al-Qaeda

The lack of good governance and the spread of terrorism seem to go hand in hand.   That is quite apparent in East Africa.  Just last […] More

Long before 9/11, Washington regarded East Africa as a fertile playing ground for terrorists. Osama bin Laden spent half a decade in the Sudan during […] More

Al Qaeda and the Islamic State thrive in lawless and ungoverned spaces where there is no rule of law to keep them in check.  Al […] More

The New York Police Department arguably has the most advanced intelligence and counterterrorism operations of any other U.S. municipality. As the Former Director of Intelligence […] More

The shift in the radicalization landscape in 2015, especially the ever-changing profile of the “homegrown terrorist,” has become one of the greatest concerns of those […] More

Some have argued that since the jihadist attack in Paris on November 13th, killing 130, and the December 2nd attack in San Bernardino, California, which […] More

As the calendar turns to 2016, homegrown terrorists seeking to carry out violent jihadi attacks continue to headline the most critical threats to U.S. security. […] More

As the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew Olsen oversaw the integration and analysis of all intelligence related to terrorism.  As he looks ahead […] More

Nasser Arrabyee, a journalist based in Sanaa, Yemen, told The Cipher Brief that “al-Qaeda and ISIS are the biggest winners” from the ongoing war in […] More

Shi’a Houthi forces recently killed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) commander Mohammed Jamal in the Yemeni governorate of Taiz. Jamal died while fighting the […] More

The conflict in Yemen has enabled ISIS to make its presence felt for the first time in Yemen and al-Qaeda to carve out a strategic […] More

Now in its eighth month, the conflict that Amnesty International has called Yemen’s “forgotten war” grinds on, overshadowed by a metastasizing terrorist threat emanating from […] More

The Cipher Brief spoke with Hans Kanold, CEO of SafeHotels Alliance, a standards organization for hotel security. TCB spoke with Kanold about the siege of […] More

The Cipher Brief reached out to Dr. Geoff Porter, the founder of North Africa Risk Consulting, to get his take on security trends in Mali […] More

The Cipher Brief spoke with Kathleen McChesney about hotel and personal security in the wake of the attack against the Radisson Hotel in Bamako, Mali. […] More

Osama bin Laden would be a happy man were he still alive. His hopes and dreams have seemingly come to fruition. And, the master plan […] More

Here’s the wicked paradox about terrorism. Long-term responses do nothing about short-term dangers. Short-term reactions feed extremism over the long term. There are no quick […] More

This weekend, the international talks on Syria will reconvene in Vienna, and a main focus will be the creation of a list of rebel groups […] More