The grievances expressed in bin Laden’s manifestoes, such as U.S. military presence in the Middle East and support for Israel, will be enough to replenish the ranks of Al-Qaeda and like-minded groups as long as the United States continues to pursue those policies.
Soon after the United States went to war against the Taliban in pursuit of Osama in October 2001, I penned a widely published analysis that at the time provoked controversy. However, it anticipated the course of the titanic struggle between a global power and a determined fanatic over the next decade.
We have, once again, played right into Osama bin Laden’s hands. This might seem like an odd assertion, since the al-Qaeda mastermind is finally dead at the hands of U.S. Special Forces, most heads of state have voiced their congratulations, and practically the entire U.S. citizenry is unified in celebration. But Osama bin Laden always understood that the weak use the weapons of the powerful against them, such as U.S. airplanes against U.S. skyscrapers.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to dispute that jihadists see a window of opportunity in the Libyan civil war.
According to a recent WikiLeaks dump, if harm came to bin Laden, the West would be subjected to a “nuclear hellstorm.”
WikiLeaks reveals that not only was the murderous Adil Bin Hamlili a double agent for the Taliban and the West, but he double-crossed them.
In After 9/11: Leading Political Thinkers about the World, the U.S. and Themselves, researcher Tobias Endler explores the role and aspirations of public intellectuals and how they reach out to their preferred audiences.
Though Abu Zubaydah was rejected by al Qaeda and is mentally ill, he’s been detained at Guantanamo for nine years with no plans to review his case.
It would be nice to see America expand its cache of good will cache to enhance our diplomatic — as opposed to military — capital.
Muammar Gaddafi is the undead chicken. Bashar al-Assad of Syria and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain are the unscared monkeys. The United States has shaped its policy toward the evolving situation in the Middle East according to the Chinese proverb of “killing the chicken to scare the monkey.” The Obama administration has intervened in the conflict in Libya with the apparent goal of punishing Gaddafi for cracking down on the emerging protest movement back in February. This intervention was designed to send a message to other autocrats in the region: don’t fire on your unarmed opposition — or else. But the United States and its allies are having problems with the “or else” part of the equation.