Category Archives: Osama Bin Laden

Security authorities launch massive sweep for al-Qaeda

Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Yemeni security forces have apprehended thirty terrorist suspects over the course of ten days as part of a massive security sweep.

Security authorities launch massive sweep for al-Qaeda

Abdul-Aziz Oudah, Yemen Observer, Feb 3, 2009

The Ministry of Interior has announced a comprehensive campaign against all suspected al-Qaeda hideouts, following last week’s declaration of the appointment of Nasser al-Wahishi, who has been wanted by Yemeni security since 2006, as the new Amir for Arabia. His compatriots include the former Saudi Guantanamo detainees, Saeed al-Shihri and Mohammed al-Aofi, who escaped Saudi Arabia several months ago.

The manager of the security section at the Ministry of Interior, General Mohammed al-Qosi, said security authorities are observing sites where the organization is likely to be hiding, indicating that public cooperation has been helpful in locating these hideouts. Al-Qosi added that the al-Qaeda threat is not something new in Yemen, but rather has been present for many years. Continue reading Security authorities launch massive sweep for al-Qaeda →

The Endorsement from Hell

Election 2008, Iraq War, Osama Bin Laden, Somalia, Terrorism Issue

The Endorsement From Hell
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, The New York Times, October 25, 2008

John McCain isn’t boasting about a new endorsement, one of the very, very few he has received from overseas. It came a few days ago:

“Al Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” read a commentary on a password-protected Islamist Web site that is closely linked to Al Qaeda and often disseminates the group’s propaganda.

The endorsement left the McCain campaign sputtering, and noting helplessly that Hamas appears to prefer Barack Obama. Al Qaeda’s apparent enthusiasm for Mr. McCain is manifestly not reciprocated. Continue reading The Endorsement from Hell →

Jangling Nerves in Yemen

Development, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Damage is seen after a car bombing near the U.S. embassy in Yemen in this frame grab taken from Yemen TV on Sept. 17, 2008.

Jangling nerves

The Economist ,Oct 2nd 2008


Resurgent terrorist groups are just a symptom of broader troubles

THE wreckage of twin car bombs outside the American embassy in Yemen’s mountain capital, Sana’a, confirmed fears of a resurgent jihadist movement in a strategic country at the foot of the Red Sea, just across from chaotic Somalia. The attack in mid-September was the second on the American embassy in six months. A misfired mortar that hit a nearby girls’ school in March had prompted the evacuation of non-essential American staff.

Jittery diplomats had been back at their desks for less than a month when six suicide-bombers blew themselves up outside the embassy compound’s gate. American staff promptly packed their bags once again. Yemen’s interior ministry rounded up dozens of suspects but is said to be refusing to adopt some of the State Department’s suggested extra security measures. Continue reading Jangling Nerves in Yemen →

Are Suicide Operations Losing their Mass Appeal?

Ethics, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

Are Suicide Operations Losing their Mass Appeal?

By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, Asharq Alawsat, Tuesday 23 September 2008

Why are Suicide operations no longer a cause for admiration and awe among those that are usually indignant?

The answer is that the same propaganda weapon that the Al-Qaeda organization used has turned against it. The Al-Qaeda used to promote their explosive-laden heroes as they read their last will and testament and smiled to the cameras. After their operations multiplied, the pictures of these victims – children, women, and elderly – became popular on every road on which their vehicles passed and exploded. Without the need for a survey, we can say that only a few continue to support suicide-operations, I mean among the Muslims in whose name these operations and used and justified.

The figures shown in the latest scientific study confirm the results of previous surveys. They show a continuous and consistent drop in all the Muslim countries with the exception of Egypt where, according to the study, support for such operations rose 5% over last year. Continue reading Are Suicide Operations Losing their Mass Appeal? →

Reading Bin Laden

Anthropology/Sociology, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue


Flagg Miller, an assistant professor of at UC Davis, translated and analyzed about 20 tapes of Osama bin Laden. Photography by HECTOR AMEZCUA

UC Davis researcher delves into the mind of bin Laden

By Bobby Caina Calvan, The Sacramento Bee, Thursday, September 11, 2008

For five years, a University of California, Davis, researcher has been replaying hundreds of hours of audiocassettes that, he says, yield deeper – and more complex – insights into the intellectual development of Osama bin Laden.

