Nigeria’s Terrorism Problem, by Alex Thurston Why the suicide bombing of the U.N. compound in Abuja isn’t just a lone incident — and why it could spark an ugly religious war in Africa’s most populous country. Read more on Foreign Policy
Attack in Norway
Analysis from STRATFOR on the attack in Norway: ” . . . the lone wolf operational model presents a number of challenges for law enforcement, intelligence and security officers. The primary challenge is that, by definition, lone wolves are solitary actors and it can be very difficult to determine their Continue Reading
June 2011: National Counterterrorism Strategy
“We are bringing targeted force to bear on al-Qaeda at a time when its ideology is also under extreme pressure,” states the Obama administration’s “National Strategy for Counterterrorism.” Click here to download.
The Future of al-Qaida
Here’s a link to an article I wrote on May 10 for Praeger Security International. The title is “The Future of al-Qaida Without Bin Laden“.
The Future AQ Threat
My thoughts on the future threat of al-Qaida include three kinds of potential motivations for attacking the U.S. in some major way in the coming months. 1) There is the oft-cited concern about retaliation, avenging the death of bin Laden. A group or even an individual somewhere is already thinking Continue Reading
Bin Laden’s Death
Bin Laden’s Death and the Implications for Jihadism By Scott Stewart U.S. President Barack Obama appeared in a hastily arranged televised address the night of May 1, 2011, to inform the world that U.S. counterterrorism forces had located and killed Osama bin Laden. The operation, which reportedly happened in the Continue Reading
Al Qaeda responds to CNN
By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst In the fifth issue of Inspire magazine, a slick Web-based publication, heavy on photographs and graphics that, unusually for a jihadist organ, is written in colloquial English, Anwar al-Awlaki hit back at CNN on Tuesday. In an essay titled “The Tsunami of Change,” Continue Reading
Harmony and Disharmony report – New URL
The Combating Terrorism Center (where I used to work) has overhauled their website, so old links to various reports and documents are no longer working. If you happen to be looking for the popular report “Harmony and Disharmony: Exploiting Al-Qaida’s Organizational Vulnerabilities,” it is now available at this location: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/harmony-and-disharmony-exploiting-al-qaidas-organizational-vulnerabilities Continue Reading
Beware of bad “counterterrorism experts”
For anyone planning to go into law enforcement, or already working in that profession, this is an important article: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1103.stalcup-craze.html There are too many sham “counterterrorism experts” out there giving law enforcement professionals all kinds of bad information, often false assertions and outright lies. People need to be forewarned of Continue Reading
Brachman Testimony
Jarret Brachman Testifies on AQAP Media Earlier this week my colleague Jarret Brachman provided expert testimony to the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. The hearing, which was entitled, “Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland – Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” focused on AQAP’s use Continue Reading