Al-Qaeda Remains A Global Menace 10 Years After Bin Laden’s Death

 

(New York, N.Y.) – Ten years have passed since U.S. Special Forces killed al-Qaeda founder and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A decade after bin Laden’s death, al-Qaeda continues to pose a major threat to U.S. national security. That threat is rising ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Last month, the U.S. Department of State ordered American diplomats and staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to evacuate if their work can be done remotely. Al-Qaeda operatives have promised to “wage war on all fronts” against the United States after it withdraws from Afghanistan “unless they are expelled from the rest of the Islamic world.”

 

Speaking on Afghanistan in a recent interview with CNS News’ Hollie McKay, Counter Extremism Project (CEP) senior director Dr. Hans Jakob-Schindler said, “al-Qaeda as well as [ISIS] are still determined to conduct attacks on the U.S. homeland and their presence in any of the global conflict zones will always be of a concern. And Afghanistan continues to be, of course, a very active conflict zone which is permissible for terrorist organizations.”

 

Last year, CEP published a policy paper, Financing of Terrorism and Social Media Platforms, examining the increased financing of terrorism through al-Qaeda- and ISIS-affiliated social media platforms. A presentation of the policy paper is available here as a webinar. Additionally, CEP also hosted a webinar last year, “The Prospect For Peace In Afghanistan,” outlining the dangerous security situation in Afghanistan due to the growing presence of terror groups like al-Qaeda and the steps necessary to deter al-Qaeda in the region.

 

To read CEP’s Osama bin Laden resource, please click here.

 

To read CEP’s al-Qaeda resource, please click here.

 

To read CEP’s Afghanistan resource, please click here.

 

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