Are al Qaeda and Iran really at odds?
The debate about the Islamic Republic's collaboration with al Qaeda is far from over
Peter Bergen
A Legacy of Terror
“Bin Laden? Why are you reading that?” asked the proprietor of an Israeli bodega just off the Tel Aviv beach. I was buying a bottle of water, but the shop was full of multicolored flags, thongs,...
Op-eds
Afghanistan’s Terrorist Resurgence: Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Beyond
Download the full testimony here. ...
Congressional Testimonies
The Final Obama Scandal
Co-written by Stephen F. Hayes. Less than 24 hours before the official end of the Obama presidency, while White House staffers were pulling pictures off the walls and cle...
Op-eds
Analysis: Osama bin Laden’s Documents Pertaining to Abu Anas al Libi Should be Released
A senior al Qaeda operative known as Abu Anas al Libi has died in the US as he was awaiting trial. Al Libi was ca...
Op-eds
Spinning Al-Qaeda
Since June 2012, Peter Bergen, the swashbuckling reporter who serves as CNN’s national-security analyst and a director of the liberal New America Foundation, has been among those in the for...
Op-eds
The Middle East’s Disappearing Borders
“The last year was a good one for al Qaeda, and for jihadism more broadly,” ...
Op-eds
Is the Terrorist Threat Declining? The Use and Abuse of Statistics
Earlier this month, terrorism analyst Peter Bergen wrote at CNN that the declining number of...
Op-eds
Our ‘Bar the Door’ Strategy
I like bipartisanship as much as the next guy. Still, the Washington Post...
Op-eds
Al Qaeda Is Back!
By all accounts, the attack was planned with care and executed with precision. At two notorious Iraqi prisons, Abu Ghraib and Taji, al-Qaeda combatants last week used mo...
Op-eds
Salafi Jihadism in the North African Regional Context
Chairmen Poe and Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Members Sherman and Deutch, distinguished members of the subcommittees, it is an honor to appear before you today to discuss the threat of jihadist terroris...
Congressional Testimonies
Black Swans, Icebergs and Benghazi
‘Humans are great at self-delusion,” the polymathic philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb has observed. I’m confident he’d agree that the humans who populate the foreign-polic...
Op-eds
Exploiting Osama Bin Laden’s Files
Top U.S. intelligence officials revealed new details about the exploitation of Osama bin Laden’s extensive archive during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday. The officials r...
Op-eds
John Brennan and the Bin Laden Files
During a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center on April 30, 2012, John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee to head the CIA, discussed “The Ethics and Efficacy of the U.S. Pres...
Op-eds
A Religious Taboo
American officials can kill our enemies. They just can’t discuss our enemies’ beliefs.
Op-eds
Perceptions of the “Arab Spring” Within the Salafi-Jihadi Movement
Co-authored by Tara Vassefi “The popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain have not only shaken the foundation of the authoritarian order in the...
Op-eds
Lessons of the Battle of Benghazi
Our enemies will learn them. Will we?
Op-eds
Is Al-Qaeda Defeated?
Its ideology is not — and ideology matters.
Op-eds
The Anti-Social Network: How al-Qaeda Survives
Co-authored by Adam Elkus Terrorism watchers are engaged in a heated debate about the strength of al-Qaeda, the central leadership of which is believed to be in Pakistan. Defens...
Op-eds
It’s Far From Safe to Say That al-Qaeda is Dead
Agrowing chorus of Western analysts is arguing that al-Qaeda is dead, and that it is time to end the “global war on terror.” As the ubiquitous CNN terrorism analyst and bestselling au...