are we really that close to wiping out al-qaeda? let's ask peter brooks, a senior fellow for national security affairs at the hurtarg foundation and a former cia officer, he joins us live from washington. good morning peter. >> good morning, heather. heather: what do you think about that assessment, do you agree with it? >> i certainly hope he's right. i'm not sure what he's basing it on. i think what they've done here is they believe they're on the verge of strategically de feeding al-qaeda because they've gotten rid of bin laden, they have to get rid of zawahiri and they have ten, 20 other leaders they believe they will be able to target in pakistan, somalia, the other country he didn't mention, so i hope he knows something i don't know but what i worry about, this may have two backdrops to it. one, it could make us com placent about the threat, the other is i hope it's not laced with any sort of political sentiment for us to increase or accelerate our withdrawal from afghanistan. so i'd like to know a little more about why the secretary said this, and what he's basing it on.