Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate. Its membership is mostly composed of Arabs but also includes people from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian,economic and military targets of the U.S. and its allies;such as the 1998 US embassy bombings,the USS Cole bombing,and the September 11 attacks.
Osama bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian–born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist,Bin Laden participated in the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union,and supported the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Opposed to the United States' foreign policy in the Middle East,Bin Laden declared war on the U.S. in 1996 and advocated attacks targeting US assets in various countries,and supervised the execution of September 11 attacks inside the U.S. in 2001.
The following lists events that happened during 2001 in Afghanistan.
Richard Alan Clarke is an American national security expert,novelist,and former government official. He served as the Counterterrorism Czar for the National Coordinator for Security,Infrastructure Protection,and Counter-Terrorism for the United States between 1998 and 2003.
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah was a high-ranking Egyptian member of al-Qaeda. He has been described as al-Qaeda's most experienced operational planner and was said to be the second-in-command in the organization at the time of his death.
The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) is the principal law enforcement and security agency of the United States Department of State (DOS). Its primary mission is to protect diplomatic assets,personnel,and information,and combat transnational crimes connected to visa and passport fraud. DSS also conducts counterterrorism,counterintelligence,cybersecurity and criminal investigations domestically and abroad.
On October 29,2004,at 21:00 UTC,Al Jazeera broadcast excerpts allegedly from a videotape of Osama bin Laden addressing the people of the United States;in this video,he accepts responsibility for the September 11 attacks,condemns the Bush government's response to those attacks,and presents those attacks as part of a campaign of revenge and deterrence motivated by his witnessing of the destruction in the Lebanese Civil War in 1982. News analysts speculated that the release of the video was timed to influence the 2004 U.S. presidential election,which would take place four days later.
Osama bin Laden,the founder and former leader of al-Qaeda,went into hiding following the start of the War in Afghanistan in order to avoid capture by the United States for his role in the September 11 attacks,and having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999. After evading capture at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001,his whereabouts became unclear,and various rumours about his health,continued role in al-Qaeda,and location were circulated. Bin Laden also released several video and audio recordings during this time.
Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ) is United States Department of State's national security interagency program that offers reward for information leading to the location or an arrest of leaders of terrorist groups,financiers of terrorism,including any individual that abide in plotting attacks carried out by foreign terrorist organizations. RFJ directly addresses the foreign threat by identifying entities such as key leaders and financial mechanism of the foreign terrorist organizations. RFJ's mission objective is to obtain information that will protect American lives in best interest of U.S. national security. RFJ is managed by the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) administered by the U.S. State Department Office Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
On May 2,2011,the United States conducted Operation Neptune Spear,in which SEAL Team Six shot and killed Osama bin Laden at his "Waziristan Haveli" in Abbottabad,Pakistan. Bin Laden,who founded al-Qaeda and masterminded the September 11 attacks,had been the subject of a United States military manhunt since the beginning of the War in Afghanistan,but escaped to Pakistan—allegedly with Pakistani support—during or after the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. The mission was part of an effort led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating the Special Mission Units involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six,participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) and the CIA's Special Activities Division,which recruits heavily from among former JSOC Special Mission Units.
Karl Frederick Inderfurth is an American diplomat. He was the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from August 1997 to January 2001. In his capacity as assistant secretary,Inderfurth was responsible for US policy regarding Afghanistan,Bangladesh,Bhutan,India,Maldives,Nepal,Pakistan,and Sri Lanka. Prior to his appointment as assistant secretary,Inderfurth served as the U.S. representative for special political affairs to the United Nations,with the rank of ambassador. In this capacity,he dealt with issues such as UN peacekeeping,disarmament,nuclear proliferation and security affairs. Inderfurth also served as deputy U.S. representative on the United Nations Security Council.
Cameron Munter is a retired American diplomat,academic,and executive who now works as a global consultant. He was President and CEO of the EastWest Institute (EWI) in New York from 2015 to 2019,directing conflict resolution projects in Russia,China,the Middle East,South Asia,and the Balkans. He is currently a senior fellow of the CEVRO UNIVERSITY in Prague and the Atlantic Council in Washington,and serves on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards.
