Analysis & Commentary
9/11 and Arab Democracy
Beyond catastrophe and mourning, September 11th had unforeseen consequences in the Arab world, especially in my home country of Egypt. The attacks of that day, by citizens of America’s key Arab allies, made officials in Washington rethink their relations with Arab dictators, and begin supporting democracy in the Middle East.
9/11 Hijackers’ Mosque Tied to Recent Terror Plot Against Europe
The recently uncovered terror plot against European cities, which was to involve attacks similar to the November 2008 attack in Mumbai, is tied to the same Hamburg mosque that was attended by some of the 9/11 hijackers.
9/11 in 20/20 Hindsight
September 11 will be remembered as the worst terrorist attack America ever suffered — if we’re lucky. If not, if we’re not extraordinarily successful in waging the war on terrorism, there remains this possibility: That years from now, Osama bin Laden and 9/11 will be to terrorism what the Wright Brothers and Kitty Hawk were to aviation — just a modest beginning.
9/11 Mastermind’s ‘Apologies’ Hollow
"My bad." For readers unfamiliar with the phrase, this is how one apologizes insincerely in contemporary American slang. Often when used, "my bad" conveys even less than an insincere apology. In its usual context "my bad" means that the speaker is taking credit for some misdeed, and lightly brushing off whatever negative reactions it may have created.
9/11 plotter spotted in Mir Ali
The trial of Ahmed Siddiqui, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan operative who allied with al Qaeda and was part of a plot to conduct Mumbai-style attacks in Europe before he was captured in Afghanistan in the summer of 2010, has yielded some interesting information.
9/11: 10 years After
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, author of 'Bin Laden's Legacy: Why We're Still Losing The War On Terror' says that al-Qaida has effected a second change in its strategy in the past few years. "The group has always been focused on the US economy as one of its key vulnerabilities
9/11: 10 Years After
Terrorism analyst Bill Roggio says, "Al-Qaida hasn't so much as become a diffused entity as it has embedded itself into local groups, for instance with the Pakistani Taliban and the Haqqani network in the Afghan-Pakistan border area, and has expanded its reach by establishing regional affiliates such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and Shabaab (in Somalia).
9/11: A Failure of Academia
A few months ago, when the 9/11 Commission released footage of the communications between several command centers and the transportation network during the dramatic minutes of September 11, one phrase chilled me to the bones. It summarized how unprepared America was to face to the Jihadist onslaught. A pilot of an F-16 rushing to the scene over the Pentagon screamed on his radio: "God, the Russians had us...they had us."
A Nominee and the Attack; Michael Chertoff’s Experience
In its eminently fair profile on Wednesday of Judge Michael Chertoff, President George W. Bush's extraordinarily able nominee to become the second secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the New York Times touches on two controversial aspects of the Justice Department's tactical response in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks: the detentions of material witnesses and of immigration violators. Viewed objectively, these widely misunderstood initiatives were not merely sound; to have taken any other course would have been irresponsible.
A Radical’s Radical
In early May, a little over a week after President Barack Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Texas congressman Ron Paul staked out his position on the man who plotted the murder of nearly 3,000 people on American soil: The operation to kill bin Laden, Paul said, was “absolutely not necessary.”
A Response to Prof. Swire
Professor Peter Swire's thoughtful response goes wrong in three major respects.
A Response to Professor Cole
First, he gives short shrift to the national security threat. If we were not actually facing a public safety challenge, individual interests in the privacy of financial, medical and reading records could sensibly be elevated. But national security is the highest public interest, and when it is truly threatened, as it is now, it makes no sense to give individual interests primacy over the public's need to have foreign enemies thoroughly checked – particularly when the Supreme Court has made plain that there are no expectations of privacy in third-party records.
A World Sliding Into Danger
Time was when the sun never set on the British Empire.
Al Qaeda Graphic Hinting at More New York Attacks Likely Bluster and Not a Real Threat
An image posted on jihadi forums Monday caught the NYPD’s interest as a possible threat. In it, the city’s famous skyline at sunset is overlaid with the text: “Al Qaeda: Coming Soon Again in New York.”
Al Qaeda’s Civil Liberties Union
"I'll talk to you guys after I get to New York and see my lawyer."
Al Qaeda’s Operations Chief for Pakistan Reported Killed in Predator Strike
A terrorist who US officials claimed is al Qaeda's operations chief for Pakistan is thought to have been killed in a recent Predator airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal areas.
Al-Qaeda Is Winning
A decade after the attacks of September 11, 2001, national security opinion leaders are converging around the ideas that the threat of terrorism has been substantially reduced over the past 10 years, and that al-Qaeda is on its death bed.
Al-Qaeda Isn’t Beaten Yet
Adecade after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials are openly declaring that victory over al-Qaeda is imminent. "Al-Qaeda is sort of on the ropes and taking a lot of shots to the body and the head," White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan told the Associated Press on Aug. 31.
America May Have Overreacted to September 11 … but Americans Didn’t
Did America overreact to September 11? In a recent column in Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria answered that with an emphatic and mournful “yes.” In Mr. Zakaria’s telling, we’ve squandered billions of dollars heedlessly feeding our national security bureaucracies, which hardly provide us, as the French nicely put it, a very good rapport qualité-prix. Worse, we’ve created an intrusive, abrasive, civil-rights-mauling security and intelligence apparatus that “now touches every aspect of American-life, even when seemingly unrelated to terrorism.” Mr. Zakaria uses the book Zeitoun, about a Syrian-American who finds herself bounced around by National Guardsmen and other counterterrorist dimwits in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as an exemplar of American decency forfeited since September 11, via our never-ending war against Al Qaeda, an outfit that, as it turns out, really isn’t much of a threat at all.
America Tonight
The 10th anniversary of 9/11.
