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PolicyWatch #1477: Special Forum Report Al-Qaeda Today Featuring Assaf Moghadam, Farhad Khosrokhavar, and Matthew Levitt February 13, 2009 Listen to Audio On February 10, 2009, Assaf Moghadam, Farhad Khosrokhavar, and Matthew Levitt addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon hosted by The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. The speakers discussed al-Qaeda today and the changing face of the global jihadist threat. Dr. Moghadam is assistant professor and senior associate at the U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Dr. Khosrokhavar is a professor of sociology at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and...

The Sayyid Qutb Reader Selected Writings on Politics, Religion, and Society Edited by Albert J. Bergesen Routledge, 2008 0415954258 (paperback; $34.95) 041595424X (hardback; $135.00) Preface It has been said that perhaps no writer has occupied so central a place within the universe of political Islam in the second half of the twentieth century as Egypt's Sayyid Qutb, and if one wants to understand the mind of radical Muslims, one needs to know what they read, or have read, and they read Sayyid Qutb. In general, his work has been divided into three periods. The earliest (1920-1947) centers on more literary...

A banner once displayed in front of an abandoned Al-Qaeda safehouse in Iraq has found a new home at a US military museum.The three-meter-long (10-foot-long) black flag, recovered by a battalion of Marines in Fallujah in November 2004, is now on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia.The flag "is believed to be the same banner seen in the atrocious videos broadcast all over the world displaying the torture and executions of many innocent civilians by insurgents and terrorists," according to the text accompanying the exhibit.The flag was found, the narrative went on to say,...

Like Brian De Palma, Osama Bin Laden has recently released a new movie. Like De Palma’s new release, Bin Laden’s new feature is predictably anti-American. Unlike previous Bin Laden special productions, America’s arch-enemy has taken another arrow out of Hollywood’s quiver. Bin Laden has moved almost far enough left to successfully compete for next year’s presidential endorsement from MoveOn.Org. We could almost call him Osama Bin Lenin. Bin Lenin’s latest propaganda flick incorporates many of the “known facts”™ that pervade the typical speech given by the average leftwing American Populist. He perhaps read Senator Jim Webb’s November 2006 editorial in...

Islamic Unity: Bin Ladin's Version v. Khameini's September 10, 2007 History News Network Timothy R. Furnish Usamah bin Ladin’s September 2007 video address has been analyzed five ways from Friday: as an anti-capitalist screed; yet another indictment of Bush administration Middle East policy; a coded go-ahead for another attack on the U.S.; vindication of Noam Chomsky and Michael Scheuer; and even as a fashion statement (journalists have not been so agog over a beard since Lincoln ran for President). But considering that Bin Ladin is in effect one of two global poles of authority for anti-Western Islam, it would be...

According to Pakistani diplomatic sources, U.S. intelligence has revealed that Osama bin Laden is hiding in the "White Cave" in the Tora Bora mountains, and is currently carrying out military operations there aimed at leading to his capture.

After watching the interview by Chris Wallace of former president Clinton the thing that struck me most was not his self-righteous anger but that people are still buying his act. Those on the left of the political spectrum here in the U.S. are indeed fools. If they are not fools then they are traitors. Either way they should be kept from high office. By high office I mean they should not ascend higher than say, plan review in a local building department. That is as long as they're not structural plans. By Clinton's own admission he tried and failed to...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A new al-Qaida videotape posted Sunday on a militant Web site featured a short, undated clip of a weary-looking Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom. The bin Laden clip, which lasted less than a minute, was part of a 40- minute video featuring purported al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan paying tribute to fellow militants who have been killed in the country. It was posted by the group's media production wing. Bin Laden glorified those who die in the name of jihad, or holy war, saying even the Prophet Muhammad "had been wishing to be a martyr." "The happy...

