HAS AL QAEDA BEEN BROKEN? That’s what this story suggests:

Analysts who track al Qaeda for the intelligence community believe that evidence is mounting that the terrorist organization may lack the command and control, the resources and coordination to conduct an operation of the same magnitude as 9/11. . . .

There is little question that the network has the capacity to conduct low-level operations involving one, or possibly two suicide bombers, but analysts are increasingly dubious that it can commit large scale, coordinated, high-impact attacks that would cause mass casualties such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Not everybody agrees with this analysis — and the story also says that Osama bin Laden is still alive and is communicating his displeasure to subordinates. I remain deeply skeptical that bin Laden remains alive and uncaptured, and it almost seems as if the U.S. government is going out of its way to tell people that he is. But hey, I’m just a guy with a blog, what do I know?

(Via Timatollah, who also asks this very penetrating question: “Sure there are and always will be new and remaining challenges, but does the Patriot Act II address any of them?”)