Articles

BLITZER: Secretary Cohen, thanks very much for joining us. You must be tired after all that questioning on the Hill. We’ll continue this conversation.Our terrorism analyst Peter Bergen has been closely monitoring today’s testimony as well. He’s watching it all of it. Peter is here in Washington. Peter, what surprised you, if anything, during these […]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Al-Zawahiri may be involved in a fierce battle that’s been going on now for the past couple days. U.S. officials have told CNN that Pakistanis believe it is Ayman al- Zawahiri. U.S. officials have no independent confirmation of that right now. It’s the middle of the night, 2:30 a.m., along that border right now. But by daybreak, we do anticipate that Pakistani air assault will begin against these targets. Peter Bergen is our terrorism analyst. He’s an author on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and has interviewed Osama bin Laden. He’s joining us now live from Washington. Peter, how significant is Ayman al-Zawahiri?

The attacks in Madrid Thursday morning suggest that the Al Qaeda network remains very much in business. Despite the fact that two wars have been fought in the name of winning the “war on terrorism” and untold billions of dollars have been spent in an effort to break the back of Al Qaeda, the attacks came as a total surprise, killing more than 200 people.

Are They Winning?The complex multiple attacks in Madrid that killed some two hundred people as they went to work last Thursday morning demonstrate that the al Qaeda network remains very much in business. The attacks came with total surprise despite the fact that two wars have been fought in the name of winning the War […]

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, most Americans couldn’t tell the difference between Wahhabism and wasabi. Following the attacks on Washington and New York, Americans quickly began to learn about Saudi Wahhabism because of several unpalatable facts: Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi; Saudi charities and individuals funded al Qaeda; militant Saudi clerics provided theological ballast for Osama bin Laden’s anti-American fatwas, and the Saudi government had long obstructed U.S. inquiries into terrorism emanating from its country. And bin Laden himself is a product of the Saudi system, a system that is in deep crisis.

BLITZER: Are you still inclined to believe it’s ETA, the Basque separatist movement? PERLE: It could very well be a joint venture. It seems clearly intended to affect the Spanish elections. And both ETA and al Qaeda have an interest in seeing the current government defeated. BLITZER: How unusual would that be, Peter, for al […]

-While the Spanish government is blaming ETA for the attacks on the trains on Madrid, and ETA may well be to blame for these attacks, al Qaeda can also not be ruled out as a suspect.-In October 2003 bin Laden released an audiotape calling for attacks on countries supplying coalition forces for the Iraq war […]

Host: Al-Qaida and terrorism. Next On The Line.

Host: In recent days, suicide bombings have killed scores of Iraqis. More than forty people were killed in a Baghdad explosion. And more than fifty were killed in the city of Iskandariya. Many of the victims were Iraqis applying for jobs. An Al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is suspected of plotting dozens of suicide bombings in Iraq. Al-Qaida also continues to target civilians in many other countries: Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, Kenya, and Indonesia.

I have just started reading Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars which tells the story of the CIA’s involvement in Afghanistan from the invasion of the Soviets in 1979 up until the 9/11 attacks. I could not recommend it more highly. The Soviet war in Afghanistan was arguably the most important conflict in the post World War […]

What Would Osama Think?

Dateline: An undisclosed location somewhere on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.

It’s been more than two years since Mohammed Atta and my eighteen other holy warriors inflicted so much damage on the Crusaders in New York and Washington, so it’s time to take stock of how my jihad is going. Certainly there have been losses: my friend and military commander Mohammed Atef was martyred in Afghanistan and many of my top aides have been captured or killed since 9/11.