HONOLULU -- The good news is that the United States and its allies have captured or killed 3,500 to 4,000 terrorists since the hijacked airliner assaults on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. The bad news is that the terrorists are being replaced as fast as they are eliminated, especially in Asia.
Specialists with access to intelligence reports say about two-thirds of the leadership of al-Qaeda, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden, has been taken out. More than 200 terrorists in Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, have been arrested, and 40 of the terrorists who bombed a nightspot in Bali in 2002, leaving 202 dead, are in jail.
The purge of those people has dented the operations of Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and another affiliate, Abu Sayyaf, in the Philippines. Sidney Jones, a researcher for the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, told ABC Online that Jemaah Islamiyah has been "clearly hurt" but not put out of action.