Counting Al-Qaeda Members Is Not Enough - By Brian Fishman | The AfPak Channel

Counting Al-Qaeda Members Is Not Enough - By Brian Fishman | The AfPak Channel: "David Sanger and Mark Mazzetti report in the New York Times this morning that al-Qaeda has 'fewer than 500 members' in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is almost certainly true, but the numbers alone do not demonstrate that al-Qaeda is in decline. Al-Qaeda has never had more than 'several hundred' formal members according to a 2005 Century Foundation report authored by Richard Clarke and others in position to assess the organization prior to 9/11. (Clarke's numbers certainly exclude al-Qaeda in Iraq, which was much larger.)"