THEBLAZE.COM 3 Hours Ago As New Terror Threats Emerge, White House Defends Obama 2012 Claims al-Qaida Decimated by Fred Lucas After locking down U.S. embassies and beefing up domestic security based on new intelligence about terror threats over the weekend, the White House spent a Monday afternoon press briefing defending President Barack Obama's repeated reelection campaign claims that al-Qaida had been "decimated" or was on the run. Several reporters pressed White House spokesman Jay Carney Monday about Obama's assertion on the stump that the global terror network was on the run. Carney made a distinction between al-Qaida "core" and al-Qaida affiliates, namely al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. "There is no question that al-Qaida the core leadership, the leadership that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 has been decimated, al-Qaida core in the Af-Pak region has been greatly diminished and is on the run," Carney said. "We hav...