Core of al-Qaeda on path to defeat: Obama
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"We
have put the core of al-Qaeda on the path to defeat, and we've been
relentless against its affiliates," Obama said on Friday during the
farewell ceremony of outgoing US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
Obama
hailed Panetta's role as CIA Director and then as Defence Secretary
saying he played a key part in action against al-Qaeda and its
affiliates.
"Your
leadership of the CIA will forever be remembered for the blows that we
struck against al-Qaeda and perhaps the greatest intelligence success in
American history - delivering justice to Osama bin Laden," Obama said
praising Panetta.
"Because
we ended the war in Iraq, and are winding down the war in Afghanistan,
our troops are coming home, and next year our war in Afghanistan will
come to an end," he added.
Panetta, in his remarks, said that as the son of immigrants, he had truly lived the American Dream.
"Being
an Italian-American in Congress, at senior levels in the executive
branch has been, for me, a very unique experience. I will never forget
the pride and exhilaration when I walked out of the White House after
the President announced the success of the bin Laden operation," he
said.
The
memory of that operation and the team that helped put it together -
both the intelligence team and the military team - will be with him
forever, Panetta said.
Panetta
said the US has developed and begun implementing a new defence strategy
for the 21st century that protects the strongest military power in the
world and meets its responsibility to fiscal discipline.
"We're
bringing, more than a decade of war to a responsible end - ending the
war in Iraq and we've kept pressure on al-Qaeda, and we're going after
extremists wherever they may hide. And we have shown the world - we have
shown the world - that nobody attacks the United States of America and
gets away with it," Panetta said.
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