Aljazeera.com created an interactive chart titled “September 11: Counting the costs to America” online: “Military: $1.73 trillion By far the largest share of America’s post-9/11 spending has been military-related. More than half of this category, of course, is the cost of America’s ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is impossible to calculate the human […]
9/1/2011
Aljazeera.com created an interactive chart titled “September 11: Counting the costs to America” online: “$5 trillion, and counting: Osama bin Laden spoke often of a strategy of ‘economic warfare’ against the United States, a low-level war aimed at bankrupting the world’s economic superpower. A decade after the 9/11 attacks, it’s hard to argue that bin […]
8/31/2011
“The independent Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated in August [31, 2011] that at least $31 billion has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that the total could be as high as $60 billion. It studied not just reconstruction spending, but $206 billion for the logistical support of coalition forces and […]
8/30/2011
In an August 30, 2011, interview with Matt Lauer on Today, when former Vice President Dick Cheney was asked “if the decision to invade Iraq was still the right one given all the costs, he said, ‘Oh sure. I don’t think it damaged our reputation around the world. I just don’t believe that.’ He added, […]
8/29/2011
“…in August [29] 2011, after secret talks had begun with the Americans, [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar admitted for the first time that talks were going on. He said that in the interest of a peaceful Afghanistan, ‘every legitimate option can be considered in order to reach this goal,’ and he accepted that ‘all’ ethnic groups […]
8/22/2011
On August 22, 2011, “a U.S. drone missile fired into North Waziristan in Pakistan and killed Al Qaeda’s newly appointed number two, the Libyan-born Atiya abd al-Rahman. He was considered a key aide first to Bin Laden and now to his successor, Ayman al-Zawahri, and his death was a major blow.” – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan […]
8/22/2011
“Al Qaeda central has suffered one blow after another this year. Besides the death of Osama bin Laden, drone strikes have taken out several top al Qaeda commanders in Pakistan, most recently Atiyah al Rahman, al Qaeda’s chief of operations [on August 22, 2011]. A senior U.S. counter-terrorism official told CNN that from an operational […]
8/22/2011
“Al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another major blow to a terrorist group that the US believes to be on the verge of defeat, a senior Barack Obama administration official has claimed. The Libyan national who was the network’s former operational leader, rose up the chain of command after the […]
8/15/2011
In a video that surfaced on August 15, 2011, al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri “urged ‘Muslim brothers everywhere’ to continue to target the United States, and to avenge bin Laden’s death. ‘America today is staggering,’ said Zawahiri. ‘Hunt her down wherever you may encounter her. Hunt her down to cut what is left of her […]
8/12/2011
From information in an August 12, 2011, article in The New York Times: “According to news reports, the CIA believes that drones have killed six hundred militants but not a single civilian–a claim that is patently unbelievable to any Afghan or Pakistani.” – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 173 […]