A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Why do people think Osama bin Laden still lives? It depends on who is saying that Osama bin Laden is still alive. Basically, no one in Al-Qaeda even remotely clings to this fantasy. Days after bin Laden was killed and given a burial at sea courtesy of the U.S. Navy in May of 2011, the terrorist organization issued a communique that said their “Sheikh” was dead and that  Ayman al-Zawahiri,  bin Laden’s Egyptian second-in-command, was now in charge. In the Muslim world, there are some conspiracy theorists who claim bin Laden was not dead, but that he was hiding somewhere out of reach of the Americans. However, since bin Laden has not issued any proclamations via recordings or videos as he used to do before SEAL Team Six deep-sixed the man in Operation Neptune Spear, this just seems to be either idiocy or wishful thinking on the “bin Laden is alive” camp’s part. As for  Americans  who say bin Laden is not dead? Well, either they are misinformed conspiracy t...

As the White House, the Pentagon and the various intelligence-gathering agencies of the United States focus their attention on such threats as Al Qaeda and other Islamic jihadist groups, the rise of China as an emerging Asian superpower, the growing instability in the Middle East as a result of last year’s Arab Spring popular revolts and Russia’s apparent turn toward autocratic rule by Vladimir Putin, it is important to remain vigilant to national security threats from within the Western Hemisphere. Even as President Barack Obama’s national security team seeks to reduce the U.S. military’s presence in Afghanistan after more than a decade of fighting the extremist Islamic group known as the Taliban – a struggle complicated by Pakistan’s less-than-enthusiastic attitudes toward U.S. objectives in the region – and American defense budgets undergo cutbacks, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other left-leaning Latin American leaders are forging alliances with Iran and other anti-American...

If you were to ask me if I remember what happened on Monday, September 10, 2001, I would have to be honest and say "Nothing, really." I surely must have walked my six-year-old Labrador retriever, done some ghostwriting work for a (now former) client and chatted online with friends and my (now ex-) girlfriend. It was quite an ordinary day, and September 11, 2001 promised to be just one more ordinary day, not just for me, but for nearly 300 million Americans and the rest of the world. As it turned out, however, a man named Osama Bin Laden and his followers in a terrorist organization named Al Qaeda (The Base) had other ideas, and September 11, 2001 turned out to be our generation's Day of Infamy. On that Tuesday morning 10 years ago, I woke up a bit after 8:30 AM; I made my way downstairs and went through the usual routine of serving myself a bowl of cold cereal and making two cups of coffee in a Mr. Coffee brewer. As the coffee brewed (making those weird gurgling...