Wounded maybe but not defeated

Is Al Qaeda on the way out?

Reading some of the reports this morning,you might think that it is the case.The Observer reports that

The death two weeks ago of Abu Suleiman al-Jazairi, a highly experienced Algerian militant, has been confirmed only in the last few days, intelligence sources in Pakistan and Western Europe told The Observer. Al-Jazairi, thought to have been 45, died along with at least 15 others when the house in which he was staying in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal district was hit by a missile fired from a Predator, an American pilotless drone

The comments of CIA chief Michael Hayden last week that the organisation had been srategically defeated seem rather premature though.The very nature of Al Queda is not that of an organisation,it is more of an ideology and seemingly the ideology is along way off defeat.

For the alternative version read Robert Fisk in the Independent this morning

Near strategic defeat for al-Qa'ida in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al-Qa'ida globally – and here I'm going to use the word 'ideologically' – as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam." Well, you could have fooled me

adding

Six thousand dead in Afghanistan, tens of thousands dead in Iraq, a suicide bombing a day in Mesopotamia, the highest level of suicides ever in the US military