Treasury designates 3 senior al Qaeda members in Iran
The Treasury Department announced today that three senior al Qaeda members have been added to the US...
Muhsin al-Fadhli
Iran Is Working with al Qaeda
On July 21, the Pentagon announced that Muhsin al-Fadhli, an al Qaeda operative who had been wanted for more than a decade, was killed in an airstrike in Syria earlier in the month. Fadhli has be...
Op-eds
Doomed Diplomacy
Not long after his inauguration in January 2009, President Barack Obama penned a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. As a presidential candidate, Obama had promised...
Op-eds
Senior al Qaeda Leader Returns to Twitter, Praises ‘Martyrs
The al Qaeda leader known as Sanafi al Nasr, who is based in Syria, returned to Twitter yesterday after a month and half absence. He praised al Qaeda's "martyrs," including Adnan al Shukriju...
Op-eds
Was David Drugeon a French Intelligence Agent?
David Drugeon, a high-ranking French member of the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan group in Syria, has been little known by English speakers. That is beginning to change: On October 29, CNN reported tha...
Op-eds
Sandstorm
The great medieval historian Ibn Khaldun centered his understanding of history on asabiyya, which is perhaps best translated as esprit de corps mixed with the will to power. In his maste...
Op-eds
Misunderstanding al Qaeda
On Tuesday, September 23, the U.S. government announced that a new bombing campaign was under way in Syria. The Obama administration had been building the case for airstrikes for weeks. The presi...
Op-eds
ISIS as a Common Enemy not Enough to Make US, Iran Allies, say Critics
The U.S. effort to stem Islamic State’s reign of terror in Syria and Iraq has America and one of its most bitter enemies - Iran - in the same camp, which some experts warn could be a recipe...
Op-eds
Kuwait’s Embattled Justice Minister Part of Deeper Terror Finance Problem
A contentious battle over Kuwait’s reported role in terrorism finance is currently playing out in public. Earlier this year, the Kuwaiti Amir appointed a highly questionable figure to run h...
Op-eds
Global al Qaeda: Affiliates, Objectives, and Future Challenges
Chairman Poe, Ranking Member Sherman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the threat posed by al Qaeda. We have been asked to “examine the nature of...
Congressional Testimonies
See No Evil
During his speech at the National Defense University on May 23, President Obama sought to reassure Americans that they are “safer” because of the administration’s “efforts...
Op-eds
Assessing the Threat to the Homeland from al Qaeda Operations in Iran and Syria
Chairman King, Ranking Member Higgins and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the threat posed by al Qaeda’s operations inside Iran and Syria. These ar...
Congressional Testimonies
Egyptian Authorities Break Up Embassy Plot
The Egyptian interior ministry announced Saturday that an al Qaeda plot against a Western embassy and other targets had been disrupted. Two suspected terrorists are being held for questioning and...
Op-eds
Canada Plot Revives Concerns about Ties Between Iran and al-Qaeda
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced on Monday that it disrupted a plot to derail a VIA passenger tra...
Policy Briefs
What Did Iran Know?
Last week, the U.S. government announced that Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden’s Kuwaiti-born spokesman and son-in-law, had been arrested in Jordan and is awaiting trial in New York Cit...
Op-eds
The Joint Iran and al-Qaida Operation Declares War
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comparison between al-Qaida and Iran during his September 27 address to the UN has garnered greater urgency since the US Treasury department on Thursday...
Op-eds
Treasury ‘Further Exposes’ Iran-al Qaeda Relationship
The US Treasury Department announced today that it has designated Adel Radi Saqr al Wahabi al Harbi, who is "a...
Op-eds
DNI Clapper: ‘Shotgun Marriage’ Between Iran and Al Qaeda
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper called the relationship between Iran and al Qaeda a “shotgun marriage” during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursd...
Op-eds
Report: New Leader of al Qaeda Network in Iran Named
A notorious Kuwaiti terrorist named Muhsin al Fadhli has reportedly taken over leadership of al Qaeda's network inside Iran. Sky News...