The 9/11 Commission Report
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Psychology of Terrorism
Psychology of Terrorism EDITED BY Bruce Bongar Lisa M. Brown Larry E. Beutler James N. Breckenridge Philip C. Zimbardo OXFORD USIVERSITT PRESS War Versus Justice in Response to Terrorist Attacks Competing Frames and Their Implications Clark McCauley Often lost m d~scussionof the September 11, 2001, terrorism. "On September the 11th. entmies of attacks on the World Trad? Center (WTC) 1s the freedom committed an act of war against our coun- fact that a very nmllar attack, v;lth similar moti- t~.. Our war on terror begns with a1 Qaeda. but vation and related perpetrators. occurred eight it does not end there. It m~llnot end until evey years earlier On February 16. 1993, a truck bomb terrorist group of global reach has been found. in the basement parking garage of the WTC killed stopped and defeated" (Bush, 2001) SLX.injured hundreds, and damaged property to \Vithin the rhetonc of war., however. here has [he extent of half a billion dollars. The bomb was been frequent recourse to the rhetoric of cnminal designed to topple one of the towers into the other justice. "Whether we bring our enemes to lusuce or and to bring both tolvers down. The man behind justice to our enemies, justice will be done. .\Ye thls plan, Ramzi Yousef, noted regretfully that if he wdl come together to gve law enforc?ment the had had a little more funding his design would additional toois it needs to track dorm terror here have succeeded and killed tens of thousands (Krk. at home" (Bush, 2001; White House Press Office. -
PENTTBOM CASE SUMMARY As of 1/11/2002
Law Enforcement Sensitive PENTTBOM CASE SUMMARY as of 1/11/2002 (LES) The following is a "Law Enforcement Sensitive" version of materials relevant to the Penttbom investigation. It includes an Executive Summary; a Summary of Known Associates; a Financial Summary; Flight Team Biographies and Timelines. Recipients are encouraged to forward pertinent information to the Penttbom Investigative Team at FBI Headquarters (Room 1B999) (202-324-9041), or the New York Office, (212-384-1000). Law Enforcement Sensitive 1 JICI 04/19/02 FBI02SG4 Law Enforcement Sensitive EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (LES) Captioned matter is a culmination of over a decade of rhetoric, planning, coordination and terrorist action by USAMA BIN LADEN (UBL) and the AL-QAEDA organization against the United States and its allies. UBL and AL-QAEDA consider themselves involved in a "Holy War" against the United States. The Bureau, with its domestic and international counterterrorism partners, has conducted international terrorism investigations targeting UBL, AL-QAEDA and associated terrorist groups and individuals for several years. (LES) In August 1996, USAMA BIN LADEN issued the first of a series of fatwas that declared jihad on the United States. Each successive fatwa escalated, in tone and scale, the holy war to be made against the United States. The last fatwa, issued in February 1998, demanded that Muslims all over the world kill Americans, military or civilian, wherever they could be found. Three months later, in May 1998, he reiterated this edict at a press conference. The United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were bombed on August 7, 1998, a little more than two months after that May 1998 press conference. -
Foreign Terrorist Organizations
Order Code RL32223 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Foreign Terrorist Organizations February 6, 2004 Audrey Kurth Cronin Specialist in Terrorism Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Huda Aden, Adam Frost, and Benjamin Jones Research Associates Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress Foreign Terrorist Organizations Summary This report analyzes the status of many of the major foreign terrorist organizations that are a threat to the United States, placing special emphasis on issues of potential concern to Congress. The terrorist organizations included are those designated and listed by the Secretary of State as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” (For analysis of the operation and effectiveness of this list overall, see also The ‘FTO List’ and Congress: Sanctioning Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, CRS Report RL32120.) The designated terrorist groups described in this report are: Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Armed Islamic Group (GIA) ‘Asbat al-Ansar Aum Supreme Truth (Aum) Aum Shinrikyo, Aleph Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) Communist Party of Philippines/New People’s Army (CPP/NPA) Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group, IG) HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM) Hizballah (Party of God) Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) Jemaah Islamiya (JI) Al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad) Kahane Chai (Kach) Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, KADEK) Lashkar-e-Tayyiba -
The Jihadi Threat: ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Beyond
