Matthew Yglesias: 75 Percent Of What catches Condi Rice floundering when asked how many al-Qaeda people are being counted as “leaders” when Bush et. al say they have captured or killed '75 percent of the al-Qaeda known leadership' . Given the vagueness of her answer, which appears due to total ignorance as to either the real facts or how this factoid was concocted, Matt Yglesias concludes “they could mean as few as eight people.”
A Personal Blog
by Michael Froomkin
Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
My Publications | e-mail
All opinions on this blog are those of the author(s) and not their employer(s) unelss otherwise specified.
Who Reads Discourse.net?
Readers describe themselves.
Please join in.Reader Map
Recent Bluessky Posts- Imagining push-back to Dem admin firing them all in 3 years: "Look at what happened when we disbanded the Iraqi Army and instituted de-Ba'thification." December 31, 2025 Michael Froomkin
- Democratic Congressional candidate Robin Peguero is showing real momentum here in FL-27. www.politicalcortadito.com/2025/12/26/r... He has a great bio too, see www.stu.edu/law/faculty-... (Disclosure: I'm a donor.) And he wrote a legal thriller, and a political murder mystery. December 31, 2025 Michael Froomkin
- youtu.be/U3Zh4JH-qEc?... December 30, 2025 Michael Froomkin
- So far only in mice. But maybe a certain President could get advanced access to the human trials? December 30, 2025 Michael Froomkin
- Sorry... why would there need to be an emergency indoor inauguration on January 20, 2029 with bulletproof glass and protections against civilian monitoring tech? Oh, that's right. Martial law is coming. I keep forgetting. December 30, 2025 Seth Abramson
Recent Comments
- Michael on Robot Law II is Now Available! (In Hardback)
- Mulalira Faisal Umar on Robot Law II is Now Available! (In Hardback)
- Michael on Vince Lago Campaign Has No Shame
- Just me on Vince Lago Campaign Has No Shame
- Jennifer Cummings on Are Coral Gables Police Cooperating with ICE?
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 51 other subscribers
Rice, of course, is supposed to be the person to make sense of the possibly confusing different takes coming up from different agencies.
How much confidence can we have in an administration where the national security adviser does not know within AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE* what impact we are having in our “war” against an enemy which attacked us, an attack which, by the way, CHANGED EVERYTHING.
* [how many killed or captured?] — “I would suspect that that’s in the tens to hundreds”