Editing Al-Qaeda (section)

=== Field operatives ===
[[File:Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Pakistani journalist [[Hamid Mir]] interviewing [[Osama bin Laden]] in Afghanistan, 1997]]

The number of individuals in the group who have undergone proper military training, and are capable of commanding insurgent forces, is largely unknown. Documents captured in the raid on bin Laden's compound in 2011 show that the core al-Qaeda membership in 2002 was 170.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9243503/Secret-Osama-bin-Laden-files-reveal-al-Qaeda-membership.html Secret Osama bin Laden files reveal al Qaeda membership] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627064136/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9243503/Secret-Osama-bin-Laden-files-reveal-al-Qaeda-membership.html |date=June 27, 2018 }}, ''The Telegraph'' accessed July 26, 2013</ref> In 2006, it was estimated that al-Qaeda had several thousand commanders embedded in 40 countries.<ref name="Cassidy">{{Harvnb|Cassidy|2006|p=9}}.</ref> {{as of|2009}}, it was believed that no more than 200–300 members were still active commanders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2211994/|title=The Terrorists-Are-Dumb Theory: Don't mistake these guys for criminal masterminds|first1=Timothy|last1=Noah|author-link=Timothy Noah|work=Slate|date=February 25, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227091408/http://www.slate.com/id/2211994/|archive-date=February 27, 2009}}</ref>

According to the 2004 BBC documentary ''[[The Power of Nightmares]]'', al-Qaeda was so weakly linked together that it was hard to say it existed apart from bin Laden and a small clique of close associates. The lack of any significant numbers of convicted al-Qaeda members, despite a large number of arrests on terrorism charges, was cited by the documentary as a reason to doubt whether a widespread entity that met the description of al-Qaeda existed.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gerges|first1=Fawaz A|title=The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2005|isbn=0-521-79140-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/farenemywhyjihad0000gerg}}</ref> al-Qaeda's commanders, as well as its sleeping agents, are hiding in different parts of the world to this day. They are mainly hunted by the American and Israeli secret services.