Al-Qaeda Down, Not Out

The Obama administration has hobbled al-Qaeda, but the group is adapting, shifting its strategy to less ambitious but nevertheless deadly tactics. A relentless assassination campaign executed by Predator drones have killed two leaders and hundreds of foot soldiers in the past 6 months. Meanwhile, efforts to disrupt the group's financing network have given al-Qaeda a permanent cash-flow headache.

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The result is that the world's foremost international terror group is now likely incapable of launching 9/11-like attacks, reports the Washington Post. Yet operatives remain determined, and have shifted their focus to low-budget attacks using "small numbers of terrorists, recently recruited and trained," such as the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner, the director of national intelligence told Congress last week.
(Read more al-Qaeda stories.)