The Reuters headline is "Al Qaeda decline hard to reverse after Bin Laden killing: U.S." The story leads with this sentence.
However, the numbers do not bear that out at all. We can go directly to the 2011 report and the 2010 report from the National Counterterrorism Center itself. The NCC is the source of Reuters' and the State Department's numbers.
"Osama bin Laden's death sent al Qaeda into a decline that will be hard to reverse, the United States said on Tuesday in a report that found terrorist attacks last year fell to their lowest level since 2005."In Reuters' defense, it is summarizing a State Department report.
The death of Usama bin Ladin, al-Qa'ida's founder and sole leader for the past 22 years, highlighted a landmark year in the global effort to counter terrorism... The loss of bin Ladin and these other key operatives puts the network on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse."The message is simple: Obama killed Osama, and now terrorism is dead. All hail Obama.
However, the numbers do not bear that out at all. We can go directly to the 2011 report and the 2010 report from the National Counterterrorism Center itself. The NCC is the source of Reuters' and the State Department's numbers.
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