Third Time's a Charm?

Check out this headline from today's MSNBC: Officials: CIA missile strike kills al-Qaida No. 3.

Great news, right?

Then read this:

HBO BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
May 06, 2005

BILL MAHER: So I guess you read in the paper yesterday, as we all did, that apparently we have captured the number-three man in Al Qaeda. Does it seem to you that this is about the fifth time we've captured the “number-three man”? In Al Queda? I mean, how many number-three men do they have over there in Al Qaeda?

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: It's very hard to tell. And the problem is that we haven't captured the number-one man, though we have thousands of troops there looking for him.