WASHINGTON – It has been denied, downplayed, overlooked, forgotten, disregarded and omitted from the public record. But a thorough review of open-source material demonstrates conclusive and widespread cooperation between former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and terrorists from the Iraqi al-Qaida network. Dozens of former Saddam Hussein loyalists captured by U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq were found to be working with al-Qaida

If you are feeling tired about supporting the war, if you are tired of standing for freedom, watch the video. Let Anger be our weapon.

the 9/11 plot with testimonies of experts and pictures of the terrorists. How they looked like Westerners (watch their original clothes) and worked with Iraq to do 9/11. How they were trained in Salman Pak, Iraq. And how Ahmed Al Haznawi was treated in Holy Cross Hospital in June 2001 for sknin infection by anthrax. The first anthrax attacks happened in September 18 2001, with a letter which stated: "Death to America, Allah is great." Experts link Iraq before both 9/11 and the anthrax attacks which remained unsolved. Watch the video. The enemy is stronger than we thought.

For the past two days, U.S. and NATO forces have been conducting a major attack against a compound in a remote area of Eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden or another senior al Qaeda leader may be hiding, ABC News has learned. According to eyewitnesses and local reporters in Kunar province, Coalition forces launched a fierce attack on a small enclave in the village of Mandaghel, approximately 17 miles from the border with Pakistan, on Friday afternoon. Warplanes pounded the positions ; U.S. special forces and Afghan National Army soldiers moved in shortly afterwards. The assault appeared to meet stiff...

Osama bin Laden defended attacks by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi against civilians in Iraq, purportedly saying in a taped Web message Friday that the slain militant was acting under al-Qaeda orders to kill anyone who backs U.S. troops. Bin Laden paid tribute to the former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in a 19-minute audio message posted on an Islamic militant Web site. The message has narration by a voice resembling bin Laden's as a video shows an old picture of him in a split-screen next to images of al-Zarqawi taken from a previous video. Bin Laden addressed "those who accuse Abu Musab...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden may be the leading symbol of global Islamist militancy but the al Qaeda leader wields less influence over Islamist ideology than more obscure religious thinkers, according to a new study issued on Wednesday. The study also found that Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's second-in-command, appears to be insignificant among Islamist intellectuals despite his image as a driving force behind the al Qaeda network. The Militant Ideology Atlas, compiled by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, instead showed Palestinian cleric Mohammed al-Maqdisi as the most influential living Islamist thinker. Maqdisi, reportedly a mentor to the...

American Hiroshima AL-QAIDA ABLE TO BUILD NUKE WEAPON INSIDE U.S. Determined terrorists with less than $10 million could murder 100,000 Americans within months November 2, 2006 WASHINGTON – Terrorists could assemble a small group of fewer than 20 to construct a Hiroshima-size nuclear bomb, purchase the fissionable uranium needed and transport it to the U.S. city of their choice for less than $10 million, says a new report published in the November-December issue of Foreign Policy. "The Bomb in the Backyard" was the result of the investigative work of Peter D. Zimmerman and Jeffrey G. Lewis. Zimmerman is professor of...

"Al-Qaeda : the Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat" 32 page PDF file

Saturday, September 23, 2006 · Last updated 5:42 a.m. PT France looks into bin Laden death report By ELAINE GANLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is "in no way whatsoever confirmed." Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press. The regional newspaper l'Est Republicain on...

A masterful new work on al-Qaeda and 9/11 explains how a loser cult has metastasized On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, U.S. and Afghan troops in "eastern Afghanistan" -- a vague delineated land that doesn't necessarily stop at the Pakistani border -- captured a man called Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Who? Well, he was the head of Hezb-i-Islami -- or, latterly, one faction of it. And for a while he was prime minister of Afghanistan, and an opponent of the Taliban, and then an ally of the Taliban. And in recent years he's been Iran's Mister Big in the Hindu Kush. He's...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday named the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the International Islamic Relief Organization as fund-raisers for al Qaeda and other terror groups. It also designated one of the Saudi-based organization's high-ranking officials, Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil, as a fund-raiser for al Qaeda. The action means that no American can have any dealings with the two branches of the organization or with Al-Mujil and that any assets they have in the United States will be frozen. "Al-Mujil has a long record of supporting Islamic militant groups, and he has maintained a cell...

