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Al Qaeda

Best Article Crime History

The Falling Man

In the days after 9/11, a photo of an unknown man falling from the South Tower appeared in publications across the globe. This is the story of that photograph, and of the search to find the man pictured in it.

Tom Junod Esquire Sep 2003 30min Permalink

Politics World

Inside Gitmo: America's Shame

Why “the legal equivalent of outer space” continues to exist, fifteen years after 9/11.

Janet Reitman Rolling Stone Dec 2015 35min Permalink

World Religion

The Mystery of ISIS

How a tattooed video store clerk with a history of drinking and drug use ended up at an Islamic self-help class leading to the birth of ISIS.

Anonymous New York Review of Books Aug 2015 15min Permalink

Crime

Rise of al-Qaida Sahara Terrorist

A profile of Moktar Belmoktar, Al-Qaida’s “most difficult employee,” who was responsible for a major attack on an Algerian BP plant and, according to U.S. and Libyan forces, was killed in an air strike on Sunday.

Read more

Rukmini Callimachi on the Longform Podcast.

Rukmini Callimachi AP May 2013 10min Permalink

World

How Isis Crippled al-Qaida

The inside story of the coup that has brought the world’s most feared terrorist network to the brink of collapse.

Shiv Malik, Ali Younes, Spencer Ackerman, Mustafa Khalili The Guardian Jun 2015 25min Permalink

World

In Timbuktu, al-Qaida Left Behind a Manifesto

While fleeing their Mali stronghold, al-Qaida left behind documents describing not how to terrorize a population, but how to govern.

Rukmini Callimachi AP Feb 2013 10min Permalink

Crime

A Nightmare in Real Life

On the American teenager who was kidnapped by Islamic militants while on vacation in the Philippines.

Susan Svrluga Washington Post Apr 2013 20min Permalink

World

When the Jihad Came to Mali

A history of how Tuareg separatists, jihadists seeking a “desert caliphate,” cigarette smugglers, and narcotraffickers have turned Northern Mali into “the globe’s most significant terrorist threat.”

Joshua Hammer New York Review of Books Mar 2013 20min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Man Behind Bin Laden

A profile of Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian doctor who became Bin Laden’s #2 and has now taken over Al-Qaeda.

Lawrence Wright New Yorker Sep 2002 Permalink

Crime

The Interrogation of Detainee 063

A classified Guantánamo Bay interrogation log reveals the techniques used on Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th 9/11 hijacker.

- Time Jun 2005 Permalink

Crime Tech World

Jihad 2.0

In the wake of 9/11, terrorist networks moved their recruitment and training efforts online, giving birth to Jihad-geeks like Irhabi_007.

Nadya Labi The Atlantic Jul 2006 15min Permalink