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Tag: Al Qaeda

The Takeaway

State Department Targets Al Qaeda Website in Yemen

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Last night in Florida, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said U.S. specialists hacked into websites run by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. The hackers were able to change online ads that boasted about killing Americans into advertisements that underscored the deaths of Muslim civilians in Al Qaeda terror attacks. We're joined by Jamie Doran, a producer for Frontline who worked on the new documentary "Al Qaeda in Yemen."

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The Takeaway

The Future of Yemen

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

At least 96 people were killed in the capital city of Yemen yesterday, after a suicide bomber disguised as a Yemeni soldier blew himself up during a military parade rehearsal near the presidential palace in Sana. The bombing was the country's most devastating terrorism attack in years, and the Al Qaeda affiliate that operates within the state has claimed responsibility for the mass killings. Yemen expert Charles Schmitz discusses the country's future.

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The Brian Lehrer Show

KSM Terror Trial

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, discusses the start of the Guantanamo terror trial and the revelation that a top Al-Qaeda operative was a CIA double-agent.

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The Takeaway

Double-Agent Thwarted Al Qaeda Suicide Bombing Plot

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

There’s a new twist in the developing story of a thwarted terrorist plot orchestrated by Al Qaeda in Yemen. The would-be suicide bomber tasked with blowing up a United States-bound airliner was actually a double agent. Scott Shane, national security correspondent for The New York Times, explains.

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The Leonard Lopate Show

The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Peter Bergen gives an account of the decade-long hunt for the world's most wanted man. In Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad, he gives new details of bin Laden’s flight after the defeat of the Taliban. As the only journalist to gain access to bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound before the Pakistani government demolished it, Bergen paints a vivid picture of bin Laden’s life in hiding and his struggle to maintain control of al-Qaeda.

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The Takeaway

Bin Laden's Death, One Year Later

Monday, April 30, 2012

Tomorrow will mark the one-year anniversary of the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's complex in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In the immediate aftermath of the al Qaeda leader's death, many wondered how the organization would be affected. Gideon Rose, the editor of Foreign Affairs, illustrates how the group has changed.

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The Takeaway

Toulouse Tragedy Aftermath: Muslim Communities Threatened, Political Rhetoric Altered

Friday, March 30, 2012

One week ago, Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, was shot dead by French security forces following a dramatic 32-hour police standoff. Questions remain about the attack itself: Did Merah act alone? And why didn’t French officials catch him before the rampage? Takeaway producer Arwa Gunja has been in France this week as a reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists, and spoke with community members about their reaction to both the attacks and the tragedy’s fallout.

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The Takeaway

Details About Osama bin Laden's Nine Years on the Run

Friday, March 30, 2012

New details have come to light about the nine years Osama bin Laden spent on the run in Pakistan after 9/11. We now know he moved among five safe houses and fathered four children, at least two of whom were born in a government hospital. The information has come from a police report by the Dawn newspaper. Mubashir Zaidi is the head of Dawn TV, the Islamabad studio of our partner the BBC.

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The Takeaway

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad: His Pursuit, His Detainment, and His Upcoming Trial

Monday, March 26, 2012

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA. It marked the end of one of the lengthiest terrorist manhunts in history. Josh Meyer, chief terrorism reporter for the Los Angeles Times, co-wrote "The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad" with Terry McDermott. He discusses the pursuit, detainment, and trial of the man he calls "the ghost of our times."

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The Takeaway

French Attacks Spurred by Anti-Immigration Sentiment, Critics Warn

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Mohammed Merah, a French national of Algerian descent and former member of Al Qaeda, was allegedly behind two separate attacks in France this week. Benjamin Abtan, head of the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement, says there is concern that increasing anti-immigration sentiment may have fueled these attacks and that it could lead to others.

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The Takeaway

Eric Holder: US Can Target Citizens Overseas

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Attorney General Eric Holder outlined the United States’ legal defense of using lethal force against U.S. citizens overseas if that citizen is posing a terrorist threat. Holder’s speech, delivered Monday afternoon at Northwestern University, argued in part that the U.S. Constitution’s definition of due process defends the use of lethal force, even without the written consent of the president.

