The Net Results Of All Those Predator Strikes Inside Of Pakistan? Officials: Al Qaeda Leadership ' decimated'

This is a fantastic report here from NPR that deserves a thorough read as it is being reported that senior U.S. officials are stating that the U.S. UAV attacks on senior al Qaeda leaders operating inside of Pakistan have "decimated" that leadership. Here's some of the details from the article:

For months now, missiles fired by CIA drones have repeatedly struck targets in Pakistan. Tom Gjelten, NPR's intelligence and national security correspondent, reports that senior U.S. officials claim that the air strikes have "decimated" al-Qaida's leadership in the country.

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.

For quite some time now, as I have been blogging non-stop about these Predator strikes by the U.S. and NATO inside of Pakistan, I have reiterated over and over again that the targets were al Qaeda leaders. This was partly strategic and also partly done to keep the opposition of the strikes by the Pakistani government at a minimum. The overall strategy was brilliant by the CIA and U.S. military - first, they side stepped outcry by the Pakistanis by targeting only al Qaeda (the Pakistanis could not be seen objecting to killing known terrorists in al Qaeda), and second, the al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan truly felt they were untouchable in Pakistan - they moved around without a care in the world making them sitting ducks and at the same time, they did little to hide their whereabouts from locals.

And the bottom line is we are seeing these strikes truly pay off....in a HUGE way. We can only imagine how many worldwide terror plots were being hatched inside of Pakistan by these clowns before they became worm food thanks to the UAV's.

One of my favorite statements from the article:

"In the past, you could take out the No. 3 al-Qaida leader, and No. 4 just moved up to take his place," says one official. "Well, if you take out No. 3, No. 4 and then 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, it suddenly becomes a lot more difficult to revive the leadership cadre."

I love it. Al Qaeda doesn't.

Official Says Al-Qaida 'Decimated' In Pakistan

Leadership Severely Weakened
Still, the counterterrorism and intelligence officials interviewed for this report say the achievement of the past several months should not be understated.
"In the past, you could take out the No. 3 al-Qaida leader, and No. 4 just moved up to take his place," says one official. "Well, if you take out No. 3, No. 4 and then 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, it suddenly becomes a lot more difficult to revive the leadership cadre."
Such claims could not be independently verified, although Pakistani sources have identified by name a number of foreign militants killed in the border region in recent months.
U.S. intelligence agencies regularly monitor telephone and Internet communications involving suspected al-Qaida operatives.
"We know that they know how bad this is for them," one official says. "We see al-Qaida guessing, trying to figure out how this is happening, and they haven't figured it out yet."
The U.S. officials interviewed for this report attribute the success to improved intelligence on al-Qaida operations in the border area, some of it gathered as a result of "human penetration" of the network.
The officials also report the emergence of some tension between the al-Qaida leadership and local tribal leaders in the border areas. They warn, however, that this tension is, in part, the product of increased Pakistani military activity in the border areas, a development that could be reversed if the Pakistani authorities turn their attention back toward India as a result of tensions stemming from the November attacks in Mumbai.