. . . with The Washington Post piece noted below. Over at the invaluable Long War Journal, Roggio offers a list of 26 al-Qa'ida leaders reported to be living in Pakistan. Roggio's point is well-taken -- although I think he stretches the list out a bit by including Sa'ad bin Laden (reportedly but not confirmed killed) and Saif al Adel (as frequently reported to be in Iran as Pakistan) -- especially his argument that for political reasons Administrations tend to overstate progress against al-Qa'ida and ignore its ability to regenerate by promotion from within the ranks.
However, the Post article can be reconciled with Roggio's dissent if Zawahiri and al-Libi are truly indispensable to the network's survival, which right or wrong is what the article implies. Roggio would surely disagree, but if the Post (or whomever their source is) were correct, then the article would not be at all ridiculous despite the presence of numerous al-Qa'ida operatives in Pakistan.
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