THE JIHADI THREAT ISIS, AL QAEDA, AND BEYOND The Jihadi Threat ISIS, al- Qaeda, and Beyond Robin Wright William McCants United States Institute of Peace Brookings Institution Woodrow Wilson Center Garrett Nada J. M. Berger United States Institute of Peace International Centre for Counter- Terrorism Jacob Olidort The Hague Washington Institute for Near East Policy William Braniff Alexander Thurston START Consortium, University of Mary land Georgetown University Cole Bunzel Clinton Watts Prince ton University Foreign Policy Research Institute Daniel Byman Frederic Wehrey Brookings Institution and Georgetown University Car ne gie Endowment for International Peace Jennifer Cafarella Craig Whiteside Institute for the Study of War Naval War College Harleen Gambhir Graeme Wood Institute for the Study of War Yale University Daveed Gartenstein- Ross Aaron Y. Zelin Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Washington Institute for Near East Policy Hassan Hassan Katherine Zimmerman Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy American Enterprise Institute Charles Lister Middle East Institute Making Peace Possible December 2016/January 2017 CONTENTS Source: Image by Peter Hermes Furian, www . iStockphoto. com. The West failed to predict the emergence of al- Qaeda in new forms across the Middle East and North Africa. It was blindsided by the ISIS sweep across Syria and Iraq, which at least temporarily changed the map of the Middle East. Both movements have skillfully continued to evolve and proliferate— and surprise. What’s next? Twenty experts from think tanks and universities across the United States explore the world’s deadliest movements, their strate- gies, the future scenarios, and policy considerations. This report reflects their analy sis and diverse views. -
Staff Statement No
Outline of the 9/11 Plot Staff Statement No. 16 Members of the Commission, your staff is prepared to report its preliminary findings regarding the conspiracy that produced the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. We remain ready to revise our understanding of this subject as our work continues. Dietrich Snell, Rajesh De, Hyon Kim, Michael Jacobson, John Tamm, Marco Cordero, John Roth, Douglas Greenburg, and Serena Wille did most of the investigative work reflected in this statement. We are fortunate to have had access to the fruits of a massive investigative effort by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies, as well intelligence collection and analysis from the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the State Department, and the Department of Defense. Much of the account in this statement reflects assertions reportedly made by various 9/11 conspirators and captured al Qaeda members while under interrogation. We have sought to corroborate this material as much as possible. Some of this material has been inconsistent. We have had to make judgment calls based on the weight and credibility of the evidence. Our information on statements attributed to such individuals comes from written reporting; we have not had direct access to any of them. Plot Overview Origins of the 9/11 Attacks The idea for the September 11 attacks appears to have originated with a veteran jihadist named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM). A Kuwaiti from the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, KSM grew up in a religious family and claims to have joined the Muslim Brotherhood at the age of 16. -
Anti-Semitism: a Pillar of Islamic Extremist Ideology
Anti-Semitism: A Pillar of Islamic Extremist Ideology In a video message in August 2015, Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden, utilized a range of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel narratives in his effort to rally Al Qaeda supporters and incite violence against Americans and Jews. Bin Laden described Jews and Israel as having a disproportionate role in world events and the oppression of Muslims. He compared the “Zio- Crusader alliance led by America” to a bird: “Its head is America, one wing is NATO and the other is the State of the Jews in occupied Palestine, and the legs are the tyrant rulers that sit on the chests of the peoples of the Muslim Ummah [global community].” An undated image of al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden and his son, Hamza Bin Laden then called for attacks worldwide and demanded that Muslims “support their brothers in Palestine by fighting the Jews and the Americans... not in America and occupied Palestine and Afghanistan alone, but all over the world…. take it to all the American, Jewish, and Western interests in the world.” Such violent expressions of anti-Semitism have been at the core of Al Qaeda’s ideology for decades. Even the 9/11 terrorist attacks were motivated, in part, by anti-Semitism. Mohamed Atta, a key member of the Al Qaeda Hamburg cell responsible for the attacks, reportedly considered New York City to be the center of a global Jewish conspiracy, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who masterminded the attack, had allegedly previously developed several plans to attack Israeli and Jewish targets. -
9/11 Report”), July 2, 2004, Pp
