The leader of al-Qaeda’s Iraq branch, the Islamic State of Iraq, announced on Tuesday the formal merger of his organization and Jabhat al-Nusra (“Victory Front”), an al-Qaeda-controlled front group that has played a growing role inside Syria. Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared, “It’s now time to declare in front of …
As the Obama Administration’s account of the terrorist attack on the Benghazi consulate continues to evolve, disturbing new information has emerged about the consulate’s security environment. Two House Republicans say they have been informed by whistleblowers that the consulate was attacked or threatened 13 times before the September 11 attack …
A recent assessment by senior U.S. intelligence officials shows that while the current threat associated to al-Qaeda central—i.e., Ayman al-Zawahiri and his immediate acolytes—has significantly diminished, the threat nonetheless remains. Richard Cardillo, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, argues that a high-impact terrorist event emanating …
Turkish authorities arrested 15 suspected al-Qaeda militants this week and foiled a plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Ankara shortly before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to arrive in Turkey for a diplomatic conference regarding Libya. This should serve as a reminder that al-Qaeda has survived the …
Al-Qaeda officially has a new leader in Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, the man who long served as Osama bin Laden’s number two in command. But does that have any impact on America? Heritage’s James Carafano says “Not much, actually.” Threats against America remain unchanged: First off, al-Qaeda is still determined to …
The announcement that Osama bin Laden’s longtime second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri, will lead the fractured terrorist group came as no surprise to pundits and observers. Since joining forces with bin Laden in 1998, al Zawahiri had jointly pursued a series of dramatic assaults on the United States and …
