and his second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, are the last remaining "high-value" targets of the CIA's drone campaign against al-Qaida in Pakistan, U.S. officials said, although lower-level fighters and other insurgent groups remain a focus of Predator surveillance and strikes.

Al-Qaida's contraction comes amid indications that the group has considered relocating in recent years, but that it ruled out other destinations as either unreachable or offering no greater security than their missile-pocked territory in Pakistan, U.S. officials said.

Now, about that peace dividend...

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 25, 2011 8:10 AM
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