CONFRONTING A RESILIENT AL QAEDA

*** Back to that Westphalian frame of reference, which resorts to conventional state vs. state responses. You are not against a state, or a political group - you are fighting an ideology and that cannot be defeated by bombs and guns but by a counter ideology. You cannot arrest them away - even more will pop up in their place. You cannot demonize the whole of Islam - it will only push people to it (counter culture syndrome). MS ***

FROM: http://counterterrorismblog.org/2010/05/confronting_a_resilient_al-qae.php


By Matthew Levitt

In the latest lecture in The Washington Institute's counterterrorism lecture series, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, spoke on "Confronting a Resilient al-Qaeda: The U.S. Strategic Response."

Ambassador Benjamin described the evolving threat and increasing resilience of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, which have been brought into stark relief by a number of recent events, including the attempted car bombing in Times Square and the December 2009 airline bomb plot. His talk focused on ways the U.S. government is refining its existing strategy to counter this evolution in dynamic threats.

The full text of his talk, and an audio link as well, can be found at:
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC07.php?CID=528