Al Qaeda

Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike On Yemen Terrorists

ABC News | By BRIAN ROSS, RICHARD ESPOSITO, MATTHEW COLE, LUIS MARTINEZ and KIRIT RADIA | Posted 12.18.2009 | World

Read More: Islamic Militants, Cruise Missile, Yemeni, Yemen, White House, Al Qaida, Al Qaeda, Terrorism, Obama, Obama Ordered Attack, Sana�A, World News

On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, admini...

Read Whole Story

"Model Prisoner" at Guantanamo, Tortured in the "Dark Prison," Loses Habeas Corpus Petition

Andy Worthington | Posted 12.15.2009 | Politics

Read More: Geneva Conventions, Jordan, World, War on Terror, Terrorism, Pakistan, Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, Guantanamo Detainees, Authorization for Use of Military Force, Guantanamo, Obama Administration, CIA Torture, Judge Ellen Huvelle, Judge Thomas Hogan, Hassan Bin Attash, World News, Osama Bin Laden, Habeas Corpus, Al Qaeda, Politics News, Enemy Combatants, Habeas Corpus Guantanamo, Guantanamo Bay, Dark Prison, The Guantanamo Files, Musa'ab Al-Madhwani, Extraordinary Rendition, Politics News
Andy Worthington

Al-Madhwani joins eight other prisoners in a legal netherworld, no longer regarded as "enemy combatants" by the administration, but still detained indefinitely as though they were.

Read Post

To Beat Al Qaeda, Look to the East

Scott Atran | Posted 12.13.2009 | Politics

Read More: Karl Eikenberry, Taliban, General Mcchrystal, Al Qaeda, Obama Afghanistan War, Afghanistan War, Politics News
Scott Atran

We're winning against Al Qaeda and its kin in places where antiterrorism efforts are local and built on an understanding that the ties binding terrorist networks today are more cultural and familial. Consider recent events in Southeast Asia.

Read Post

Sunday Roundup

Arianna Huffington | Posted 12.12.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Nobel Peace Prize, Pakistan, Al-Qaeda, Nobel Peace Prize, Afghanistan, War in Iraq, War in Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Politics News
Arianna Huffington

This week, in accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama strenuously argued that "as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation" he "cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people." I couldn't agree more. But what exactly are the threats to the American people coming from Afghanistan? The Taliban? Or the 100 al-Qaeda members who didn't get the "we're moving to Pakistan" memo? In his 2002 denunciation of the war in Iraq, Obama said: "I don't oppose all wars...What I am opposed to is a dumb war." Well, escalating troop levels to 100,000 and spending $30 billion a year to take on 100 terrorists -- that's 1,000 U.S. soldiers and $300 million for every one al-Qaeda fighter -- while the real threats lie elsewhere strikes me as the gold standard of a dumb, immoral war of choice.

Read Post

Slain Al-Qaeda Leader Posthumously Named Employee of the Month

Andy Borowitz | Posted 12.12.2009 | Comedy

Read More: Borowitz Report, Andy Borowitz, Cia, Predator Drones, Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, Comedy News
Andy Borowitz

In a new videotape broadcast today on Al-Jazeera, terror mastermind Osama bin Laden named fallen terrorist Abu Yahya al-Libi Al-Qaeda's "Employee of the Month" for December.

Read Post

The New York Times - Getting Pakistan Wrong

Wajiha Ahmed | Posted 12.14.2009 | Media

Read More: New York Times, Taliban, Drones, Pakistan, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan War, Media News
Wajiha Ahmed

While some Pakistanis might subscribe to outrageous theories, it is disingenuous to paint such a simplistic picture. The NYT's report that Pakistan's media outlets "trumpet" conspiracy theories is incomplete.

Read Post

Obama's Lincolnesque Nobel Peace Prize

William Bradley | Posted 12.11.2009 | World

Read More: Iran, Al Qaeda, Pakistan, Cairo, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, Taliban, Iraq, Nobel Peace Prize, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, 9/11, Emancipation Proclamation, Civil War, World News
William Bradley

Lincoln is Obama's professed ideal. We remember Lincoln today from civics lessons and the monument in Washington, but the historical reality is that he was both soaring idealist and ruthless pragmatist.

