New York Daily News

Peter Bergen in New York Daily News | 'CIA Launches Offensive Against Al Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan'

Communications — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:12:00 -0400

New America in the News:

"When you hit the Haqqanis, what you hope for is a phone call from a grieving relative to somebody else you want to kill," said Al Qaeda expert Peter Bergen.

The "signals intelligence" intercepts "lead you to the next target," said Bergen, who once interviewed Osama Bin Laden. LINK

To Win the Middle Class, Time to Roll Out Obamanomics 2.0

Articles — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:18:00 -0400

Democrats gather in Denver this week with worries as well as hopes. It's not just that Barack Obama is locked in a dead heat with John McCain. It's also that he is barely winning - and in some polls actually losing - on the issue that should be his strongest - the economy.

If Obama is going to triumph, he needs to attract the middle-class voters who've watched their jobs, health care, retirement savings and family finances grow less secure. But this will only happen if he sharpens and expands his economic message, without further delay. To do that, he must put three moves into his economic playbook so… more

Obama Should Emulate FDR

Ron Tang — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:20:00 -0400

During his historic run for the White House, Barack Obama has been compared to an impressive range of Presidents. His oratory reminds some of Kennedy, his paeans to national greatness evoke Reagan and the postpartisan themes of his campaign bring to mind Bill Clinton.

But if one looks at Obama's campaign in a larger historical context, the most apt comparison may be Franklin Roosevelt. At a time when the nation was hungry for real solutions to serious national challenges, FDR understood what too few Democratic presidential contenders have since: At moments of profound discontent, the nation craves not a policymaker in… more

Dems, Beware Electability Trap

Ron Tang — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:04:00 -0400

With her campaign on life support, Hillary Clinton is making the one political argument that could hold the greatest sway with national Democrats: She is more electable.

It's hardly a surprising approach. Convinced of the party's vulnerabilities with the electorate and intimidated by opponents seen as masters of the black art of negative campaigning, Democrats are long accustomed to making electability their political lodestar.

But history shows that this is a shallow and counterproductive game -- one that can and should finally be put to rest in this election cycle.

Electability took on heightened significance for Democrats after the disastrous 1984 (Mondale) and… more

New York Daily News Quotes Peter Bergen on Osama Bin Laden

Communications — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:59:00 -0400

New America in the News:

WASHINGTON - The weekend's attempted attacks in London and Glasgow are a distressing sign that Osama Bin Laden's expanding influence has instigated a two-tiered terror war, with Al Qaeda organizing 9/11-like attacks and its homegrown cronies carrying out limited, random strikes.

"If you're a counterterrorism official in Washington this morning, you have two concerns: the big attacks and the small ones," Al Qaeda expert Peter Bergen said yesterday.

The "spectacular" attacks will likely always be the domain of Bin Laden's henchmen. But easier-to-execute small-scale hits, which many experts fear are in our future, will be the work of wanna-bes.

"The small ones are not going to be 9/11, but they will cause public stress," said Bergen, who interviewed Bin Laden for CNN a decade ago...

For the complete article, please visit the New York Daily News website.

Inequality Has Run Amok. Do Leaders Care?

Articles — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:57:00 -0400

When pets are poisoned by imported pet food or U.S. attorneys are fired under suspicious circumstances, Congress gears up hearings and vows quick action. A far greater scandal, however, has hardly gained the interest of legislators or the presidential candidates. That is the increasing wealth gap between the rich, the middle class and the poor, which is reaching alarming proportions.

The top 10% of income earners in the United States now owns 70% of the wealth, and the wealthiest 1% owns more than the bottom 95%, according to the Federal Reserve. In 2005, the top 300,000 Americans enjoyed about the same… more

When Student Lenders Compete, N.Y. Wins

adminn — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:16:00 -0400

Colleges and college aid officials have been funneling their students to big banks like Sallie Mae and Citibank in exchange for cash, gifts and in-kind benefits, according to a series of recent public investigations, the most energetic of which is being led by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Thus far, the investigations have resulted in the suspension of 10 higher education officials, including Columbia University's director of financial aid, the issuance of almost 100 subpoenas nationwide, and a series of financial settlements with several colleges and three student loan banks. The colleges have agreed to gift bans… more

Invest $500 in Every NY Newborn

Articles — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:08:00 -0400

To his credit, Mayor Bloomberg challenged his anti-poverty commission to think boldly. Well, how’s this: Every poor New Yorker should have the opportunity to build wealth.

Imagine your life without any assets -- without a bank account, investments, savings, a home, an education, a nest egg for retirement or any money to pass on to future generations. Feels pretty insecure, doesn’t it? Turns out that such "asset poverty" is higher in New York than in any other state in the nation.

Now imagine the lives of 1.7 million poor New Yorkers if they suddenly had the opportunity to build real… more

Peter Bergen on Release of Bin Laden Tapes in The New York Daily News

Communications — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 00:45:00 -0400

New America in the News:

WASHINGTON - The flurry of messages from Osama Bin Laden and his deputy this year suggests the pair is regaining control over Al Qaeda operations for the first time since the U.S. toppled the Taliban, two top experts told the Daily News.

"It means their command and control over Al Qaeda is probably stronger than we thought it was," said Michael Scheuer, who ran the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit and is the author of "Imperial Hubris."

Bin Laden has issued five audiotapes since he ended a 14-month silence in January. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has released eight audio- or video-taped anti-Western speeches this year.

Few believe anymore that Al Qaeda tapes signal terror cells to strike, or otherwise foreshadow an impending attack.

But the messages do suggest Al Qaeda leaders are probably able to communicate as easily with henchmen plotting attacks as they are with operatives putting the tapes on the Internet, according to Scheuer and Peter Bergen, two of the foremost American experts on Bin Laden.

"It shows they're extremely unconcerned about releasing them" as a risk to their own security, said Bergen, author of "The Osama Bin Laden I Know" and one of the first Western journalists to interview the Al Qaeda founder in 1997.

"The heat is not on," Bergen said.

Al Qaeda's media wing, As Sahab ("The Cloud"), has posted recent tapes directly on Web sites instead of sending them to Arab TV channels to selectively edit. Plus, Bergen said, "It's hard for the CIA to watch every Internet cafe in Pakistan..."

For the complete article, please visit The New York Daily News website.

Meanwhile...

Articles — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 16:20:02 -0400

While the long overdue death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the "sheikh of the slaughterers," is hailed as a "good omen" by the American ambassador to Iraq, it is likely that conditions in Iraq will continue to worsen. Knowing who this man was and why he fought are key to understanding why.

Zarqawi was the most famous but not the most important fighter committed to defeating the American coalition and its Shia allies in Iraq. His martyrdom will mythologize him in a way that his arrest would have shamed him.

As a young man growing up in… more