you have leaders like saleh nabhan continuing to be taken off of the battlefield. that's good.f is being attacked from within. people are asking what has al qaeda brought us? is their ideology legitimate, is it moral? all of this is important. that said, you've got afghanistan tipping in the balance here.z you've got other places like somalia rife with conflict. and so this is a long-term battle and struggle against a movement and an ideology that is not yet vanquished. >> all right. juan zarate, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >>> we also want to hear from you, how you see it. our question tonight -- is the united states being aggressive enough or too aggressive in its efforts to combat international terrorism? tell us what you think by going to the "how you see it" section of our website. you can find that at worldfocus.org. >>> from elsewhere in the muslim world, a judge in malaysia has ordered a muslim man to be jail and whipped six times for drinking alcohol in violation of islamic law. the man pleaded guilty to drinking liquor at a restauran

soow significantrehe killings of indivial al qaeda aders like sale nabhan? >> this i think was significanevent. saleh nabhan was a senior al qaeda eutenant who helped to run teir east africa opation. in the context of his curren activi, he was r of the keyho was trying to utilize a lot of the activity of the al shabab movent, the radical islamist vement there in somalia and leverage it for al qaeda's brder global agenda. these kinds of individuals are the accelerants to make the local groups more gbally relevantndaj russ. >> don'tewleaders just emerge >> they can and they do. i think what's important, though, ishen you hav somedy like saleh bhan who was a longtimeember of al qae responsible forhe emssy bombings in kenya and tanzia, the mombasa attacks in 2002, these are special and important ople for the orgazation because theye got deep ti. they're trusted. they've got the cachet to build the training campsand the local infrastructure toctually then operate ll beyond the region. and so it's very hard to relace aleader likethat. and the fact th the this mini

nabhan was ing sheltered in laess somalia by that group, which is elieved to be loosely linked to alaeda. it's fueled two decas of fighti in pursuit of its chief aim, to pple the somali overnment. the pengon refused to comment on yesterday's raid. buthe associated press reported the attack was rried out by navy als and army helicoptersaunched off two .s. warships in the region. the ra played into an ongoing debate in washington aut how best to coain and defeat al qaeda. the u.s. s gone after militant leaders in western pakian using drone aacks. but afghanistan, the u.s. s sent 65,000 ground combat troops to help e afghan government take on the indigenous islamt group, the talin. yesterday, jointhiefs chairman mike mullen testified the r was essential to preven ahanistan from again becoming a safe haven r terror groups ke al qaeda. and today, aeaked draft administration dument on "evaluating progress in afghanistan-pakista underscored thapoint. it cited as objective 1. disrupt terrist networks in ghanistan and especially pakistan to degrade anability they ha to plan and launch interna

nabhan has been linked to u.s. embassy bombings in east africa. >>> argentina's player is a force to be reckoned with in tennis. he did something no one habl to do in five years at the sunshine open. that's beat the world's top ranked player, roger federer. the brilliant federer lost his cool a bit when a challenge of a line call didn't go his way. >> the point is the challenge did come too late. that's our look at the day's big stories. now, let's go in depth. in the "cnn newsroom." our focus issue number one, the economy. consumers went on a shopping spree in august. retail sales surged almost 3% last month. auto sales helped fuel the gains. they jumped 10.5% largely due to cash for clunkers program. that's a big number. the inflation rate shot up in august fueled by rising energy costs. the producer price index rose 1.7% double the increase analysts expected. wholesale prices for the year have fallen. consumer spending critical to any recovery since it accounts for 70% of all economic activity. let's talk about