On the October 11 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, host Sean Hannity replayed a video clip from his September 30 debate with Democratic political strategist James Carville, in which Hannity repeated the misleading claim that the Bush administration "[has] 70 percent of Al Qaeda capture[d] and [sic] on the run." While Hannity made the claim to support his contention about the current progress of the administration's anti-terrorism campaign, the assertion appears to be based on a CIA estimate of the roughly 25 Al Qaeda leaders known as of September 11, 2001. As Media Matters for America has previously noted, however, Al Qaeda's next generation of terrorist leaders have gradually replaced the older set, limiting the figure's relevance as a current measure of U.S. success against the terrorist group.

Hannity's claim echoed a similar administration claim that “75 percent” of Al Qaeda leaders have been killed or captured; for instance, President Bush said that “three-quarters of Al Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice” during the third 2004 presidential debate. In fact, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice admitted to CNN on October 3, 2004, that the administration did not know how many leaders its 75 percent claim represented -- she placed it in the range of “tens to 100.” At the time, CNN political analyst William Schneider noted that recent estimates said that Al Qaeda “may have as many as 18,000 potential operatives.”

From the October 11 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, airing a part of the September 30 "Meeting of the Mouths 3" debate, which Fox News host Neil Cavuto moderated:

CAVUTO: Guys, guys, you know what?

CARVILLE: One more point here.

CAVUTO: Looking back is not going to do anyone any good.

HANNITY: First of all, in three years, Uday and Qusay [Hussein] are dead-ay. Saddam is about to be tried, convicted, and hung the way he deserves. We have 70 percent of Al Qaeda captured and [sic] on the run. We are winning the war on terror. It is a difficult job.