Terrorism

Edward Luce Romney’s statement perfectly undiplomatic

September 12, 2012 6:41 pm by Edward Luce

Mitt Romney makes remarks on the attack on the US consulate in Libya (Reuters)

There are moments that can indelibly brand a politician and Mitt Romney may just have met his.

The alacrity – and brittle certainty – with which the Republican nominee responded to the violence against US diplomats on Tuesday night offers a snapshot of why his candidacy has failed to attract true believers. On Wednesday morning, Hillary Clinton read out a sombre statement condemning the killing of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans. Forty minutes later, Barack Obama followed suit. Both focused on Mr Stevens’ tragic death. Read more

Posted in Foreign affairs, Libya, Terrorism, US election, US foreign policy, US politics |

Gideon Rachman France, terror and the perils of jumping to conclusions

March 21, 2012 9:44 am by Gideon Rachman

Yesterday the FT opinion desk was offered a piece from a prominent French commentator, attacking President Sarkozy for having helped to create a climate of intolerance in France. A decision was made not to run it, on the grounds that we didn’t yet know who was responsible for the killings in Toulouse and Montauban. It was not yet clear that this was the work of right-wing extremists.

The rush to judgement was not confined to the French left. Also yesterday I heard a strange piece on the BBC’s “Today” programme (compulsory listening for the British middle-classes), where once again the premise of the discussion was that the killer of the French soldiers and the Jewish school-children was likely to be a right-wing extremist. This also struck me as very premature.

And so it seems. As I write the French police are surrounding the house of the chief suspect, who appears to have been an al-Qaeda member or sympathiser. Read more

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Posted in France, Terrorism |

Neil Buckley A pattern in the Putin plots?

February 27, 2012 3:14 pm by Neil Buckley

A Russian Channel One undated television grab shows a man identified as Adam Osmayev, one of the suspected militants alleged to have conspired to kill Russian PM Vladimir Putin. Photo AFP/Getty

If you’re planning to bump off a world leader, then doing so in the middle of an election campaign is a good guarantee of maximum impact. But in Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s case, assassination “plots” seem to crop up so regularly around election time there is reason to be suspicious. Read more

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Posted in Europe, Terrorism |

Q&A: Anwar al-Awlaki

September 30, 2011 1:21 pm by Noah Browning

Anwar al-Awlaki speaks in a video message posted in late 2010 (AP photo/SITE intelligence group)

Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in an air raid in Yemen, the US confirmed on Friday. He was regarded by western intelligence agencies as the most dangerous figure in the global al-Qaeda network. But what else do we know about the US-born cleric?

Q:  Who was Anwar al-Awlaki?

Al-Awlaki, a US citizen and son of a former high-ranking Yemeni official, was a radical cleric and advocate of “Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” based in Yemen.  The Yemeni offshoot of the global terrorist movement has carried out several innovative attacks aimed at the US.  Notorious examples include the shipping of explosives hidden in printer cartridges, and the attempt to kill a Saudi official with explosive powder lodged in an attacker’s body cavity. Read more

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Posted in Foreign affairs, Terrorism, World affairs |

9/11: Ten years on

September 9, 2011 3:01 pm by FT

American business and political leaders reflect on the 9/11 terror attacks and how they changed the US and the world.

 Read more

Posted in Foreign affairs, Terrorism, US foreign policy, US politics, World affairs |

FT podcast: World Weekly

September 9, 2011 12:22 am by FT

The legacy of 9/11

We devote this week’s show to the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the United States and the decade that has followed. We talk to the editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, about his memories of the time and we hear from FT correspondent Matthew Green about life on the Afghan-Pakistan border, in 2011. Read more

Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Terrorism |

FT podcast: World Weekly

May 6, 2011 12:17 am by Financial Times

As the world watched scenes of jubilation in Washington following the death of Osama bin Laden, we ask what does his killing mean for the war on terror. Read more

Posted in Obama, Terrorism, World affairs |

FT video: Global jihad ‘won’t go away’

May 3, 2011 2:59 pm by FT

James Blitz, diplomatic editor, tells the FT’s Daniel Garrahan that for intelligence agencies fighting terrorism around the world, the significance of Osama bin Laden’s killing is limited and the capture of Anwar al-Awlaki would hurt al-Qaeda more. Read more

Posted in Terrorism |
From FT.com May 2, 2011

George W. Bush used to ask “why haven’t we found bin Laden?” with such regularity that an exasperated official once suggested sending a one-sentence reply back to the president. “Because he’s hiding.” Read more

Posted in Pakistan, Terrorism, US foreign policy, World affairs |

Gideon Rachman Conspiracy theories about Osama’s death

May 2, 2011 12:05 pm by Gideon Rachman

A bit of an embarrassment for Pakistan that Osama bin Laden should finally be found, living within minutes of Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point. Although President Obama was too tactful to say it, this cannot but raise the question of whether bin Laden was enjoying the protection of the top ranks of the Pakistani army. Or to put it another way, the Pakistani top brass is either exceptionally dozy or exceptionally duplicitous. The Americans have long harboured fears that the ISI – Pakistan’s intelligence service – was playing a double game, although more with the Taliban than al-Qaeda. But the top levels of the army were felt to be reasonably straight. Was that a mistake? Read more

Posted in Afghanistan, Terrorism |
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