Final FM.1pp 7/17/04 5:25 PM Page i THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT Final FM.1pp 7/17/04 5:25 PM Page v CONTENTS List of Illustrations and Tables ix Member List xi Staff List xiii–xiv Preface xv 1. “WE HAVE SOME PLANES” 1 1.1 Inside the Four Flights 1 1.2 Improvising a Homeland Defense 14 1.3 National Crisis Management 35 2. THE FOUNDATION OF THE NEW TERRORISM 47 2.1 A Declaration of War 47 2.2 Bin Ladin’s Appeal in the Islamic World 48 2.3 The Rise of Bin Ladin and al Qaeda (1988–1992) 55 2.4 Building an Organization, Declaring War on the United States (1992–1996) 59 2.5 Al Qaeda’s Renewal in Afghanistan (1996–1998) 63 3. COUNTERTERRORISM EVOLVES 71 3.1 From the Old Terrorism to the New: The First World Trade Center Bombing 71 3.2 Adaptation—and Nonadaptation— ...in the Law Enforcement Community 73 3.3 . and in the Federal Aviation Administration 82 3.4 . and in the Intelligence Community 86 v Final FM.1pp 7/17/04 5:25 PM Page vi 3.5 . and in the State Department and the Defense Department 93 3.6 . and in the White House 98 3.7 . and in the Congress 102 4. RESPONSES TO AL QAEDA’S INITIAL ASSAULTS 108 4.1 Before the Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania 108 4.2 Crisis:August 1998 115 4.3 Diplomacy 121 4.4 Covert Action 126 4.5 Searching for Fresh Options 134 5. -
The Al Qaeda Network a New Framework for Defining the Enemy
THE AL QAEDA NETWORK A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DEFINING THE ENEMY KATHERINE ZIMMERMAN SEPTEMBER 2013 THE AL QAEDA NETWORK A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR DEFINING THE ENEMY KATHERINE ZIMMERMAN SEPTEMBER 2013 A REPORT BY AEI’S CRITICAL THREATS PROJECT ABOUT US About the Author Katherine Zimmerman is a senior analyst and the al Qaeda and Associated Movements Team Lead for the Ameri- can Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project. Her work has focused on al Qaeda’s affiliates in the Gulf of Aden region and associated movements in western and northern Africa. She specializes in the Yemen-based group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, al Shabaab. Zimmerman has testified in front of Congress and briefed Members and congressional staff, as well as members of the defense community. She has written analyses of U.S. national security interests related to the threat from the al Qaeda network for the Weekly Standard, National Review Online, and the Huffington Post, among others. Acknowledgments The ideas presented in this paper have been developed and refined over the course of many conversations with the research teams at the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project. The valuable insights and understandings of regional groups provided by these teams directly contributed to the final product, and I am very grateful to them for sharing their expertise with me. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Kimberly Kagan and Jessica Lewis for dedicating their time to helping refine my intellectual under- standing of networks and to Danielle Pletka, whose full support and effort helped shape the final product. -
Radical Islamist Groups in Germany: a Lesson in Prosecuting Terror in Court by Matthew Levitt
MENU Policy Analysis / PolicyWatch 834 Radical Islamist Groups in Germany: A Lesson in Prosecuting Terror in Court by Matthew Levitt Feb 19, 2004 ABOUT THE AUTHORS Matthew Levitt Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute. Brief Analysis n February 5, 2004, a German court acquitted Abdelghani Mzoudi, a thirty-one-year-old native Moroccan, of O 3,066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization (al-Qaeda). Mzoudi is suspected of having provided material and financial support to the Hamburg cell that helped organize and perpetrate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. According to the presiding judge, Mzoudi was acquitted for lack of evidence, not out of a belief in the defendant's innocence. The acquittal was the most recent example of a growing dilemma faced by the United States and other countries in their efforts to prosecute suspected terrorists: how to gain access to intelligence for criminal proceedings without compromising the sources of that information. Indeed, Mzoudi's acquittal comes at a time when, despite nearly three years of fighting the war on terror, German intelligence claims that the presence of militant Islamist groups on German soil has reached new heights. U.S. officials face similar circumstances. Al-Qaeda in Germany Within days of the September 11 attacks, al-Qaeda activities in Germany quickly emerged as a key focus of the investigation. Three of the four suicide pilots -- Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehi, and Ziad Jarrah -- were members of the Hamburg cell. -
Banco Central De La República Argentina