India must stand by the Balochs The Pakistan Air Force and Army, using aircraft, helicopters and communication sets given by the US and missiles given by the Chinese, claims to have killed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, one of the founding fathers of the Baloch independence struggle. Thirty six other freedom-fighters belonging to the Bugti and Marri tribes were killed in a three-day operation which began August 24 in the Bhambore Hills, an area between the towns of Kohlu and Dera Bugti. According to Pakistani media reports, Balach Marri, who was believed to be the chief of the Balochistan Liberation Army...

Questioning one’s patriotism is a shameless act. Regardless, some Bush supporters do this frequently when confronting Bush’s critics who condemn Bush’s handling of the war against terror and the war in Iraq. Instead of painting the left as being anti-American, the Bush people should review some of the statements made by Democrats and debate the real issues. Speaking of the war against terror, a Democratic lawmaker noted that while fighting Al Qaeda, America suffers “without achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations.” A fellow colleague in the Senate noted that because of the wars the...

This day I am going to meet a wanted man by the name of Qari Mohammed Yusuf. He is a cameraman for al-Qaida's production company called As Sahab or The Cloud. He's wanted by the Afghan government. Jamal Mutalab Beg, police chief in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province until last month, confirmed his identity and said he is being hunted by his government, which believes Yusuf tried to carry out acts of sabotage last year. The former police chief also confirms Yusuf's family details. He is the youngest of five brothers. His eldest brothers are all dead. Two died fighting with...

SITE Institute: Usama bin Laden, the Emir of al-Qaeda, Speaks Regarding the Martyrdom of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in an Audio Speech Issued by as-SahabLaura Mansfield: The new Bin Laden tape regarding the death of Zarqawi has just been released on the internet. Audio tape over split screen with still photo of Bin Laden on one side and video of Zarqawi on other side. Can be downloaded at http://www.lauramansfied.com/cso.rm

At 5:45 PM Eastern / 2:45 PM Pacific, Fox News Channel's "The Big Story w/ John Gibson" will report on the developing story involving more than $1,000,000 in contributions from the Bin Laden family to ex-President Jimmy Carter. The revelations came about following an investigation by Melanie Morgan and the Censure Carter Committee - a project of the pro-troop organization, Move America Forward. These developments are in addition to tens of millions of dollars in funding from Arab governments who are appreciative of Carter's anti-Israeli stance and Carter's opposition to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East including opposing...

The latest tape purportedly released by Osama bin Laden may be an attempt by the al-Qaida chief to regain his eminence in the global terror network and raise his profile overall after being sidelined by insurgents in Iraq, terrorism experts said Wednesday. In an audio tape posted on the Internet late Tuesday, a speaker claiming to be bin Laden said that neither Zacarias Moussaoui — the only person convicted in the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks — nor anyone held at Guantanamo had anything to do with the al-Qaida operation. "I am the one in charge of the...

Rumors of Osama bin Laden's death are greatly exaggerated and the al-Qaida leader is preparing his next video broadcast to be aired on al-Jazeera, reports an acclaimed Pakistani journalist who has interviewed him. In an exclusive interview with Paul L. Williams, author of the new book, “The Dunces of Doomsday,” and David Dastych in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, Hamid Mir says bin Laden is not only alive and well but in the process of preparing a video-taped appearance for al-Jazeera, the Qatari Arabian news network.

The Anchoress, in her post, 7:28 minutes of American Reality, pointed to us to post #19 and post #22 of a thread at Luciane.com. The video is a British BBC summary of what happened on 9/11. President Bush is catching a lot of flak for so doggedly going after the terrorists but the only thing that will stop them is to kill them and, for the ones that we don't kill, we need to make them social pariahs in their own countries.One of the things that we've done wrong in the War On Terror is not to de-Islamify the enemy. I don't...

The Desert Camp, February 1999 Early in 1999, the CIA received reporting that Bin Ladin was spending much of his time at one of several camps in the Afghan desert south of Kandahar.At the beginning of February, Bin Ladin was reportedly located in the vicinity of the Sheikh Ali camp, a desert hunting camp being used by visitors from a Gulf state. Public sources have stated that these visitors were from the United Arab Emirates.151 Reporting from the CIA’s assets provided a detailed description of the hunting camp, including its size, location, resources, and security, as well as of Bin...

