Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

December 13, 2016

Contrary to Intelligence Estimates, al-Qaeda Is Still Strong

The Obama administration has based itself on false assumptions.

Over the past eight years, the signature element of the Obama administration’s conduct of the war on al-Qaeda has been increased drone strikes against the organization’s leaders. These, according to officials, have degraded it to the edge of defeat. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross calls this view into question, citing, among other things, complaints from the U.S. Central Command over political pressure to produce rosy evaluations of the wars against al-Qaeda and Islamic State. (Interview by the Cipher Brief.)

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