By Steve Huff 10/22/12 5:35pm

Terrorism

Al-Shabaab Twitter avatar.

Al Qaeda Affiliated Group Posts London Terror Threat

Just in time for tonight’s Presidential debate on foreign policy, Al-Shabaab, a Somali group which reportedly merged with al Qaeda in early 2012 has issued series of apparently threatening tweets on its Twitter account.

The posts were directed at the British government and referenced the “extradition and trial of Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Misri.” Al-Misri is a one-armed cleric who will soon be extradited from the U.S. to Great Britain. He will face charges connected to a hostage incident that occurred in Yemen in 1998 as well as charges related to fomenting jihad abroad and attempting to create a jihadi training camp in Oregon in 2001.

After referencing Al-Misri’s pending extradition, Al-Shabaab tweeted the following declarations: Read More

By Amanda Sterling 5/02/11 10:52pm

Terrorism

Experts Weigh in on Threat of Al Qaeda

In the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death yesterday in Pakistan, there are lingering questions about what remains of his Al Qaeda network, and whether the terrorist group maintains sufficient strength to retaliate against the United States.

The Observer spoke with a few national security and terrorism experts, who posited that while remaining Al Qaeda Read More

By Wesley Yang 1/26/11 1:13am

books

Not That Kind of War

The great military strategist Carl Von Clausewitz declared it “the supreme … act of judgment that the statesmen and commander have to make is to establish … the kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it nor trying to turn it into something which is alien to its nature.” By contrast, President Read More

By Suzy Hansen 7/31/08 4:26am

Istanbul Asks: Why Gungoren?

ISTANBUL, July 29—Two nights after devastating terrorist bombs exploded on its popular pedestrian shopping block, the neighborhood of Gungoren swarmed with people: old and young men repaired the shattered windows of a clothing shop under the blank, watchful eyes of naked mannequins; women in head scarves shared ice cream next to women in sundresses; shop Read More

By Matt Haber 6/26/08 3:11pm

Is There Anything YouTube Can't Do?

Two fresh takes on YouTube in today’s New York Times.

On the op-ed page, Daniel Kimmage files a piece from Baku, Azerbaijan, titled "Fight Terror With YouTube" about how Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda aren’t keeping up in the Web 2.0 world.

As Mr Kimmage writes:

Statements by Mr. bin Laden and Read More

By James Buchan 8/21/07 4:36pm

In Their Own Words: The Gospel According to Al Qaeda

THE AL QAEDA READER
Edited and translated by Raymond Ibrahim
Doubleday, 318 pages, $26

This volume, a collection of essays and broadcasts by Ayman Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, does the Al Qaeda leaders no favors. Whatever their capacities as terrorists, Dr. Zawahiri tends toward the wordy and Mr. bin Laden is Read More

By Chris Lehmann 4/16/07 12:00am

The Global War on Words

“When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

—George Orwell

Last week, the ink spurted vigorously from the usual tentacles of conservative alarm after a memo leaked out of the House Armed Services Read More

By Staff 4/11/07 3:37pm

McCain's Bulldog

John McCain’s speech today at the Virginia Military Institute left no doubt about his belief that American needs to persist and prevail in Iraq, and that the Democratic candidates’ “reckless” withdrawal plans would make for an unacceptable and catastrophic defeat.

“Our defeat in Iraq would constitute a defeat in the war against terror and extremism Read More