Latest Terrorism Monitor Articles

Libya and al-Qaeda: A Complex Relationship

The United States, until recently, had a tendency to see Libya's Muammar Qadhafi and Osama bin Laden as ideological soul mates. While bin Laden aspired to cleanse Arabia and the Middle East of the infidel Christian and Jewish influence, Qadhafi aspired to be seen as... MORE

Chechnya’s Abu Walid And The Saudi Dilemma

By M.B. Nokhcho and Glen E. Howard Russia’s brutal five year war in Chechnya has largely been examined in the West as an effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to become an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism. However, the repercussions... MORE

Political Islam in Libya

Libya is an orthodox Sunni Muslim country that broadly follows the Maliki school. Like all the countries of North Africa, Libya experienced an Islamist revival from the late 1970s onwards that expressed itself predominantly through the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan Muslimeen) as well as through a... MORE

Al Qaeda And Maritime Terrorism, Part II

The potential problems posed by sea-borne terrorism are most severe in the 600-mile (1,000-km) long Straits of Malacca, transited by 50,000 ships a year, where a combination of traditional piracy and indigenous Muslim extremist movements combine to make maritime passage of the long, narrow waterway... MORE

Libyan State-Sponsored Terrorism: An Historical Perspective

For decades, the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi maintained a well documented history of extensive state sponsorship of terrorism. Tacit support, close cooperation, and moral encouragement for a number of terrorist movements and organizations throughout the years have often times served a number of... MORE

Russia And The War On Terror: Not A Trusted U.s. Ally

It is widely believed that cooperation in fighting international terrorism and the development of global energy resources are the two main pillars of U.S.-Russian relations post September 11. The firmness of this foundation, however, has been eroded by the continuing disagreements between Moscow and Washington... MORE

Mojahedin-e-Khalq: Saddam’s Iranian Allies

The Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organisation (MKO) is arguably the most controversial and perplexing topic in terrorism today. It is one of the greatest ironies of the recent Iraq war that an organization created in 1965, in part to combat "American Imperialism" and which after the November 1979... MORE

Editor’s Note on Special Chechnya Issue

The deterioration of the war in Chechnya has very serious consequences for security and stability in the entire Caucasus region. The Western media often accept the Russian version of events, in particular when it comes to branding the entire spectrum of Chechen resistance to Russian... MORE

The Jamaat Movement in Kabardino-Balkaria

Shortly before his death in March 2005, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov made some interesting remarks about the spreading political violence in the Russian republics of the Northwest Caucasus. Maskhadov described the necessity of "broadening the front of military resistance" after the Russian invasion of Chechnya... MORE