Al Qaeda

Statement from the family of Osama bin Laden

by Paul Woodward 05.12.2011

The New York Times published a statement from the family of Osama bin Laden. I Omar Ossama Binladin and my brothers the lawful children and heirs of the Ossama Binladin (OBL) have noted wide coverage of the news of the death of our father, but we are not convinced on the available evidence in the [...]

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The bin Laden assassination

by News Sources 05.11.2011

Did Pakistan know bin Laden was ‘hiding in plain sight’? David Ignatius writes: The ISI is, in the biblical phrase, a house with many mansions. What was known in one wing was not always shared with others. Indeed, if the ISI had transmitted information about sheltering bin Laden, U.S. intelligence almost certainly would have picked [...]

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News roundup — May 10

by News Sources 05.10.2011

Bin Laden sons say U.S. violated international law The adult sons of Osama bin Laden have lashed out at President Obama over their father’s death, accusing the United States of violating its basic legal principles by killing an unarmed man, shooting his family members and disposing of his body in the sea. The statement said [...]

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News roundup — May 9

by News Sources 05.09.2011

Bin Laden’s death doesn’t end his fear-mongering value Glenn Greenwald writes: On Friday, government officials anonymously claimed that “a rushed examination” of the “trove” of documents and computer files taken from the bin Laden home prove — contrary to the widely held view that he “had been relegated to an inspirational figure with little role [...]

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News roundup — May 8

by News Sources 05.08.2011

Bin Laden vows no US security in final tape Osama bin Laden warned in his final audio tape recorded before being killed by American commandos there will be no US security before the Palestinians live in security, an Islamist website reported Sunday. Addressing US President Barack Obama, he said: “America will not be able to [...]

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Obama’s policy of targeted killing wins praise from Israelis

by News Sources 05.07.2011

As Barack Obama continues his campaign of targeted killing — this time with a failed attempt to assassinate the American-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, in Yemen — many Israelis regard this as a vindication of their own approach to eliminating their enemies. In Haaretz, Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel write: As far as Jerusalem is concerned, [...]

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“Osama bin Laden is my father”

by News Sources 05.07.2011

The Guardian reports: Osama bin Laden’s daughter cradled the head of her wounded mother in the room where the al-Qaida leader had just been killed. “I am Saudi,” she told Pakistani security officials shortly after US special forces had flown away with the terrorist’s bloodied body. “Osama bin Laden is my father.” The 12-year-old had [...]

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The cost of fear: How Osama bin Laden helped drive America towards bankruptcy

by Paul Woodward 05.06.2011

While most of America is celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, it’s worth giving credit where credit is due: he didn’t just nurse a quixotic ambition — to attack the US economy — but he also figured out how it could be done and succeeded. Perhaps he was inspired by the AIDS virus and [...]

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Growing up in terrorized America

by News Sources 05.06.2011

The New York Times reports: Ashley Bright was 15 years old and on her way to school in Cottonwood, Ariz., when she stopped at a friend’s house and saw the news that two planes had hit the World Trade Center. At the time, Ms. Bright did not even know what the twin towers were. “I [...]

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9/11 is not the axis around which the world revolves

by Paul Woodward 05.05.2011

You can’t talk like a five-year old without ending up thinking like a five-year old, yet this is the mentality many Americans bring to bear when they look at the world through the prism of 9/11. America is at war with “bad guys” and on Monday morning “we got him” — the baddest guy of [...]

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The execution of Osama bin Laden — updated

by Paul Woodward 05.03.2011

We know Osama bin Laden wasn’t armed when he was shot and killed. We know he wasn’t hiding behind a woman. What we’ve yet to find out are the exact orders that were given to whoever pulled the trigger, but so far mounting evidence suggests that in the early hours of Monday morning, US Navy [...]

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Osama bin Laden and the Arab Spring

by Paul Woodward 05.03.2011

Premature death offers the surest path to immortality. No, that isn’t a metaphysical statement; just a rather prosaic observation. Che Guevara, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John F Kennedy, Malcolm X and now Osama bin Laden — all will forever be remembered through iconic images that capture their vitality, untarnished by age and infirmity. The war [...]

