Obama's depiction of al-Qaeda differs from aides'

President Obama on Tuesday night again identified the fight against al-Qaeda as the central reason for the war in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials have said lately that the organization had been weakened and identified its Yemen-based affiliate as the most pressing threat to the United States.

"We see al-Qaeda as having suffered major losses, unable to replenish ranks and recover at a pace that would keep them on offense," a senior U.S. official told The Washington Post last month, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss CIA assessments. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen-based affiliate is known, is "on the upswing," the official said. "The relative concern ratios are changing. We're more concerned now about AQAP than we were before."

CIA Director Leon Panetta estimated in June that, "at most," 50 to 100 al-Qaeda operatives were in Afghanistan. National security adviser James L. Jones has said that al-Qaeda had no bases in the country and "no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."

Panetta told The Post in March that operations against al-Qaeda in parts of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan had seriously disrupted the organization. "We really do have them on the run," he said.

- Cameron W. Barr