al Qaeda
The Bin Laden Raid: Inside the Situation Room Photo
In the universe of historic photographs, few are more iconic this this image of key White House policymakers watching and waiting for confirmation that SEAL Team Six had succeeded in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. Although this photo is known as the “Situation Room” ...read more
8 Facts About Osama bin Laden's Final Hideout
It took nearly a decade following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. for American intelligence authorities to realize that al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden—mastermind of the 9/11 plot—hadn’t been skulking in a cave or a remote tribal ...read more
Why Did US Forces Bury Osama Bin Laden’s Body at Sea?
On May 2, 2011, the United States military killed and buried Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader behind the 9/11 attacks. U.S. Special Operations troops took him out during a raid on the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where he and some of his family were hiding out. After ...read more
9 Unexpected Things Navy SEALs Discovered in Osama bin Laden’s Compound
When Seal Team Six carried out a raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, 2011, they not only killed the al Qaeda leader but swept up a treasure trove of his personal belongings. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has since made a large portion of ...read more
Al Qaeda: Facts About the Terrorist Network and Its History of Attacks
Before September 11, 2001, many Americans knew little of al Qaeda or its founder, Osama bin Laden. But the roots of the militant Islamist network, whose name is Arabic for “the Base,” date back to the late 1970s and the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Since declaring a ...read more
How SEAL Team Six Took Out Osama bin Laden
On May 2, 2011, U.S. Special Forces raided an al-Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the world’s most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden. The entire operation, which lasted only 40 minutes from start to finish, was the culmination of years of calculated planning ...read more
The Long, Winding Road to 9/11
Few journalist-authors have spent as much of their careers chronicling and analyzing terrorism, al Qaeda and the September 11 attacks as Peter Bergen and Steve Coll. As consultants to the comprehensive six-hour film, “The Road to 9/11,” they helped guide the project’s exploration ...read more
This Man Helped Thwart the Biggest Terror Attack That Almost Happened
In the annals of undercover law-enforcement, few assignments have been as tough—or impactful—as the one Emad Salem signed up for in the fall of 1991. Salem, an Egyptian native who served in his country’s military before immigrating to the United States in 1987, recognized the ...read more
Government Terrorist Trackers Before 9/11: Higher Ups Wouldn’t Listen
The road to 9/11 was littered with opportunities that the United States missed to cripple al Qaeda and to avert the attacks of September 11, 2001. Throughout the 1990s, small dedicated teams of intelligence analysts and FBI agents toiled in obscurity, as al Qaeda and its ...read more
Osama bin Laden
On May 1, 2011, American soldiers killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his compound near Islamabad, Pakistan. Intelligence officials believe bin Laden was responsible for many deadly acts of terrorism, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania ...read more