POLS 157 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Al-Qaeda, Terrorism Financing, Terrorist Threats

• School: University of Vermont
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 157
• Professor: Peter S Henne

Document Summary

Before 9/11 the us was active in counterterrorism around the world, starting with the cia. Counterterrorism center (ctc) in the 1980s, although it was not a priority. In the 1990s, efforts stepped up with the rise of al qaeda, but it was still not seen as a major issue. The us thought that it could deal with the threat. After 9/11 the us reoriented their entire foreign policy apparatus around president bush"s neoconservative guidelines: created the director of national intelligence (dni, expanded the fbi and cia counterterrorism abilities, created the department of homeland security. Invaded afghanistan to uproot al-qaeda and defeat the taliban: the us managed to do this, but osama bin laden escaped. Invaded iraq, claiming it was about the global war on terror, despite no evidence of collaboration between al qaeda and saddam hussein or evidence of weapons of mass destruction in iraq.