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==Redirection==
==Redirection==
A March 7, 2007, article entitled, "The Redirection" described a recent shift in the George W. Bush administration's Iraq policy, the goal of which Hersh said was to "contain" Iran. Hersh asserted that "a by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Seymour M. |last=Hersh |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh |title=Annals of National Security: The Redirection |journal=[[The New Yorker]] |date=March 5, 2007 }}</ref>
A March 7, 2007, article entitled, "The Redirection" described a recent shift in the George W. Bush administration's Iraq policy, the goal of which Hersh said was to "contain" Iran. Hersh asserted that "a by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Seymour M. |last=Hersh |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh |title=Annals of National Security: The Redirection |journal=[[The New Yorker]] |date=March 5, 2007 }}</ref>
By late 2009 analysts were reporting a decline in the strength and appeal of Al Qaeda. Its leadership was forced to retreat to remote mountain villages in Pakistan, and many leaders had been killed by missiles and manhunts. Its tactics of killing innocent civilians were said to have lost favor with the Muslim population in some countries. During the Bush/Cheney years of 2002 and 2009 the notion that suicide bombings are "often or sometimes justified" plunged across the Islamic world. Its terrorists launched 10 major attacks worldwide in 2004 but only three by 2008. "Al Qaeda is in the process of imploding," concluded professor Audrey Kurth Cronin of the National War College in Washington. In September 2009 American-led forces killed the leader of the Somali organization "Al Shabab", which is allied with Al Qaeda; the police in Indonesia killed the most wanted terrorist in Southeast Asia. It has become much harder for terrorists to move agents, money and supplies.<ref>Scott Shane, "Rethinking What to Fear," ''New York Times'' Sept. 27, 2009</ref>
[[File:Blumenthal Belhadj McCain Graham Feb 2012.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Abdelhakim Belhadj, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Belhadj, a veteran jihadi, was kidnapped by the [[CIA]] in 2004 and "[[extraordinary rendition|rendered]]" to Libya where he spent 7 years in prison being "rehabilitated." He was released in March 2010 to reactivate the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, of which Ansar al Shariah was part. In August 2011 he was appointed commander of the Tripoli Military Council by the TNC, and in 2015 head of the Mujahideen Shura Council in Derna.]]
[[File:Blumenthal Belhadj McCain Graham Feb 2012.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Abdelhakim Belhadj, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Belhadj, a veteran jihadi, was kidnapped by the [[CIA]] in 2004 and "[[extraordinary rendition|rendered]]" to Libya where he spent 7 years in prison being "rehabilitated." He was released in March 2010 to reactivate the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, of which Ansar al Shariah was part. In August 2011 he was appointed commander of the Tripoli Military Council by the TNC, and in 2015 head of the Mujahideen Shura Council in Derna.]]