A collection of 1,500 audiocassettes was carted away from bin Laden’s compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001 and provides a glimpse into bin Laden’s rise leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Certainly, few would dare humanize the man the United States calls its most wanted, who seven years after the country’s deadliest terrorist attacks is still being sought dead or alive.

On the seventh anniversary of the attacks, the most brazen ever carried out anywhere in the world, bin Laden still looms large on the American psyche, its politics and public life. Continue reading Reading Bin Laden →

A Course on the Collision Course

Afghanistan, Books You Should Read, Iraq War, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue

[The aftermath of 9/11 has yielded a stream of books on Islam and violence, so much so that it is rare to find a book about Islam that does not tackle the issue one way or the other. Part of this is due to media promotion of books like Bernard Lewis’s What Went Wrong? and the neocon mantra borrowed from Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations thesis. A refreshing rejoinder to all this clash talk is provided by Gene Heck in his recent When Worlds Collide: Exploring the Ideological and Political Foundations of the Clash of Civilizations. Here is an excerpt from his Introduction. Webshaykh]

What are the Causes of Modern Middle East Terror?

5. That the so-called Wahhabi movement is often unjustly maligned for alleged doctrines and precepts that do not comport with the actual teachings of the movement’s eighteenth-century founder, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, who advocated jihad by peaceful, not militant, means. Continue reading A Course on the Collision Course →

Jihadi studies

Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue


The obstacles to understanding radical Islam and the opportunities to know it better

by Thomas Hegghammer, Times Literary Supplement, April 2, 2008

We were all frightened by the destruction caused on 9/11. Yet most of us, regardless of political orientation, assumed that there would be people in the intelligence services or in academia who possessed detailed knowledge about the jihadists. It might take time, and we might disagree on the methods, but the experts would eventually bring the perpetrators to justice. How wrong we were. Of course, the CIA knew the basics about al-Qaeda, such as the location of the Afghan training camps and the approximate whereabouts of the top leadership. But as Osama bin Laden slipped out of Tora Bora one foggy morning in early December 2001, al-Qaeda left the realm of tactical intelligence and became the complex organization-cum-movement which, six years later, we are still struggling to understand. For a few years, the commanders of the so-called War on Terror enjoyed the benefit of the doubt. After all, we did not know what they knew. However, it has become increasingly clear how little was known about al-Qaeda back in 2001, and how long it will take for us thoroughly to understand the dynamics of global jihadism. Continue reading Jihadi studies →

The Iraq experience has laid bare the limits of raw military power

Iraq War, Osama Bin Laden, Shi'a, Terrorism Issue

by Max Hastings, The Guardian, Monday, March 17 2008

[This article appeared in The Guardian on Monday March 17 2008 on p32 of the Comment & debate section. It was last updated at 00:05 on March 17 2008].

The Iraq war has shown how high is the pain threshold of the west. Five years after the 2003 invasion, the daily roll call of Iraqi suicide bombings, murders, firefights and body-bags has become as familiar a part of our landscape as traffic jams on the M1 and Los Angeles freeway.

The media class on both sides of the Atlantic is deeply engaged, indeed impassioned. The war is much discussed in the US presidential election campaign. But most Americans and Europeans display vastly less interest in the Middle East than in troubles closer to home – the global banking crisis foremost among them.

They have grown used to Iraq in the way they do to a chronic personal ailment. It is there. It is nasty. They wish that it would go away. But it does not inflict the sort of agonising pain that causes democracies to force urgent action upon their governments. Continue reading The Iraq experience has laid bare the limits of raw military power →