Just a note as I saw this in google news: Al Qaeda No. 3 Man Killed.

It just jogged my memory, because here's the version from 2005, and here's 2003. Indeed, this Times of India story from '05 notes that the subject of its piece was the sixth number three to date. I wonder what we're up to now? Moreover, the Times of India has the temerity to throw quotes around "senior" in the phrase "'senior' al-Qaeda operative," and to note:

bq. Although, no one officially described Al-Yemeni as a No.3, the joke in media circles here is that will be the nomenclature for any al-Qaeda suspect besides Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, the one-two who have evaded capture for more than three years.

I do love the Times of India. So disrespectful of our holy cows.

The point is not that these stories are lies, but to say they are stories, and that their value is as such -- comforting narratives of progress -- not as sources of information. This is generally true of non-investigative press reports based on sources within the military.

It's nothing new, but yet another reminder that you are surrounded by propaganda.