Panetta says U.S. is 'within reach' of defeating Al Qaeda

[Gerald]

The new defense chief says intelligence uncovered in the Bin Laden raid showed that 10 years of U.S. operations against the terror network had left it with fewer than two dozen key operatives. Panetta is visiting Afghanistan for the first time as defense secretary.

Then-CIA Director Leon Panetta with President Obama in May. Panetta's assessment of Al Qaeda comes in the wake of Obama's decision to withdraw 30,000 troops from Afghanistan over the next year.

KABUL, Afghanistan—
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared Saturday that the United States is "within reach" of "strategically defeating" Al Qaeda as a terrorist threat, but that doing so would require killing or capturing the group's 10 to 20 remaining leaders.

Arriving in Afghanistan for the first time since taking office earlier this month, Panetta said that intelligence uncovered in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May showed that 10 years of U.S. operations against Al Qaeda had left it with fewer than two dozen key operatives, most of whom are in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and North Africa.

"If we can be successful at going after them, I think we can really undermine their ability to do any kind of planning to be able to conduct any kinds of attack on this country," Panetta told reporters on his way to Afghanistan aboard a U.S. Air Force jet. "That's why I think" that defeat of Al Qaeda is "within reach," he added.

Panetta's comments were the most detailed recent assessment of Al Qaeda's strength by a senior U.S. official, and it comes in the wake of President Barack Obama's decision to withdraw 30,000 troops from Afghanistan over the next year and a half, a move that he said was possible in part because of the damage inflicted on Al Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Panetta, a former California congressman who headed the CIA before being chosen by Obama to replace Robert M. Gates at the Pentagon, provided no estimate for how long it might take to defeat Al Qaeda, and he acknowledged that it would take "more work." He was speaking to reporters for the first time since taking over the Pentagon.

Panetta said during his confirmation hearings last month that Al Qaeda had been severely damaged, but he has not claimed before that it was nearing defeat. The CIA and the military's Joint Special Operations Command have kept lists of senior terrorist leaders for years, adding new names as individuals on the list were killed or captured. It was unclear whether Panetta was indicating that the U.S. now believes it is nearing the end of the known terror leaders.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,5988043.story


Note: July 9, 2011, 5:20 a.m.