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The death of Osama bin Laden

by Paul Woodward 05.02.2011

“As crowds gathered outside the White House, there was little question that Mr. Obama’s presidency had forever been changed.” That’s the caption the New York Times put under the photo below. David Axelrod might have preferred this event to have occurred closer to the end of Obama’s reelection campaign, though accusations that the news was [...]

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Taliban commander vows to avenge Bin Laden’s death

by News Sources 05.02.2011

The Guardian reports: A Taliban commander in Afghanistan has promised that his fighters would mount attacks to avenge the killing by US forces of Osama bin Laden. The commander, who gave his name as Qudos and operates in the northern province of Baghlan, said: “The killing of Osama bin Laden will bring no change to [...]

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Bin Laden’s body buried at sea

by News Sources 05.02.2011

Brian Whitaker reports: The dilemma of what to do with Osama bin Laden’s body appears to have been quickly resolved if reports that he has been buried at sea prove correct. Burying him on land could have led to his grave becoming a centre of contention as well as raising questions about where he should [...]

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The Gitmo Files

by News Sources 04.24.2011

On Sunday April 24, 2011 WikiLeaks began publishing 779 secret files from the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The details for every detainee will be released daily over the coming month. Children and senile old men among detainees The Guantánamo files reveal the often fragile physical and mental condition of Guantánamo’s oldest and youngest residents, [...]

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The Obama administration’s appalling decision to give Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a military trial

by News Sources 04.05.2011

Dahlia Lithwick writes: Today, by ordering a military trial at Guantanamo for 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants, Attorney General Eric Holder finally put the Obama administration’s stamp on the proposition that some criminals are “too dangerous to have fair trials.” In reversing one of its last principled positions—that American courts are sufficiently [...]

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Libya offers lessons for both Washington and al Qaeda

by Paul Woodward 04.02.2011

It’s hard to observe Washington without concluding that it fosters a political culture in which stupidity — or at least feigned stupidity — is a prerequisite of success. Pity the politician who might be so naive as to imagine that the appearance of intelligence would boost his or her political fortunes. It has thus been [...]

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Amid all the turmoil in the Middle East, al Qaeda remains invisible

by News Sources 02.26.2011

Jason Burke writes: In the summer of 2007, the senior leadership of al-Qaida decided on a major effort in Egypt, Algeria and Libya. Their campaign elsewhere in the Middle East, after an apparently promising start, had not been going very well. Public sentiment in key countries had turned against the extremists the moment bombs started [...]

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The myth of Talqaeda

by News Sources 01.10.2011

Alex Strick van Linschoten writes: The purported merger of the Taliban and al-Qaeda is the WMD of the Afghan war. This myth is almost as old as the two groups themselves. There’s so much writing on Afghanistan that it’s always going to be easy to find wild theories and dodgy “scholarship”, but this supposed morphing [...]

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Al Qaeda braced for a war without end

by News Sources 12.16.2010

Syed Saleem Shahzad reports: Richard Holbrooke, the United States special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan who died on Monday aged 69, had come to the realization that the nine-year war in Afghanistan had to come to an end. Stopping the war will not be an easy matter. The situation on the ground is not so [...]

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New York Times plays down Saudi role in promoting terrorism

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2010

“WikiLeaks cables portray Saudi Arabia as a cash machine for terrorists,” declares The Guardian, reporting on the US State Department’s concerns about the Kingdom’s role in funding al Qaeda and other militant organizations. The New York Times opts for the bland, “Cash Flow to Terrorists Evades U.S. Efforts,” with a subhead, “Arab Allies Resist U.S. [...]

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Al-Qaida is the least of impoverished Yemen’s problems

by News Sources 12.05.2010

Ian Black writes: It is hard to know where to start when looking at unhappy Yemen’s many problems – but one thing is certain: the threat of resurgent al-Qaida terrorism that so preoccupies the US and other western countries is not its biggest one. The poorest country in the Arab world, Yemen is running out [...]

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“We will be with you until you are bankrupt and your economy collapses”

by News Sources 11.25.2010

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross writes: [In a March 2010 video, al Qaeda spokesman Adam] Gadahn put his finger on an important insight that AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] is now reiterating: Even failed attacks can help the jihadists by “bring[ing] major cities to a halt, cost[ing] the enemy billions, and send[ing] his corporations into bankruptcy.” [...]

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