Mon, 28 January 2013
Osama bin Laden may have been the most notorious face of al-Qaeda before his death, but a terrorist by the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi arguably had far more blood on his hands—and for years was enemy number one for the United States government. Running the al-Qaeda franchise in Iraq, Zarqawi and his followers usurped the Sunni insurgency and through vicious attacks on Iraqi civilians stoked a civil war pitting Sunnis and Shiites against each other. His damage was so great that even after American special operators, intelligence experts and Air Force pilots successfully tracked down and killed Zarqawi in June 2006, General Stanley McChrystal wrote in his newly published memoir My Share of the Task (Penguin Group USA, 2013) that it was “too late. He bequeathed Iraq a sectarian paranoia and an incipient civil war.” Nevertheless, the special operations machine built to defeat Zarqawi’s network continued to run full tilt, eventually having a strategic impact when married to the full-spectrum counterinsurgency and diplomatic pressures of "the surge."
Direct download: Episode_26--Stanley_McChystal_Speaks_at_Brookings_on_the_Evolution_of_JSOC.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:10pm EDT |
Sun, 20 January 2013
Stanford Polical Scientist Stephen Krasner discusses his current book project--a study of the circumstances in which states can and cannot encourage the democratic development of other states.
Direct download: Episode_25--Stephen_Krasner_on_Externally_Encouraged_Democratization.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:59pm EDT |
Wed, 16 January 2013
![]() Federal Public Defender Miriam Conrad talks with Lawfare's Alan Rozenshtein about the case of Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year old U.S.-born citizen of Bangladeshi origin who recently pled guilty to terrorism charges arising out of an FBI sting operation.
Direct download: Episode_24--Miriam_Conrad_on_FBI_Sting_Operations.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:21am EDT |
Thu, 10 January 2013
![]() Military Commission Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins discusses his decision not to pursue standalone conspiracy charges against KSM and the other 9/11 defendants in the wake of Hamdan II. |