By Chris Lundry The first 48 hours after the death of Osama bin Laden were grounds for relief in the United States, its allies, and those who condemn violent extremism, but they have also been fraught with speculation and rumors concerning the operation. Is bin Laden really dead? Did he really use his wife as [...]

by Bud Goodall Sunday night President Barack Obama officially declared Osama bin Laden dead.  He began his speech with these words: Good evening.  Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a [...]

by Jeffry R. Halverson In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy wrote an opinion piece in the British daily The Guardian, stating: [Bin Laden] has been sculpted from the spare rib of a world laid to waste by American foreign policy: its gunboat diplomacy, its nuclear arsenal, its [...]

by Monika Maslikowski & Z.S. Justus As observers of Al-Qa’ida’s media strategy we notice a trend in their communication: When a conflict around the world involving a Muslim country heats ups, AQ leadership is quick to jump on the opportunity to provide analysis, encouragement, or criticism for the actions of players on the ground. In [...]

by Monika Maslikowski For Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri’s communication strategy, its been a year full of ups and downs. Individually, the mishaps seem like minor blips in an otherwise burgeoning online presence, but when combined, they could point to Zawahiri’s diminishing abilities as a skilled communicator and principal figure of al-Qaeda’s online media strategy. Earlier this [...]

by Steven R. Corman There has been a lot of buzz recently about dissent in the ranks of al Qaeda. Much of it has focused on a rejection of violence against civilians by Sayyid Imam al Sharif, a.k.a Dr. Fadl, issued from by fax from an Egyptian prison. Lawrence Wright has an article about it [...]

by Robert Poe The recent resurfacing of the Muhammad cartoon controversy brought to mind a lecture about belief given about two years ago by the prolific Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. For those uninitiated, Žižek is a contemporary, widely published philosopher who attempts to bring together a Marxist-Leninist critique of late-capitalist society with an understanding of [...]

by Matthew B. Morris Al Jazeera broadcast another message from Osama bin Laden today. If confirmed as authentic, this is the second message from bin Laden in the last two days. Although the translation is not yet available, the message is another call on Muslims to support Palestinians by fighting in Iraq, and apparently makes [...]

by Steven R. Corman Here is an interesting (if somewhat frenetic) post in which Dr. Shackleford makes an interesting argument about the potential demise of bin Laden. He points out that all of OBL’s comments in the recent video could be from 2005 when the Danish cartoons were originally published. Why, he asks, didn’t he [...]

by Steven R. Corman We often tend to think of U.S. strategic communication problems as having to do with our messages to the rest of the world. To be sure, that is an area where we need a lot of work. But it’s easy to become over-focused on the external aspects of the problem, and [...]