Peter L. Bergen > Quotes

“For an organization devoted to revolutionary holy war, the pre-9/11 al-Qaeda sometimes had the feel of an insurance company, albeit a heavily armed one.”
― Peter L. Bergen, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad

“So the insurgency was born in a perfect storm of American errors--not establishing order; not providing the semblance of any government; confirming to the Sunnis who had once lorded it over Iraq's Shia majority that they were officially the underdogs; and throwing hundreds of thousands of soldiers onto the streets in an economy where the jobless rate was around 50 percent, while simultaneously ensuring that there was an unlimited supply of weaponry at hand for those angry young men.”
― Peter Bergen, The Longest War: A History of the War on Terror and the Battles with Al Qaeda Since 9/11

“Negotiations with religious fanatics who have delusions of grandeur generally do not go well.”
― Peter L. Bergen

“alphabet, and G meant that bin Laden was “secured.” McRaven relayed the word Geronimo to the White House. But this was ambiguous: Was bin Laden captured or dead? So McRaven asked the SEAL ground force commander, “Is he EKIA [Enemy Killed in Action]?” A few seconds later, the answer came back: “Roger, Geronimo EKIA.” Then McRaven announced to the White House, “Geronimo EKIA.” There were gasps in the Situation Room, but no whoops or high fives. The president quietly said, “We got him, we got him.” It was still the middle of the night in Pakistan, and the SEALs were able to see only through the murky, pixilated”
― Peter L. Bergen, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad

“Obama would prove to be one of the most militarily aggressive American presidents in decades. He authorized military operations in seven Muslim countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen; mandated a troop surge in Afghanistan; and vastly ramped up the CIA drone program. And he became the first president since the Civil War to authorize the assassination of a U.S. citizen: Anwar al-Awlaki.”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think it’s accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“The most deadly jihadist attacks in the United States since 9/11, and the most threatening plots, have been carried out by or instigated by Americans.”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“Matthew’s case underlines a surprising fact: since 9/11 the FBI has organized more jihadist terrorist plots in the United States than any other organization. Al-Qaeda’s core group in Pakistan has mounted six terrorist plots (of varying degrees of sophistication); al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen has mounted two; the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate have each mounted one. Three other plots were engineered by the NYPD. The FBI has been responsible for thirty.”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“In fact, the poor are generally too busy making ends meet to be the vanguard of any revolution. History shows that terrorism is a largely bourgeois endeavor, from the Russian anarchists of the late nineteenth century to the German Marxists of the Baader-Meinhof Gang of the 1970s, to the apocalyptic Japanese terror cult Aum Shinrikyo of the 1990s. Islamist terrorists, it turns out, are no different.”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“On the choppers were twenty-three SEALs and a Pakistani-American who spoke the local language, Pashto. If crowds gathered at the Abbottabad compound, he would tell people there was a Pakistani military exercise going on and they should go home. Also on the flight to Abbottabad was a dog named Cairo, who would prevent “squirters” from sneaking out of the compound, sniff out any explosives, and hunt for possible safe rooms.”
― Peter L. Bergen, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden: The Biography

“Some kind of personal crisis (the loss of a job, the experience of racism, moral outrage caused by the way Muslims were being treated in international conflicts, or the death of a close family member) provided a “cognitive opening” for a turn to Salafi beliefs,”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“Only the government could have made a ‘terrorist’ out of Mr. Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope….I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here except the government instigated it, planned it and brought it to fruition.” Nonetheless,”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“It also imposed Taliban-style rule (a draconian implementation of sharia, or Koranic, law that has involved throwing homosexuals to their deaths from tall buildings, lopping off the hands of thieves, beheading women accused of “sorcery,” and enslaving and raping minority women) over some eight million Syrians and Iraqis. Within”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster, for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. —Friedrich Nietzsche”
― Peter L. Bergen, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden: The Biography

“Bin Laden was eager to memorialize the 9/11 attacks with another spectacular one. He told his deputies that killing President Barack Obama was a high priority, but he also had General David Petraeus, the then-commander in Afghanistan, in his sights. Bin Laden told his team not to bother with plots against Vice President Joe Biden, whom he considered “totally unprepared” for the post of president.”
― Peter L. Bergen, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden: The Biography

“since 9/11 the FBI has instigated more jihadist terrorist “plots” in the States than al-Qaeda or any of its affiliated groups—thirty versus ten. Undercover”
― Peter Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?

“We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. —ATTRIBUTED TO WINSTON CHURCHILL”
― Peter L. Bergen, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad

“Abdullah,”
― Peter L. Bergen, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden: The Biography

“media,”
― Peter L. Bergen, United States of Jihad: Who Are America's Homegrown Terrorists, and How Do We Stop Them?