It’s been nearly 25 years since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Virtually all of the leadership of al-Qaeda that planned and orchestrated the attacks have now been killed, but the group remains intact today. But if you talk to national security and terrorism experts, they’ll offer wildly different assessments of how strong — and how much of a threat — it still poses.
Graeme Wood is a journalist and staff writer at The Atlantic who covers the Middle East, terrorism, and political Islam. Earlier this month, he published a piece in The Atlantic with a simple, provocative title: What happened to al-Qaeda?
In it, Wood explores competing views of whether the organization was strategically brilliant, catastrophically incompetent, quietly resurgent, or simply no longer the force it once was. In this episode, Senior Editor Will Kaback explores this question with him — and dives into his thoughts on what al-Qaeda’s trajectory reveals about America’s response to terrorism, the unintended consequences of U.S. foreign policy, and the difficulty of knowing when a seemingly diminished threat is genuinely gone.
Ad-free podcasts are here!
Get 20% off your first year of ad-free episodes, exclusive interviews, and deep dives with Tangle’s podcast membership!
In Friday’s members-only post, Isaac explored the question of whether billionaires should exist — and dove into generalizations about them all being evil. The piece has already garnered over 600 comments, a strong indication that you have your own opinions. You can read it (and join the conversation) here.
You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.
Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.
This podcast hosted by: Will Kaback and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and Jon Lall.
Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
","author_name":"Isaac Saul"}