WASHINGTON: Despite the killings of Osama bin Laden and radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the al Qaeda terror network remains a "real threat to the United States," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a TV interview late Wednesday.
CBS News released excerpts of an interview with Panetta scheduled to run Sunday, in which the Pentagon chief discusses US strategy to disband al Qaeda's global networks.
"We're going after al Qaeda, wherever they're at," Panetta told CBS in the interview excerpt.
"And clearly, we're confronting al Qaeda in Pakistan. We're confronting the nodes of al Qaeda in Yemen, in Somalia, in North Africa. ... and obviously whatever al Qaeda links are involved in Afghanistan," he said.
Have US forces have defeated al Qaeda?
"Not yet," Panetta said. "They're still a real threat. There's still al Qaeda out there. And we've got to continue to put pressure on them wherever they're at."
Panetta however said that US forces have "undermined their leadership significantly."
Of the network's 10 main leaders listed after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, only one is still alive: Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over after bin Laden was shot dead in a dramatic US commando raid in Pakistan in May.
In the past year, eight of al Qaeda's top 20 leaders were eliminated, most by missiles fired from US drones operating under an expanded covert warfare effort launched by President Barack Obama after taking office in January 2009.
Those killed include Awlaki, slain in Yemen in a US drone strike on September 30.
Former CIA chief Panetta took over as defense secretary in July, replacing Robert Gates, a holdover from the presidency of George W. Bush.
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Then it must be true that China feels existential threat from Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Seychelles, Maldives, Malta, Grenada, Andorra and Palau. Poor Chine. Having to live with such wild-warrior nations. These wild-warrior nations are frightening the Chinese so much that they are researching ways of leaving the earth, and settling on the moon. First manned flight is planned for 2025-2030. I request the UN to stop these Wild-Warrior from TERRORISING China
United Satans of America is a threat to the entire world..and NOT al-qaueda ( if such an outfit ever existed anyway)....The fifth column in Pakistan is the westoxicated scum in Pakistan..the secularoon, liberaloon, and the murtadoons.
With the Pacific to the west, Atlantic to the east, Canada in the north and Mexico to the south, drug smuggling and illegal migrants are in reality more of a problem for America then Al Qaeda. As far as America's global designs are concerned Al Qaeda are more a 'necessity' than a threat - think about it.
How sad. Mr. Leon Panetta never had the chance to meet a US General called Major General Smedley Butler. He wrote that "War is a racket". He further wrote‘I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. To read full text please visit: http://www.twf.org/News/Y2001/0911-Racket.html It also means that all the rhetoric about Al Qaeda is also a racket. A racket to defraud the US taxpayers by creating these phoney wars or indeed campaigns of terror.
@IFTIKHAR-UR-REHMAN: @M. R@fique Zakaria: Al Qaeda and like fanatic-terrorist groups, what you want? Al Qaedistan? stupids
Your President Obama said this week that Osama is no more and America is safe. What worries you Panetta?
M. R@fique Zakaria Karachi.
With the death of Osama bin Laden and a few more, one thought the top echelons of the al Qaeda have been weakened. Yet ideologically its legacy still lives on. Some rural parts of Yemen are in control of the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Western intelligence forces see the recent unrest in Nigeria and the audacity of Boko Haram, a militant group that is alleged to be an affiliate of the Al Qaeda, as a threat to regional stability.
they are confuse now they dont now what to do now.....their statement changes from day to day....Mr Panetta i want to remind you last year after Usama Bin Laden death your president was saying that this is the first step towrads our victory in war against terrorism and now after a year you are saying that they are real threat for USA........
Your President said that Alqaeda is not a threat to USA anymore??!!!
And also threat to the rest of the world, including PAK.