Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Kyle Dabruzzi’s take, here:

There are many external signs that Al-Qaeda is back, including its increasingly effective media operations. Al-Sahab, Al-Qaeda’s media wing, disseminated fifty-eight videos in 2006. While Al-Qaeda’s regional nodes will remain terrorist forces in their own right, the senior leadership is indeed back. With a safe haven in Pakistan—and perhaps soon in other territories—the senior leadership will likely play a greater role in future plots while attempting to conceptualize and carry out an attack that will surpass 9-11. A strong central leadership makes the group more formidable and its attacks more deadly; dismissing the evidence that Al-Qaeda’s leadership has regrouped will ultimately endanger U.S. security.