Read Post

Can Arlen Specter End the War in Afghanistan?

Robert Naiman | Posted 12.11.2009 | World

Read More: Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania, Ned Lamont, Taliban, Joe Lieberman, Iraq, Jim McGovern, Senate, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan War, Joe Sestak, World News
Robert Naiman

Who knew Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter would emerge as one of the most vocal opponents in the Senate of the President's military escalation in Afghanistan?

Read Post

CIA's Blackwater Ties Run Deep, Private Firm Participated In Covert Raids

AP | Posted 12.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: Al Qaeda, Central Intelligence Agency, Raids, Cia, Blackwater, XE Services, Iraq, Afghanistan, Politics News

WASHINGTON — Private security guards working for Blackwater USA participated in clandestine CIA raids against suspected insurgents in Iraq and A...

Read Whole Story

McChrystal: Bin Laden Key To Defeating Al Qaida

AP | Posted 12.09.2009 | World

Read More: Mcchrystal, Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden, Taliban, Afghanistan, Osama, General Mcchrystal, Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, World News

WASHINGTON — The general in charge of the war in Afghanistan says capturing Osama bin Laden is the ultimate key to defeating the al-Qaida terror...

Read Whole Story

A Toilet in Somalia

Dr. Charles G. Cogan | Posted 12.08.2009 | World

Read More: Yemen, Somalia, Afghan Taliban, Al Qaeda, Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan Surge, 9/11, Obama Afghanistan Speech, Afghanistan War, World News
Dr. Charles G. Cogan

Al-Qaeda and like-minded terrorists don't need Afghanistan to carry out operations. These can be mounted from anywhere or anyplace, from Yemen to Somalia, to Hamburg or to ... Detroit.

Read Post

As Threats Increase, Sometimes It Is The Informants That Go Wild

Brian Levin, J.D. | Posted 12.08.2009 | Politics

Read More: Neo-Nazi, Cair, Terrorism, Hal Turner, First Amendment, Informants, Right-Wing Extremism, Fbi, Al Qaeda, Politics News
Brian Levin, J.D.

While the conduct of a couple of loose-cannon informants can be a headache for the FBI and the butt of jokes, behind the scenes authorities are increasingly concerned about evolving threats from across the ideological spectrum.

Read Post

Najibullah Zazi Case: Arthur Folsom No Longer Representing Terror Defendant

AP | Posted 12.07.2009 | Denver

Read More: Arthur Folsom, Najibullah Zazi, Denver New York City Terror Cell, Cia, Fbi, Al Qaeda, Denver Terror Defendant, Denver News

DENVER — A Denver lawyer thrust into the international spotlight while representing a Colorado man accused of plotting a terrorist attack is no ...

Read Whole Story

The Winds of War

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen | Posted 12.07.2009 | World

Read More: Obama, Cia, Afghanistan Surge, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan War, World News
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen

Redoubling the effort in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater will only indirectly deny terrorists the kind of safe havens they need to plan another 9/11 scale attack.

Read Post

No to Afghanistan? But Didn't We Say...?

Rick Horowitz | Posted 12.07.2009 | Politics

Read More: Hamid Karzai, Anti-War Democrats, George Bush, Obama and Afghanistan, Democrats and Iraq, George W. Bush, Obama and Iraq, Al-Qaeda, George Bush and Iraq, Democrats and Afghanistran, Obama and Pakistan, Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Obama Administration, Politics News
Rick Horowitz

Don't pretend that we haven't spent these past years shouting "Afghanistan! Afghanistan!" at every opportunity. And now that there's a president who's listened, who's reluctantly reached the very same conclusion, we say -- "Nevermind"?

Read Post

Sam Stein

Feingold: Why Surge Where Al Qaeda Isn't?

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 12.06.2009 | World

Read More: Russ Feingold, Afghan National Security, Obama Surge Policy, Obama Surge, Feingold Afghanistan, Feingold Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda Afghanistan, World News

One of the fiercest critics of the proposed surge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan warned on Sunday that the policy would distract America from the pursu...

