Latest in Al Qaeda
In a previous post, I argued that the organization of Al Qaeda declined even as the movement it championed remains robust.
Al Qaeda’s power and influence have fallen considerably from its peak in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, but several well-respected analysts suggest the group remains strong and may resurge. My Georgetown colleague Bruce Hoffman argues that as the West focuses on the Islamic State, Al Qaeda is rebuilding and plans to assert control after the caliphate’s defeat.
PDF version
A review of Charles Lister's The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency (Oxford, 2015).
***
As I explained in a New York Times op-ed today, Captain Nathan Smith has gone to court for a declaratory judgment on the legality of President Obama’s undeclared war against the Islamic State. While I encourage readers of Lawfare to read the entire Complaint submitted by David H.
Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared on Markaz.
This week, the president’s Homeland Security Advisor, Lisa Monaco, made news by announcing that the White House will release long sought data on the U.S. drone program. An important development, no doubt.
But that's not all she said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence yesterday released a second set of documents recovered during the raid of Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The trance includes 113 newly declassified documents, adding to the government's publicly accessible "Bin Laden Bookshelf."
The Islamic State opened up a new front when it downed a Russian passenger plane in October over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. U.S. and allied attention understandably focuses on the terrorism threat posed by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) to their own homelands or on the carnage in Syria, now estimated to have consumed almost 500,000 lives.
Editor's Note: The Saudi-Iranian rivalry has long been a driver of instability and extremism in the Middle East, and this tension grew even worse when the Saudis executed Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric and outspoken critic of the ruling family, on January 2nd. The rivalry has played out across the Middle East, with Yemen being one key -- and often neglected -- arena.
Editor’s Note: Terrorism's biggest impact is rarely in the violence of the attack itself. Rather, it is the government’s response -- for better or for worse -- that often determines whether a terrorist attack will succeed on a strategic level. Looking at the November attacks in Paris, Colin Geraghty of Georgetown argues that the French government is moving in the wrong direction, playing into the narrative of the Islamic State and making the terrorism problem worse in the long-run.
***