LESS THAN A MONTH AGO, Vice President Cheney said that “many of al Qaeda’s known leaders have been captured or killed. Those still at large are on the run, and we are going to hunt them down–one by one.” The vice president’s assessment is backed by a considerable amount of evidence. Many of al Qaeda’s seasoned leaders have been killed or captured since September 11, while other elements of the terrorist network are being pressured on multiple fronts as daily media reports indicate. But today’s New York Times piece, “New Leaders Are Emerging For al Qaeda,” by David Johnston and David Sanger, suggests otherwise. Starting with the headline, the underlying message of the piece is that the U.S. war on terror isn’t making much headway because al Qaeda simply replaces its killed or captured leaders with other al Qaeda members.

In the piece, Johnston and Sanger write that “for the past several months, the president has claimed that much of al Qaeda’s leadership has been killed or captured; the new evidence suggest that the organization is regenerating and bringing in new blood.” They cite intelligence analysts who “say they are finding al Qaeda’s upper ranks are being filled by lower-ranking members and more recent recruits.” But, in fact, other than this quote, there is no evidence that al Qaeda’s leadership ranks are being substantially replenished by “new blood.” To the contrary, recent arrests suggest, as one intelligence official told the Times, that al Qaeda is filling these ranks by “reaching for their bench.”