Terrorism

If the 20th century really began with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in August 1914, which set in motion the start of a series of intrastate wars so brutal they killed tens of millions, then surely the beginning of this century was announced by the attacks of September 11, the harbinger of a new kind of war waged with spectacular acts of terrorism by non-state groups that seem likely to be a defining feature of the century to come.

On the beautiful morning of September 11, 2001… more

This month marks 20 years since al-Qaeda was founded in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar by Osama bin Laden and a handful of veterans of the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the group is more famous and feared than ever. But its grand project – to transform the Muslim world into a militant Islamist caliphate – has been, by any measure, a resounding failure.

That's largely because Mr. bin Laden's strategy for arriving at this promised land is a fantasy. Al-Qaeda's leader prides… more

Democracy's only real competitor in the realm of ideas today is radical Islamism. Indeed, one of the world's most dangerous nation-states today is Iran, run by extremist Shiite mullahs. But as Peter Bergen pointed out in these pages last week, Sunni radicalism has been remarkably ineffective in actually taking control of a nation-state, due to its propensity to devour its own potential supporters. LINK

Terrorism expert and CNN analyst Peter Bergen says that little planning has been done for the possibility of bin Laden's capture, but adds that it is unlikely he would allow himself to be taken alive. He adds that in the long term, the al-Qaida leader's death "would most likely give an enormous boost to the power of his ideas." LINK

Two decades after al-Qaeda was founded in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar by Osama bin Laden and a handful of veterans of the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the group is more famous and feared than ever. But its grand project -- to transform the Muslim world into a militant Islamist caliphate -- has been, by any measure, a resounding failure.

In large part, that's because bin Laden's strategy for arriving at this Promised Land is a fantasy. Al-Qaeda's leader prides himself on… more

Peter Bergen, author of two books about bin Laden and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, argues that capturing or killing bin Laden is as vital today as it was in the aftermath of Sept. 11. "I can’t imagine one single thing we could to that would be more important,” Bergen said. LINK

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Bin Laden's religious devotion went behind living a simple, pious life. He spent time in the Saudi desert, exposed to harsh conditions, believing it was his duty to prepare to fight and defend Islam. The opportunity came in the 1980s in Afghanistan. For more jihadis of bin Laden's generation, the first holy war. He organized his own all-Arab army to battle the Soviets occupying the Muslim country. PETER BERGEN, AUTHOR, "THE OSAMA BIN LADEN I KNOW": Young Arabs he was recruiting were… more

I. Long Term Strategic Weaknesses of al Qaeda.

(With thanks to Paul Cruickshank of New York University's Center on Law & Security for his input in this section).

After September 11, there was considerable fear in the West that we were headed for a clash of civilizations with the Muslim world led by Osama bin Laden, who would entice masses of young Muslims into his jihadist movement. But the religious leaders and former militants who are now critiquing Al Qaeda's terrorist campaign--both in the Middle East and in Muslim… more

PETER BERGEN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: ...The first female suicide attackers showed up in Iraq November 9, 2005. She, in fact was Belgian, conducted a suicide attack on an American convoy. But she was the beginning of a trend that, unfortunately, has increased. We've seen a large number of female suicide attackers. One of the reasons that al Qaeda is employing these female suicide attackers now is that the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq has decreased rather significantly. I… more

...Was Lieberman right in his history? Do the evildoers really mount terrorist operations to test new presidents early in their terms? I put this question to Peter Bergen, a journalist who is an expert on al Qaeda and terrorism. (He's written two good books on al Qaeda.) Bergen replies:

"The planning cycle of these ops militate against the idea that they were planned to test the new president. 9/11 was on the drawing board in 1996 and serious planning began in 1999.

There is… more