Battered by disclosures of the Bush administration’s interrogation program and news of a pending investigation by a special prosecutor, the CIA decided recently to share some goods news about its work combating terrorists. In an interview with Jeff Stein of Congressional Quarterly, an agency spokesman revealed that 11 al Qaeda members have been killed within the past year. The official declined to elaborate on how they died. The 11 (including two different men with the same name) were reported to be:

• Khalid Habib (No. 3 man for al Qaeda and deputy to Shaikh Sa’id al-Masri)
• Rashid Rauf (mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airliner plot)
• Abu Khabab al-Masri (top explosives expert and trainer, responsible for chemical and biological weapons program)
• Abdallah Azzam (senior aide to Sheikh Sa’id al-Masri)
• Abu al-Hassan al-Rimi (leader of cross-border attacks into Afghanistan against coalition forces)
• Abu Sulaiman al-Jaziri (senior external operations planner and facilitator)
• Abu Jihad al-Masri (senior operational planner and propagandist)
• Usama al-Kini (planner of Marriott attack and sought by the FBI)
• Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan (involved in attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania)
• Abu Sulaiman al-Jaziri (senior trainer and external operations plotter)
• Baitullah Mehsud (leader of the Pakistani Taliban)