CIA: 5,000 Terrorists Captured or Killed

ABC News.com ^ | 9/11/06 | Brian Ross

[MikeA]

Brian Ross Reports:

More than 5,000 terrorists have been captured or killed in the five years since the 9/ll attacks, CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden said today.

Hayden's remarks were made in a videotape statement distributed to CIA employees around the world.

Hayden called the 9/ll attacks "an unforgettable blow" from a "plot we had not been able to prevent."

Since then, he said, "Al-Qa'ida's core operational leadership has been decimated, and their successors are in hiding or on the run."

Hayden paid tribute to four CIA employees killed in Afghanistan: Mike Spann, Helge Boes, Chris Mueller and William Carlson.

Veteran CIA officers continue to praise the leadership of Gen. Hayden, who took over earlier this year from Porter Goss.

As part of his effort to highlight CIA accomplishments, his videotape statement was distributed to reporters.

Read Gen. Hayden's full message to CIA employees: http://abcnews.go.com/images/US/CIA_Statement_Hayden.pdf

[MikeA]

I prefer the killed part to the captured part, but I guess we need some prisoners to get information out of to capture more of these animals and head off their plots. Unfortunately now that these vermin have been given Geneva Convention status, we'll never be able to look forward to their being lynched or put in front of firing squads for their atrocities against America.

[Dog]

Capturing them gets us info...

[alisasny]

Mike, the best and brightest were the suicide plane murderers/terrorists on 9/11/2001.


Any killed since is just icing on the cake.
They truly can not organize or regroup provided we stay vigilant.

[mewzilla]

When I take action, I'm not going to fire a 2 million dollar missile at a 10 dollar empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive. --

- George W. Bush

[RexBeach]

Is the general talking about 5000 Al Queda bad guys dead, or 5000 Arab terrorists of all stripes?

[lilylangtree]

5,000 vermin eliminated--great time for rejoicing.

[DogBarkTree]

Id prefer if the 5k had three or more zeros added to it.

[evets]

[MikeA]

I'm thinking mostly Al Qaeda since we're not fighting Hamas or Hezbollah. There may be other minor jihadist players out there fighting us, but I don't think they're a big enough factor that we've taken them on. Just my opinion.

[Robert357]

I am reminded of the "lawyer joke" punchline. This is a good start. Now we need to kill, capture or scare the rest so that they abandon their terrorist goals.

To that extent, killing or capturing OBL would help show the rest that the US will eventually catch up to them.

[Cobra64]

I think the kill ratio in the Pacific theater in WWII was 20:1.

[TampaDude]

What do you call 5000 dead terrorists?

That's right... A GOOD START!!!

[bray]

That's a good start!

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[lormand]

When it comes to jihadist, "killed" is prefered to "captured".

[LS]

This is in Afghanistan alone. Add that to the at least 30,000 killed in Iraq (or as high as 55,000) and we're talking a serious dent in Mr. Jihad.

[MikeA]

Yeah, but we had an enemy that fought openly in a conventional style head-to-head warfare in the Pacific. The enemy we fight now skulks around in caves and hides among civilians, so 5000 killed or captured is respectable. I wonder if this number counts AL Qaeda killed in Iraq. I'm guessing it doesn't. Add that in and you may well get another 1500 KIA and captured.

[wideawake]

That's a disproportionate response. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

5,000 is a good start...

[MikeA]

Whoops, I meant add in the Al Qaeda we've killed in Iraq and I bet you get to another 5000, not 1500, killed or captured...maybe more.

[jveritas]

Excellent.