Is al-Qaeda Dead?

A Conversation with Ambassador Husain Haqqani
Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States
And featuring FDD experts Reuel Marc Gerecht and Bill Roggio

Click here for the rapporteur notes.

One year after U.S. Navy SEALS and CIA operatives killed Osama bin Laden, some have claimed that al-Qaeda is mortally wounded without its charismatic founder. Yet, the terrorist network continues to plot attacks against the West, with the assistance of Iran and parts of Pakistan’s security services. How much of a threat does al-Qaeda pose to U.S. national security? How has the terrorist network adapted to its new dynamic post-bin Laden? How significant is the assistance of Iran and Pakistan to al-Qaeda? What does this assistance mean for the future of U.S.-Pakistani relations and U.S. involvement in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater?

FDD was pleased to host Ambassador Husain Haqqani to discuss these timely and important questions. Amb. Haqqani was joined by FDD experts Reuel Marc Gerecht and Bill Roggio.

Ambassador Husain Haqqani was Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States in Washington, DC from 2008 to 2011. Amb. Haqqani had a distinguished career in government serving as advisors to Pakistani Prime ministers Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Nawaz Sharif, and Benazir Bhutto. From 1992 to 1993 he was Pakistan’s ambassador to Sri Lanka. Amb. Haqqani is a professor at Boston University and previously was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Amb. Haqqani is the author of Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (Carnegie, 2005) and has contributed to numerous international publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The Financial Times. He regularly comments on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Islamic politics and extremism on BBC, PBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News and ABC.

Reuel Marc Gerecht is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Iran analyst at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. He focuses on the Arab Revolt, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism, and intelligence. Mr. Gerecht is the author of The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East, Know Thine Enemy: A Spy’s Journey into Revolutionary Iran, and The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy. He is a contributing editor for The Weekly Standard and a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, as well as a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other publications.

Bill Roggio is Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD’s The Long War Journal (LWJ), which provides original reporting and analysis of the global war on terror. Coverage includes strategic and operational issues relating to the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Lebanon, and more extensively in Iraq, as well as al-Qaeda’s operations, tactics, and strategy. It has been hailed as “the best-in-class on situation awareness, especially of the Af-Pak theater.” Mr. Roggio has embedded with the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Army, the Georgian Army, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 and with the Canadian Army in Afghanistan in 2006.

Moderated by Cliff May, president of FDD.