Monday, Feb. 13, 2006 6:27 p.m. EST Al Gore Event Funded by Bin Laden's Family The Saudi Arabia seminar that was addressed by former Vice President Al Gore over the weekend in a speech that criticized the U.S. for being too tough on Arabs was sponsored, in part, by Osama bin Laden's family. On Saturday, the state-run Saudi news outlet Arab News reported that the Jeddah Economic Forum, where Gore spoke, was funded by "Saudi Arabian Airlines, the Saudi Binladin Group, Gulf One Investment Bank, Saudi Basic Industries Corp." and an array of other big companies with ties to the...

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh today on my way to an afternoon meeting and he kept going on and on about the ‘Terrorist Bill of Rights’, which I thought was exactly what the Democrats seem to represent these days.So, in a blatant rip-off of Rush’s excellent analogy, and another rip-off from the 1994 Congressional Republican Contract With America, I decided to save the liberal Democrats some time and create for them ‘The 2006 Congressional Democrat Contract With Al Qaeda to provide the same clarity of purpose and promise the Republicans provided America back in 1994. This 2006 Congressional Democrat...

Let’s Call It a Draw Osama’s generous offer. He’s still got it! With the release of his latest audiotape, Osama bin Laden took complete control of the news cycle. He was the top story on every news channel, front-page headline in print. His words seized the world’s attention, and demonstrated that the public fascination with him remains his greatest power. His terrorist armies are scattered, his state sponsors overthrown, his safe havens reduced to a slowly diminishing cluster of temporary sanctuaries on the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. But with ten minutes of rambling into a tape recorder he can take over the...

Yaa, you repukes are not doing so well, huh? Imagine, you repukes control the presidency, both houses of Congress, and appointed 7 of the 9 Supreme Court justices. Yet the Supreme Court thre out sodomy laws in all 50 states and recognized the right of government to seize land for any reason. And you couldn't pass your Social Security changes could you? Sorry, that was your last shot. Come November, we're going to start seeing more Democratic faces in the House. It's the end for you guys. You guys are celebrating when Bush's numbers go *up* to 45%. Then Faux...

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Why does anybody support George w Bush as President? He is clearly the worst President I have ever seen -- a complete disaster. And before you say anything, I have been a registered Republican for 25 years.

Lies of omission about 9/11 -- stoking fears of terrorism THEY WANT YOU TO BE AFRAID The following post was censored by freerepublic.com shortly after it was posted on their "public" forum on 9/11/04. That forum is designed to appear as though it is a community forum open to all, but this post only received three responses before it and its replies were deleted, and a repeat posting at 4 am PST on 9/20/04 didn't stay online for 5 minutes! Someone is apparently watching closely over the content of the freerepublic.com forums and censoring them 24/7 (though they might have...

Albania Seizes Assets Of Bin Laden Associate TIRANA (AP)--The Albanian government has seized the assets and bank accounts of a man who allegedly worked with Osama bin Laden and others to provide support to terror networks in Albania, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. Abdul Latif Saleh, who holds Jordanian and Albanian citizenship, was placed on a U.N. sanctions list in September, requiring all U.N. members to impose a travel ban on him and block his assets. Albania earlier had blocked 33 bank accounts in three commercial banks as well as assets and investments in Saleh's businesses and civic organizations he...

Shukhrat Masirokhunov met with Osama bin Laden, was trained by Khattab, recruited mujaheddin and fought Americans in Afghanistan. He also has firsthand knowledge about the situation in Chechnya A Tashkent city court delivered a guilty verdict against members of the Akromiylar movement who took part in the Andizhan events (May, 12-13, 2005). The authorities allege that militants from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) were also involved. Shukhrat Masirokhunov, 34, a former chief of the IMU counterintelligence service who was extradited from Pakistan several months ago, is now awaiting trial in Tashkent. He faces 20 years in prison. It is...

