Panetta: al Qaeda is "still a real threat"

In an interview for "60 Minutes," CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley sat down with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to talk about the many places in the world that America is taking action. An excerpt follows.

Pelley: How many countries are we currently engaged in a shooting war?

Panetta: It's a good question. (laughs) That's, you know, it's --

Pelley: You have to stop and count.

Panetta: I'll have to stop and think about that because, you know, obviously we're going after al Qaeda wherever they're at. And clearly we're confronting al Qaeda in Pakistan. We're confronting the nodes of al Qaeda in Yemen, Somalia, North Africa. And obviously whatever al Qaeda links are involved in Afghanistan.

Pelley: Have we defeated al Qaeda?

Panetta: Not yet. They're still a real threat. There's still al Qaeda out there. And we've gotta continue to put pressure on them wherever they're at.

"60 Minutes" will air a profile of Secretary Panetta -- who led the effort to get Osama bin Laden -- this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

[ranalef]

You mean, those nice young upstarts we put in place of Quadaffi, weren't the IMF West loving peaceniks ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS portrayed them as? I'm shocked.

[Alexandra1216]

Mr. Panetta, do you also "yuck it up" when you tell parents that their child has just been killed fighting in these wars? How disrespectful of our fallen military that he finds humor in not knowing how many countries the US is in a shooting war with. How disrespectful of the lives that have been lost fighting these wars.

[BigBadGrizzly]

A threat? So is the Socialist Obama administration so what's your point.

[commenter777]

The republican party and john boehner, romney, and newt are more dangerous than the al queda for the US, by far.

[BigBadGrizzly]

Am I missing something here Liberal, Obama's a muslim living under the disguise of being a Christian.

[catsmilee]

yeah - right.... he's negotiating with these terrorists... and then expects us to believe that he cares that they are a threat? He would rather throw our own boys under the bus, and stand with the terrorists.