Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
The collapse of the Libyan government has led to the discovery of a treasure trove of documents, including evidence of close cooperation between the CIA and Libyan Intelligence in the rendition and torture of suspected al Qaeda members: Documents found at the abandoned office of Libya’s former spymaster appear to provide new details of the [...]
Understanding why your enemy hates you seems to be an important thing, but some people would rather believe in caricatures.
Ron Paul is again making the argument that American foreign policy has contributed to terrorism. He’s more right than wrong.
Any hope that a change in government in Tripoli would bring the people responsible for the bombing for Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland has gone out the window: TRIPOLI, Libya – The Libyan rebels’ interim government says it will not deport the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The rebel Justice Minister [...]
The U.S may be on the verge of committing the next decade to the future of Afghanistan.
Is the NYPD becoming too much like the CIA?
With rebel forces closing in around Tripoli, we’re once again getting word that the only man convicted in the bombing of Pam Am Flight 103, released by the British because he was supposedly dying of cancer, isn’t likely to die anytime soon: Scottish authorities have come under attack from around the world for the decision [...]
The New Yorker has a great piece out today by Nicholas Schmidle detailing the behind the scenes details of the mission that ended the life of Osama bin Laden: The Americans hurried toward the bedroom door. The first SEAL pushed it open. Two of bin Laden’s wives had placed themselves in front of him. Amal [...]
Some U.S. officials believe that the assassination of Osama bin Laden has put al Qaeda on the ropes: U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed alQaeda to the brink of collapse. The assessment reflects a widespread view [...]
The death toll in Norway’s deadliest day of terrorism is up to 91. The man behind it, 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, is a frequent poster of anti-Muslim screeds on Christian fundamentalist websites.
As I noted yesterday the United States is withholding certain military aid to Pakistan over that countries actions in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Now, Pakistan is threatening to end its cooperation in the War On Terror if aid remains cut off: Pakistan could pull back troops fighting Islamist militants near [...]
Signs of tension between the United States and Pakistan are becoming more and more evident: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is suspending and, in some cases, canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military, in a move to chasten Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to [...]
A new warning from the Transportation Security Administration: The U.S. government has warned domestic and international airlines that some terrorists are considering surgically implanting explosives into humans to carry out attacks, The Associated Press has learned. There is no intelligence pointing to a specific plot, but the U.S. shared its concerns last week with executives [...]
Today’s Washington Post reports that American drones have made strikes against “militants” in Somalia: A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday. The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amid [...]
After reading through the details of this story, one can only wonder why the people involved were thinking: Lena Reppert, a native of Barry County, was flying from Florida to move home to the Hastings area, where she’s living with relatives who are caring for her, said her daughter, Jean Weber of Destin, Fla. Instead [...]
A Pew Research Center poll released this week provides a stark reminder of just how bad the reputation is in what is arguably one of our most important strategic allies: Currently, just 12% express a positive view of the U.S. and only 8% have confidence in President Barack Obama to do the right thing in [...]
So reports the BBC: Ayman al-Zawahiri appointed as al-Qaeda leader The statement announcing his appointment was posted on a militant website and attributed to al-Qaeda’s General Command. "Sheikh Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, may God guide him, assumed responsibility as the group’s amir [leader]", it said. It vowed that under Zawahiri, it would pursue jihad or holy [...]
American drone strikes in Yemen are intensifying. Is this a new war. or just the same one we’ve been fighting since October 2001?
It wasn’t quite as dramatic as the raid that took out Osama bin Laden, but the United States has gotten another top ranked al Qaeda leader: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — One of Pakistan‘s most wanted militant commanders, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in an American drone strike in the tribal territory of South Waziristan, residents and a [...]
Via NPR: Reports: British Intelligence Battled Al-Qaida With Cupcakes British anti-terror activities took a decidedly sweet turn, last year. The Telegraph, The Guardian and the Associated Press, among others, are reporting that British intelligence agents hacked into one of al-Qaida’s English language publications and swapped out a recipe for home-made bombs with recipes for American [...]
Glenn Greenwald asks two questions about the cases of Osama bin Laden and Ratko Mladic. Helpfully, the second answers the first.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul wants a full debate on the PATRIOT Act. What’s Congress so afraid of?
As James Joyner noted in the days after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the helicopter that was disabled and had to be destroyed in bin Laden’s compound was a previously secret stealth helicopter that the U.S. military had never revealed before. In the aftermath of the raid there was concern over what Pakistan [...]
Frank R. Lindh, father of Abu Sulayman al-Irlandi (aka Sulayman al-Faris, Abdul Hamid, and John Walker Lindh) has an op-ed in the NYT asking “Bin Laden’s Gone. Can My Son Come Home?” The answer is, sure: In another 8 to 11 years.
