A Report From the Front Lines

When the fighting started last fall in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda’s leaders genuinely expected to mire our coalition down in a reprise of the Soviet experience. They were just as genuinely surprised. And then sorely disappointed.

Since then, more than one-third of the top leadership that had been identified before the war has been killed or captured. Almost half of our successes against senior Al Qaeda members have come in recent months, during which time we’ve netted:

* Al Qaeda’s operations chief for the Persian Gulf, who also helped plan the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and the attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole in 2000;

* a principal Al Qaeda planner who was also a conspirator in the 9/11 attacks;

* numerous operations officers and facilitators;

* and a trove of information that is helping us to press the hunt further.

We are still in the “hunt” phase of this war -- the painstaking pursuit of individual Al Qaeda members and their cells. This phase is paying off, but it is manpower intensive and will take a long time. There are no set battles against units of any size. We are tracking our enemies down, one by one.

In all, more than 3,000 Al Qaeda operatives or associates have been detained in more than 100 countries since September 2001. Not everyone arrested was a terrorist. Some have been released. But this worldwide “rousting” of Al Qaeda has definitely disrupted its operations. And more than 166 countries worldwide have seized more than $121 million in terrorist-related financial assets.

The United States has had a lot of partners in this fight. Without them, we could not have accomplished what we did. Most governments around the world understand that Al Qaeda poses a threat to them as well. The notion that the Muslim world has “lined up” against us is a myth. The fact is, after a few initial turnouts, the Muslim “street” never really showed up.

But let’s be very clear: There is no letup in the threat at the moment. Despite the loss of several senior lieutenants and the security worries of the remaining leaders, intelligence clearly shows Al Qaeda is still preparing terrorist attacks.

Indeed, every Al Qaeda operations officer and facilitator we have captured so far was in the midst of preparing attacks when captured. Recent tapes by Al Qaeda leaders threatening the U.S. economy and our coalition allies were unprecedented in their bluntness and urgency.

We would be foolish to take these threats in any way other than with utmost seriousness.

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George Tenet is director of the CIA. This is excerpted from a recent speech.