From the Irish Independent:

Al-Qa-ida has been forced into retreat as the flow of funds to the terrorist network is steadily choked off, a senior American official said yesterday.
In the first half of this year, al-Qa’ida’s core leadership was compelled to make four public appeals for cash, complaining in one case of a “weakness in operations because of lack of money”.
Part of the reason for this is that some funding is believed to have gone to the Taliban instead.
This financial squeeze has compounded the problems faced by “core al-Qa’ida.” Highly effective attacks launched by American Predator drones have eliminated a raft of its most able leaders. Experts believe that Osama bin Laden’s network is under immense pressure inside its last redoubts in the tribal areas lining Pakistan’s north-west frontier.
David Cohen, the assistant secretary at the US Treasury esponsible for countering terrorist finance, said that al-Qa’ida’s recent appeal for funds showed its “financial predicament.”