Read Whole Story

Al Qaeda In The Islamic Maghreb: Kidnappings Rife Across North Africa

GlobalPost | Solana Pyne | Posted 12.04.2009 | World

Read More: Barcelona Accio Solidaria, North Africa, Gambia, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al Qaida, Mauritania, Morocco, Terrorism, North Africa Al Qaida, Senegal, Al Qaeda, World News

RABAT, Morocco -- They called it a "solidarity caravan" -- a group of Spanish volunteers delivering truckloads of donated computers, wheelchairs and o...

Read Whole Story

What Are We Fighting For In Afghanistan?

Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould | Posted 12.04.2009 | World

Read More: Targeted Assassinations, Al Qaeda, Predator Drones, Blackwater Crimes, Geostrategic Positioning, General Stanley McChrystal, Soviet Union, Manichean, World News
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould

For 60 years the United States played both Pakistan and Afghanistan against each other in a Manichean, dualist game of superpower politics with little regard for the consequences.

Read Post

Barack Obama's War: 10 Key Things To Know

William Bradley | Posted 12.04.2009 | World

Read More: Al Qaeda, Nato, Pakistan, Taliban, Afghanistan, Iraq, Soviet Union, Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Richard Nixon, Britain, World News
William Bradley

It's Barack Obama's war now -- a war in which the Nobel Peace Prize-winner has placed himself at the helm of the largest military force ever sent to Afghanistan. Here are some key things to know.

Read Post

Obama's Surge: The Real Reason

Jamal Dajani | Posted 12.04.2009 | World

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Afghanistan Surge, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Pakistan, Stanley McChrystal, Asif Ali Zardari, Taliban, Barack Obama, Al Qaeda, World News
Jamal Dajani

It's not because of bin Laden, al-Qaeda, or the Taliban. The real reason behing the surge is Pakistan, a failed state with nuclear warheads.

Read Post

Najibullah Zazi, Denver Man Accused Of Terrorist Plot, Has Day In Brooklyn Court

AP | TOM HAYS | Posted 12.03.2009 | Denver

Read More: Denver Terrorist, Ny and Denver Terror Probe, Najibullah Zazi, Al Qaeda, Zazi, Denver News

NEW YORK — Federal authorities expect to file more charges in an alleged plot by an al-Qaida associate to attack New York City with homemade bom...

Read Whole Story

Jason Linkins

Critics Of Obama's Exit Strategy Have Argument Backwards

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 12.04.2009 | Politics

Read More: Afghanistan Exit Strategy, Obama-Speech-Afghanistan-121, War on Terror, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Escalation, Afghanistan Escalation, Barack Obama, Al Qaeda, Politics News

The narrative that seems to be emerging from the most bellicose critics of last night's speech by President Barack Obama is that his setting a start d...

Read Whole Story

Victory in Afghanistan - Calling All Artificial Intelligence Experts

Mark Goulston, M.D. | Posted 12.02.2009 | Living

Read More: Al-Qaeda, Terrorists, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Long Term Memory, Oprah Winfrey, Short Term Memory, David Rock, Artificial Intelligence, Ideology, Living News
Mark Goulston, M.D.

When I think of some of my own long term, fixed ideologies that I resist changing, I am wondering what would need to happen for me to challenge them and re-engineer them.

Read Post

This Is Not Just America's War

Anders Fogh Rasmussen | Posted 12.02.2009 | World

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen Nato, Barack Obama, Al Qaeda, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Afghanistan War, World News
Anders Fogh Rasmussen

I congratulate President Obama on his strategic vision. But as he noted, this is not just America's war. Violent extremism in Afghanistan poses a clear and present danger to everyone, and we must stand strong against it.

Read Post

Afghanistan -- the Sisyphus War

Jayne Lyn Stahl | Posted 12.02.2009 | Politics

Read More: u.s. Troops Afghanistan, Afghanistan Troops, Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, Obama Afghanistan Troop Increase, Bil Clinton, Sisyphus, Afghanistan War, Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Politics News
Jayne Lyn Stahl

As Albert Camus once said, "The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back o...

Read Post