BANCO CENTRAL DE LA REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA COMUNICACIÓN “ B “ 7701 28/01/2003 A LAS ENTIDADES FINANCIERAS: Ref.: Información cursada por el Banco de la Reserva Federal de Nueva York, relacionada con perso- nas vinculadas con actividades terroristas _______________________________________________________________ Nos dirigimos a Uds. con relación al requerimiento efectuado por el Banco de la Reserva Fede- ral de Nueva York, vinculado con la investigación penal que esta llevando a cabo sobre el terrorismo. Al respecto les señalamos, que deberán verificar si de sus registros surge que realizan operacio- nes con particulares y entidades incluidas en la denominada “Lista de Control”, que se adjunta en Anexo. En el caso en que la entidad financiera local sea controlada por una entidad financiera sujeta a la supervisión consolidada del Banco de la Reserva Federal de N.Y., deberá informar las operaciones detecta- das en forma directa al mencionado organismo de supervisión, proporcionando todos los datos que al respec- to se posean, debiendo a la vez notificar de ello a la Superintendencia de Entidades Financieras y Cambiarias, mediante nota dirigida al Gerente responsable de la supervisión de la entidad. A su vez llevamos a su conocimiento que el presente requerimiento, así como las futuras actuali- zaciones que se efectúen, deberá considerarse como si fueran formuladas por el BCRA. Respecto de las entidades financieras cuyo controlante no esté sujeto a la supervisión consolida- da del Banco de la Reserva Federal de N.Y, en el caso de detectar operaciones de alguna de las personas u entidades incluidas en la “Lista de Control”, éstas deberán enviar una notificación al Banco de la Reserva Fe- deral de N.Y a la dirección [email protected] Dicha notificación deberá ser genérica sin identificar, por ejemplo, las personas o montos involu- crados a los fines de respetar el secreto bancario. -
True and False Confessions: the Efficacy of Torture and Brutal
Chapter 7 True and False Confessions The Efficacy of Torture and Brutal Interrogations Central to the debate on the use of “enhanced” interrogation techniques is the question of whether those techniques are effective in gaining intelligence. If the techniques are the only way to get actionable intelligence that prevents terrorist attacks, their use presents a moral dilemma for some. On the other hand, if brutality does not produce useful intelligence — that is, it is not better at getting information than other methods — the debate is moot. This chapter focuses on the effectiveness of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation technique program. There are far fewer people who defend brutal interrogations by the military. Most of the military’s mistreatment of captives was not authorized in detail at high levels, and some was entirely unauthorized. Many military captives were either foot soldiers or were entirely innocent, and had no valuable intelligence to reveal. Many of the perpetrators of abuse in the military were young interrogators with limited training and experience, or were not interrogators at all. The officials who authorized the CIA’s interrogation program have consistently maintained that it produced useful intelligence, led to the capture of terrorist suspects, disrupted terrorist attacks, and saved American lives. Vice President Dick Cheney, in a 2009 speech, stated that the enhanced interrogation of captives “prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people.” President George W. Bush similarly stated in his memoirs that “[t]he CIA interrogation program saved lives,” and “helped break up plots to attack military and diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow Airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States.” John Brennan, President Obama’s recent nominee for CIA director, said, of the CIA’s program in a televised interview in 2007, “[t]here [has] been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures. -
Chapter 5 Country Reports
Chapter 5 Country Reports Africa Overview GSPC faction responsible for the kidnapping of 32 Euro- pean tourists in Algeria in the summer of 2003. Al-Para A small number of al-Qa’ida operatives in East Africa, par- took the captives to Mali, where the government was in- ticularly Somalia, continued to pose the most serious threat strumental in securing their release. Members of the GSPC to American interests in the region. It is unclear to what continue to operate in the Sahel region, crossing difficult- extent terrorist groups are present in South Africa, how- to-patrol borders between Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Algeria ever, the activity of al-Qa’ida and affiliated persons or and Chad. With the help of US-funded training, those coun- groups in South Africa and Nigeria, home to Africa’s larg- tries have increasingly cooperated against the GSPC. At est Muslim population, is of growing concern. Hizballah year’s end, al-Para was in Algerian custody. continues to engage in fundraising activities in Africa, par- ticularly in West Africa. Sahel countries Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad are devoting more resources to improve their counterterrorism Though civil conflict and ethnic violence continued in a capabilities. These countries also participate in the US- number of African countries in 2004, there were few sig- sponsored Pan-Sahel Initiative (PSI), a program designed nificant international terrorist incidents in Africa during the to assist those nations in protecting their borders, combat- year. An increase in anti-American and anti-Western rheto- ing terrorism, and enhancing regional stability. ric from a number of Islamic radicals is of growing concern.