Just in case you were wondering...

...of what the state of Al Qaeda worldwide is these days, Peter Wehner of Commentary Magazine has a post up at Iraq Status Report called Al Qaeda and the Turning Tide which fills you in.

• CIA Director Michael Hayden gave a noteworthy interview to the Washington Post this week. According to the Post:

  Less than a year after his agency warned of new threats from a resurgent al-Qaeda, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden now portrays the terrorist movement as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world, including in its presumed haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In a strikingly upbeat assessment, the CIA chief cited major gains against al-Qaeda’s allies in the Middle East and an increasingly successful campaign to destabilize the group’s core leadership. While cautioning that al-Qaeda remains a serious threat, Hayden said Osama bin Laden is losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Islamic world and has largely forfeited his ability to exploit the Iraq war to recruit adherents.

If we were a nation united and full of patriots, this story would be front page on every newspaper tomorrow. We're not, so you won't see it unless I point you to it.