By James A. Lyons
By arming the rebels, we're aiding al Qaeda
The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/11) were a series of four suicide attacks that were committed in the United States on September 11, 2001, coordinated to strike the areas of New York City and Washington, D.C. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally piloted two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. The hijackers also intentionally crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and intended to pilot the fourth hijacked jet, United Airlines Flight 93, into the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.; however, the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after its passengers attempted to take control of the jet from the hijackers. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, including the 246 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes, none of whom survived. - Source: Wikipedia
In "Invisible Armies," Max Boot attempts to write an up-to-date account of the evolution of guerrilla warfare and terrorism from ancient times to the modern era. Mr. Boot, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adviser on counterinsurgency to the U.S. government, is ideally suited to produce such a comprehensive study.
Award-winning singer and pianist Billy Joel blames the depression he felt after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks for a spate of car accidents that brought his problems with alcohol into the public eye.
The man who leads the Pentagon's secret war against al Qaeda and its allies believes it is likely to last another decade or two, and that the current legal basis for it provided by Congress in 2001 continues to be sound, despite the changing character of the enemy.
As Republicans continue to raise questions regarding the Obama administration's handling of intelligence leading up to the Boston bombings, the House this week will hold the first of what is expected to be many congressional hearings on the issue.
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said the Obama administration should ratchet up its focus on homegrown terrorists and their links to overseas jihadists despite the death of Osama bin Laden, citing the Boston Marathon bombings as a reminder that radicalized Islam is a constant threat.
President Obama must be held accountable for the Boston bombings. Instead, Mr. Obama and his media allies are desperately trying to deflect blame for the horrendous atrocity. Yet the fact remains that the bombings were the most devastating terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.
The deadly bombing in Boston and the wave of terrorist plots in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, lead inexorably to three conclusions: The terrorist threat is growing, al Qaeda has not been decimated as President Obama told us in his 2012 campaign, and there are gaps in our security system that need to be repaired.
"Takedown: Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda" is an insider account by a former high-level official at the CIA and FBI about how both agencies substantially upgraded their counterterrorism capabilities after the U.S. government's failure to prevent al Qaeda's catastrophic attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
TAKEDOWN: INSIDE THE HUNT FOR AL QAEDA
Congress has new plans to keep working if an attack on Washington, D.C., makes it impossible for lawmakers to meet at the U.S. Capitol.
Even the most experienced investigators are still trying to decide whether the Boston marathon bombs were carried out at the hands of domestic or foreign attackers.
Great rocks have tumbled from the sky since there was an Earth for them to tumble on, but the asteroid falling in Russia's Ural Mountains was the largest caught live on film. Dramatic footage shows pieces of a 10,000-ton cosmic object streaking through the atmosphere, glowing brighter than the sun.
From President Clinton's stern 1995 call to stop "the large numbers of illegal aliens" taking American jobs to President Obama's plea last year for legalizing "responsible young people" to work in the U.S. economy, the politics of immigration can be traced through State of the Union addresses.
Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah:
Director Kathryn Bigelow defends torture scenes in her Oscar-nominated film "Zero Dark Thirty," saying torture was an undeniable part of the hunt for Osama bin Laden after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
