On a steady slide. On the ropes. Taking shots to the body and head.
That’s how White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan described Al Qaeda on Wednesday as he offered the first on-record confirmation that Al Qaeda’s latest second-in-command was killed last week in Pakistan — roughly four months after Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden there.
In an Associated Press interview, Brennan said the death of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman in Pakistan’s tribal areas last week was a “huge blow” to the group, damaging the network and keeping Al Qaeda’s leadership too busy trying to hide to plot new attacks. Al-Rahman reportedly was hit by a CIA drone strike.
In a wide-ranging interview, Brennan credited aggressive U.S. action against militants across the region as the main reason U.S. intelligence has detected no active terror plots before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The former CIA officer described that as proof that the White House has found the right formula to fight Al Qaeda, by pairing U.S. intelligence and counterterrorist forces with host nations from Pakistan to Iraq to Yemen, fighting beside them or sometimes through them. The goal is to keep Al Qaeda off balance, unable to replace the seasoned terrorists the U.S. campaign is taking out.
“If they’re worrying about their security … they’re going to have less time to plot and plan,” Brennan said of the militants. “They’re going to be constantly looking over their shoulder or up in the air or wherever, and it really has disrupted their operational cadence and ability to carry out attacks.”
He pointed to the killing of al-Rahman as an example of how U.S. pressure is degrading the network.
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