Four years after President Bush launched a war to oust Osama bin Laden from his hideout in Afghanistan, many are mystified how a polite son of a millionaire construction magnate in Saudi Arabia could turn into the world’s most wanted terrorist. According to many experts, a clue may lie in the life and works of Sayyid Qutb, an Islamic ideologue who was radicalized after an overwhelmingly negative experience in the United States and later imprisoned and executed by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime in Egypt in 1966...Qutb’s journey to radicalism started in 1948 when the Egyptian government sent the young school...

DEBUNKING CINDY SHEEHANHEAR ABE LINCOLN/JOHNNY CASH + PBS' NEIL CONANby Mia T, 8.31.05 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)   "You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East."--Cindy Sheehan "And if you think I won't say bulls**t to the President, I say move on, cause I'll say what's on my mind."--Cindy Sheehan   The trusty triad's half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies,...

  A former CIA officer, he was deputy director of the U.S. State Department Office of Counterterrorism, 1989-1993, and now heads the consulting firm Berg Associates. He explains why he believes the U.S. has often exaggerated the terrorist threat and analyzes the danger posed by Osama bin Laden.   So, what are we to make of the embassy attack in Nairobi or the World Trade Center?What we are to make is that terrorism remains a potential threat in the world. I don't think we're ever going to eliminate terrorism, and from that standpoint, we should not dismantle capabilities to combat...

I am amazed that this is so hard to understand. Iraq War 1 was in 1990, Iraq War 2 was in 2003, now are in Iraq War 3, the invasion of the terrorists. Let's be clear, we brought the war to the Iraq as an enforcement of the UN mandates. Question what you will on motivations and intelligence, we went in, and won decisively. Let's assume at that point that Iraq was in a bubble, any remaining resistance was from Saddam loyalists who had the most to lose with the elimination of the tyranny. If that were the case, the...

Behind the Lone Terrorist, a Pack Mentality By Mike German Sunday, June 5, 2005; Page B01 The FBI has long maintained that Timothy McVeigh, who was executed in 2001 for the Oklahoma City bombing that claimed 168 lives, was the prototypical "lone wolf" terrorist and that anyone implicated in the bombing conspiracy is behind bars. But old loose ends and troubling new revelations about McVeigh's association with white supremacist groups have led many people to wonder whether a wider conspiracy was behind the bombing that took place just over 10 years ago. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, is considering...

Until recently, Wafah Dufour was known as Wafah bin Ladin, a monumental handicap for this aspiring singer. Her lyrics are in English and the sentiments expressed are clearly Western. But this 25-year-old cosmopolitan woman is a product of several cultures. Dufour's passport is American, her education European, her heritage Saudi Arabian. She is also the niece of Osama bin Laden. Dufour told Barbara Walters she has "never met him" but still can't escape the name. "No, I can't. Unfortunately," said Dufour. She has adopted her mother's maiden name, Dufour, and is now looking to develop a singing career after spending...

Report by "La Opinion" Hispanic daily paper in Los Angeles today, May 25, 2005. Translation into English from Spanish by Alta Vista Babelfish. Comment: Can President Bush, in good faith, now criticize The Minutemen, who might be providing a supporting role as average, fed up and concerned citizens, in the War on Terrorism by actually DOING SOMETHING at the local level despite his naysaying and criticism??

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Gas costs so much. I cant afford it. Why want Bush do something? Don't say he can't. His daddy or his handlers could be on the phone in 2 minutes with the Rothchilds and by 1 week, oil prices would be under $20 and gas would be 1 dollar a gallon. You know it and I know it. Why want he? Do you know? Is there sombody we can call? Plaese advice.

<p>What is this palce? Are you peeple for reel? Is this some kind of joke?</p>

I apologize for being me, true and dedicated to freedom for everyone especially those who haven't seen it truly in a long time.

<p>Stop inhumane experiments on liberal trolls!!!!!!! Oh my! I recently encountered stunning liberal talking points concerning trolldom! Or concerning what FReepers do on the forum with idiots.</p> <p>I was really shocked and my eyes wide open when I was reading it! Unfortunately I lost the link but I will retell you what I happened to get to know. The people at the DNC set inhumane experiments over trolls! It is outrageous!</p>