This is Part Two of a two-part series by Ronald Kessler on the Central Intelligence Agency. To get the whole story, read Part One of the series, "Gen. Hayden Moves to Unify CIA."WASHINGTON -- At least 5,000 terrorists have been captured or killed since 9/11, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said in an interview.
Most of the terrorists have been rolled up by the CIA or with the agency's help. In some cases, the agency has killed terrorists, either with its paramilitary officers or its armed Predator drone aircraft. In other cases, the agency has fed leads to the military, the FBI, and foreign countries leading to capture of terrorists. CIA officers often participate in their capture as well.
"Al-Qaida's core operational leadership has been decimated, and their successors are in hiding or on the run," according to Hayden.
Despite those successes, "The organization remains capable of attacking us, because they're constantly evolving, and they're constantly trying to get back on track," Michael Morell, the CIA's associate deputy director, said in an interview following the meeting with Hayden. "And their command and control, to some extent, remains in place, and their ambition in no way has been diminished. They want nothing more than to have a success here in the homeland. The U.K. plotting is another example of that. So their capabilities, although diminished, remain. And that's why keeping up the pace here is so critically important."