Until now, no legal defense was given for the U.S. mission in Yemen which killed al-Qaeda’s leading figure Anwar al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki, who was born in the US, was the radical cleric who successfully took al-Qaeda’s message to YouTube.

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WNYC News Blog

Muslim College Students Alarmed by Reports of NYPD Surveillance

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Muslim college students across the region are expressing concern at reports that they were spied on by the New York Police Department.

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The Takeaway

Arab League Returns to UN as Violence Escalates in Syria

Monday, February 13, 2012

Despite China and Russia's staunch opposition, the Arab League will return to the United Nations Monday morning to propose a peacekeeping mission in Syria. But the Arab League isn’t the only organization calling for Assad’s ouster: number of jihadi leaders are also offering support to the Syrian opposition, including Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri. Al Qaeda in Iraq, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq, also posted a message of encouragement on its website.

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The Brian Lehrer Show

NYPD Intel

Monday, January 30, 2012

Mitchell Silber, director of Intelligence Analysis for the New York Police Department and author of The Al Qaeda Factor: Plots Against the West, looks at the role of Al Qaeda in past U.S. attacks and what that implies for preventing future plots.

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The Takeaway

Islamic Extremism in Yemen

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

There are increasing worries Al Qaeda is using the instability in Yemen to spread its influence. An American military operation assassinated the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last year. One week ago militants took over the town of RaddaStephen Sackur, with our partner the BBC, sent this report.

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The Takeaway

US Joins Fight Against Militia in Uganda

Thursday, October 20, 2011

U.S. troops were quietly deployed to northern Uganda last Wednesday to help fight the Lord's Resistance Army, a Christian militia responsible for more than 30,000 deaths and countless rapes and kidnappings in Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and southern Sudan over the past ten years. While the troops are combat ready, their official purpose it to advise the Ugandan military. The real U.S. interests in the region are more complex, however. Once the U.S. has established a military presence in the region, it will be well-positioned to take on a enemy that poses more of a direct potential threat to Americans — al-Qaida in Africa.

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The Takeaway

Underwear Bomber Pleads Guilty to All Charges

Thursday, October 13, 2011

On Christmas day in 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed to detonate an explosive device he hid in his underwear, while flying aboard Northwest Flight 253 to Detroit, Mich. Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty in court yesterday to all eight charges against him, including conspiracy to commit terrorism, attempted murder on an aircraft, attempted placement of a destructive device, and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

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The Takeaway

Qaeda Leader Anwar al-Awlaki Killed in Yemen

Friday, September 30, 2011

Leading Al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen, according to government officials in the country. Al-Awlaki is connected with many plots against Americans including the failed Christmas Day bombing of 2009, the foiled Times Square car bombing, and the Fort Hood shootings. The American-born Al Qaeda leader was a target of an American operation for months although it is unclear if American forces were involved in the operation. U.S. officials did not have an immediate comment.

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The Takeaway

How Important was Anwar al-Awlaki?

Friday, September 30, 2011

He was perhaps the Obama Admnistration's most wanted terrorist figure. The CIA reportedly was given the green light to assassinate him, his death has been reported in the past at least twice, he some say he is linked in some way to terrorist attacks and attempts going back 10 years. And it appears this morning that the U.S. born Islamic cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki has finally met his end somewhere in the dusty wilderness of Yemen. A defense ministry official in Yemen confirmed his death early this morning.

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The Takeaway

Boston Man Accused of Bomb Plot in Washington

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Law enforcement officials accused a 26-year-old man from a town west of Boston of plotting to blow up the Pentagon and the Capitol Building with a remote-controlled aircraft fitted with explosives. Officials said Rezwan Ferdaus, who has a physics degree from Northeastern University, has also provided resources to Al Qaida to aid in attacks on American soldiers overseas.

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