WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview aired on Tuesday that al Qaeda has been weakened by U.S. actions against terrorism, and pointed to a taped message purported to be by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden about the failed Christmas Day bomb plot as evidence.
“Al Qaeda itself is greatly weakened from where it was back in 2000. Bin Laden sending out a tape trying to take credit for a Nigerian student who engaged in a failed bombing attempt is an indication of how weakened he is because this is not something necessarily directed by him,” Obama told ABC’s Good Morning America.