Hamza bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born key member of al-Qaeda. He was a son of Osama bin Laden. On 14 September 2019,U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. In 2024,unconfirmed media reports claimed that he was still alive and a senior leader of al-Qaeda.
Michael A. Sheehan was an American author and former government official and military officer. He was a Distinguished Chair at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point,New York and a terrorist analyst for NBC News.
Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism refers to the involvement of Pakistan in terrorism through the backing of various designated terrorist organizations. Pakistan has been frequently accused by various countries,including its neighbours Afghanistan,Iran,and India,as well as by the United States,the United Kingdom,Germany,and France,of involvement in a variety of terrorist activities in both its local region of South Asia and beyond. Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border have been described as an effective safe haven for terrorists by Western media and the United States Secretary of Defense,while India has accused Pakistan of perpetuating the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir by providing financial support and armaments to militant groups,as well as by sending state-trained terrorists across the Line of Control and de facto India–Pakistan border to launch attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir and India proper,respectively. According to an analysis published by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in 2008,Pakistan was reportedly,with the possible exception of Iran,perhaps the world's most active sponsor of terrorist groups;aiding these groups that pose a direct threat to the United States. Pakistan's active participation has caused thousands of deaths in the region;all these years Pakistan has been supportive to several terrorist groups despite several stern warnings from the international community. Daniel Byman,a professor and senior analyst of terrorism and security at the Center For Middle East Policy,also wrote that Pakistan is probably 2008's most active sponsor of terrorism. In 2018,the former Prime Minister of Pakistan,Nawaz Sharif,suggested that the Pakistani government played a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba,a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group. In July 2019,Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan,on an official visit to the United States,acknowledged the presence of some 30,000–40,000 armed terrorists operating on Pakistani soil. He further stated that previous administrations were hiding this truth,particularly from the United States,for the last 15 years during the War on Terror.
Pakistan's role in the War on Terror is a widely discussed topic among policy-makers of various countries,political analysts and international delegates around the world. Pakistan has simultaneously received allegations of harbouring and aiding terrorists and commendation for its anti-terror efforts. Since 2001,the country has also hosted millions of Afghan refugees who fled the war in Afghanistan.
On May 2,2011,United States President Barack Obama confirmed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in his compound in Abbottabad,northeastern Pakistan. Bin Laden's death was welcomed by many as a positive and significant turning point in the fight against al-Qaeda and related groups. Those who welcomed it included the United States,the United Nations,European Union,NATO,and some nations in Asia,Africa,Oceania,South America,and the Middle East,including Yemen,Lebanon,Saudi Arabia,India,Israel,Indonesia,Somalia,the Philippines,Turkey,Iraq,Australia,Argentina,and the rebel Libyan Republic.
Pakistan was alleged to have provided support for Osama bin Laden. These claims have been made both before and after Osama was found living in a compound in Abbottabad,Pakistan and was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs on 2 May 2011. The compound itself was located just half a mile from Pakistan's premier military training academy Kakul Military Academy (PMA) in Abbottabad. In the aftermath of bin Laden's death,American president Barack Obama asked Pakistan to investigate the network that sustained bin Laden. "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan",Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News. He also added that the United States was not sure "who or what that support network was." In addition to this,in an interview with Time magazine,CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US-officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned. However,the documents recovered from bin Laden's compound 'contained nothing to support the idea that bin Laden was protected or supported by the Pakistani officials'. Instead,the documents contained criticism of Pakistani military and future plans for attack against the Pakistani military installations.
Amin Muhammad Ul Haq Saam Khan is an Afghan national and a trained doctor. He is reported to have been a former Osama bin Laden bodyguard and a security coordinator. Haq is believed to have escaped from Tora Bora with Osama bin Laden.
Gary Brooks Faulkner is an American former construction worker and landlord who was arrested in 2010 in Pakistan carrying a sword,pistol,night vision goggles,a map,and a Bible on his one-man hunt to capture Osama bin Laden,the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda. Faulkner claimed that he was on a mission from God to capture Bin Laden.
