Articles

  Details of a Private Jail in Afghanistan   Talk of the Nation, May 18, 2005 · Journalist Peter Bergen joins us to talk about his new article on Jack Idema, the former Special Forces soldier and con man convicted last year of running a vigilante prison in Afghanistan. Guest: Peter Bergen, article “The Shadow […]

(CNN) — Suicide bombings Monday night at three housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed at least 20 people — including seven Americans, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. Nine bombers also died. Government officials suspect the attacks were conducted by al Qaeda terrorists. CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, author of the best-selling book, “Holy War […]

Pul-e-charkhi prison, a vast crumbling Afghan fortress twenty miles outside of Kabul, is not an easy place for an American to wind up. Its dank cellblocks house scores of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. Pul-e-Charkhi is also home to Jack Idema, a former U.S. Special Forces sergeant, who, in one of the more bizarre twists in the War on Terror, was arrested in Kabul last year and charged by Afghan authorities with running his own prison — a sort of freelance Abu Ghraib — where he was accused of torturing eight Afghan men he said were terrorists.

Experts: Islamist Terror Cells in Europe May Now Pose Biggest Threat to US Security By  Dan Robinson Washington28 April 2005 Experts testifying before a congressional committee say the threat of terrorism may be greatest at present from Islamist terror cells in European countries. The experts told the House Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats that […]

World knew her simply as Marla Aid worker killed in Iraq was big-hearted, hardheaded Tuesday, April 19, 2005 Posted: 10:34 AM EDT (1434 GMT) Editor’s Note: Marla Ruzicka, the founder of an American humanitarian aid group helping Iraqi and Afghan civilian war casualties, was killed in a roadside blast in Baghdad on April 16. CNN […]

Rice Visit to Pakistan Islamabad, PakistanCondoleezza Rice arrives here Wednesday for what are likely to be some of the more important meetings she will conduct as secretary of state. Pakistan is the United States? key ally in the war on terrorism as al Qaeda has largely rebased itself in the country since the fall of […]

The conventional wisdom about Afghanistan today goes something like this: President Hamid Karzai is only the mayor of Kabul; the Taliban are resurgent; the cabinet is dominated by Tajik members of the Northern Alliance; warlords control much of the country; beset by political violence, Afghanistan is becoming a Colombia-style narco-state.

This reading list is based on what I teach my students at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Class 1: An overview of Islamist terrorism and its intellectual influences, and a discussion of the underlying causes of the 9/11 attacks. Class 2: The Afghan war against the Soviet Union, the role of the […]

This class will examine how the al Qaeda network established itself in the United States. The class will focus in particular on the 1993 Trade Center attack; the mastermind of that attack, Ramzi Yousef; Yousef?s uncle, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who would eventually become al Qaeda?s military commander, and Ahmed Ressam who attempted to bomb Los Angeles airport at the time of the Millennium. We will also discuss the role of Brooklyn?s Afghan Refugee Center, which was effectively a branch office of al Qaeda, and Ali Mohamed, a former US army sergeant who was an important leader within al Qaeda.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen was in Saudi Arabia this month, back three weeks ago for first — what is considered the first international conference on terrorism. Peter, good morning to you down there in D.C. PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning, Bill. HEMMER: What can you tell us about […]