Via the BBC: Osama Bin Laden: Al-Qaeda releases posthumous message Plus some speculation on Osama’s replacement: Speculation is mounting that al-Qaeda has appointed a former Egyptian army colonel, Saif al-Adel, as temporary leader to replace Bin Laden. Adel was once Bin Laden’s security chief, and is suspected of involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings [...]
Rick Santorum, may have made the dumbest comment of the Presidential campaign so far: Here’s Santorum: HH: Now your former colleague, John McCain, said look, there’s no record, there’s no evidence here that these methods actually led to the capture or the killing of bin Laden. Do you disagree with that? Or do you think [...]
I think it’s safe to say that tensions between Pakistan and US/NATO forces in Afghanistan are on a bit of a hair trigger: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani ground troops opened fire on two NATO helicopters that crossed into Pakistan’s airspace from Afghanistan early Tuesday morning, the Pakistani Army said in a statement. A firefight then [...]
President Obama’s approval numbers shot up after Osama bin Laden was killed two weeks ago. They’ve already settled back to where they were
The outgoing Secretary of Defense made a somewhat startling admission the other day regarding the leaks that have come out regarding the raid that killed Osama bin Laden: The Department of Defense is looking into ways to “pump up the security” for the team of Navy SEALs who helped kill Osama bin Laden after the [...]
Among the items recovered by SEAL Team Six from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound was, apparently, an extensive collection of pornography: (Reuters) – A stash of pornography was found in the hideout of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. commandos who killed him, current and former U.S. officials said on Friday. The pornography recovered in [...]
Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who will enter the Presidential race tomorrow, says he wouldn’t have tried to have Osama bin Laden killed.
John McCain thoroughly dismantles the argument that Osama bin Laden’s capture vindicates the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
Another day, another TSA absurdity: The Rev. Jacob Jester wasn’t trying to start anything. But when he saw security screeners at Kansas City International Airport patting down a baby — a baby — he took a picture. And then he shared that picture on Twitter. It went viral, and voila: Jester’s snapshot is the flashpoint [...]
Not surprisingly, having ordered a successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden is being highlighted on President Obama’s re-election tour.
Did a deal between the U.S. and Pakistan during the infancy of the war against al Qaeda play a role in the raid against Osama bin Laden?
Pakistan is trying to explain how the world’s most wanted man was able to hide in plain sight for six years, and failing badly.
One U.S. Senator wants to bring elements of the TSA’s security theater to America’s rail system.
Call it the legacy of Osama bin Laden: Two Muslim religious leaders who were removed from a commercial airliner in Memphis say they were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard. Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were supposed to travel on an 8:30 a.m. Delta flight, run by a subsidiary, [...]
In what may well be the most idiotic piece of commentary arising out of the successful mission against Osama bin Laden, former Bush Justice Department lawyer (he of the torture memos and “Unitary Executive” theory) claims that the Obama Administration chickened out by killing the al Qaeda leader rather than capturing him: John Yoo says [...]
At least according to his wife: Osama Bin Laden spent the last five years living in the room of his mansion where he was shot and killed by U.S. forces, according to Pakistan security officials. The claims were made by the terrorist leader’s wife, who apparently told interrogators that she and her husband had not [...]
In a move sure to satisfy Deathers as much as a contemporaneous newspaper story satisfied Birthers, al Qaeda has released a statement confirming that Osama bin Laden is dead.
The free world rallied around the United States after the 9/11 attacks–but not all back the killing of the man who ordered it.
Count John McCain among those who are skeptical about the role waterboarding played in finding Osama bin Laden: Sen. John McCain denounced “advanced interrogation” methods like waterboarding Wednesday amid a growing debate over its effectiveness reopened by the killing of Osama bin Laden. McCain told reporters leaving an intelligence briefing for senators by CIA director [...]
Safia bin Laden says that her infamous father was caught alive by U.S. forces and murdered in cold blood.
Congress is getting complaints that calling the Osama raid “Geronimo” is offensive to Indians.
The former half-term Governor of Alaska has chosen for some reason to chime in on the controversy surrounding the release of postmortem photos of Osama bin Laden: Good lord Sarah, why don’t we just chop his head off and put it on top of the Statue of Liberty’s flame? The blood lust that I’m seeing [...]
MSNBC is reporting that the White House has decided against releasing any postmortem photos of Osama bin Laden: The president has decided not to release photographs of Osama bin Laden’s body, according to a senior White House official. On the one hand, this seems to be potentially problematic to the extent it could give rise [...]
Randall Holcombe: The damage al Qaeda’s attack caused when it destroyed the World Trade Center was about $10 billion (not including the substantial cost in terms of human life). Meanwhile, the TSA’s annual budget is $6.3 billion, so we’re spending more than half the cost of the destruction of the World Trade Center every year [...]