Hello. Look of the politics prose bookstore. My name is alexis. Those of you who have been here before will of heard this already, but bear with me for the new people. Please silage or electronic devices, cell phones and anything that might make noise. We want to avoid awkward interruptions during the event. There will be a q a session. We would appreciate it if you would step up to the microphone to my left so the audience can hear you, the author can hear you and so cspan can hear you as well. I think i speak for everyone who has attended one of our events before when i ask you put your question the form of an actual question and when the event is over we would appreciate it if you could help out our staff by holding up your chair and leaning against something sturdy, are pleased to welcome ali soufan to turdy, so withoute way we are pleased to welcome ali soufan to discuss his new book, anatomy of terror from the death of bin laden to the rise of the islamic state. Hes a former fbi agent responsible for supervising terrorism cases for the bureau and is currently the ceo of a group providing Intelligent Services to government and multinational organizations. His first book was a New York Times top 10 bestseller in his latest book, anatomy of terror is a continuation of the work begun with the first volume. In anatomy of terror he explores the ways in which Osama Bin Ladens ideology far from dying with the terrorist has grown and evolved since his death ultimately it into the creation of the islamic state. I will leave it to our guests to delve deeper into this topic, so without further ado please join me in welcoming him to politics and prose. [applause]. Good evening. Good pleasure to be with you hear a politics and prose. When he went to do today is take about 15 to my 20 minutes to talk about the book and wire at the book and then i would like to have a more interaction relationship and hearing your questions. Im sure you have a lot of yet on your mind especially with what we see today. I was an fbi agents. I decided in 19 night signed up with the bureau in 1997 and signed to the new york office. At the time i wrote a memo about a guy i believed would be very very dangerous and his name is Osama Bin Laden at the time, you know, my immediate supervisors did not know much about Osama Bin Laden, but it made it all the way to the National Security in the new york office, john oneill and john knew that we have an ongoing case, very closely held in the Us Government between the fbi and cia in monitoring the activities of the sky, Osama Bin Laden who has been trying to create problems. At the time the Us Government was a viewing him as a financier of terrorism rather than an active in terrorism operations. After i wrote this memo, don told me that i need to focus on Osama Bin Laden. I was working other terrorist groups on the side focusing on iraq at the time because we considered iraq from an intelligence perspective we considered iraq a state sponsor of terrorism, so working for in counterintelligence against Iraqi Government in the us was being handled by the joint Terrorism Task force. , as at the time time i worked al qaeda and i worked Osama Bin Laden. After the east African Embassy bombing, i was shifted to focus mainly on al qaeda, so im in so many ways like forrest gump. I found myself in the middle of a lot of big investigations and at one point some of my commanders if you want to call them and al qaeda as saying by the way, you are in charge of this investigation. Im like okay. I will try to fix it out. I was lucky in a sense that i have i had a front to see to history unfolding in a lot of these things ended up in 9011 between in between 911 and the east african and the bombings i was involved in summary operations around the world that disrupted terrorists, so we were successful in stopping al qaeda and its network cut from conducting terrorist supplies in manchester, uk, saudi arabia, jordan during the millennium they wanted to assassinate the pope and a couple of hotels and border crossings with israel took the millennium could have an totally different if they were successful in doing so, so i have some experience in the organization, the group on how they think, the mentality and then 9 11 happen in the organization that attacked us on 9 11 is no more. We destroy that organization. We destroy their commandandcontrol in afghanistan for many of the leaders escaped afghanistan, some were killed some are spending the rest of their lives in a caribbean retirement in guantanamo bay. Others were able to go to different locations and set up affiliates for the organizations and we hear about these affiliates today, some people want to assist with the shabbat and other with the establishment of al qaeda in iraq and so forth. So, after we finish 9 11 and the investigation of 9 11 and invasion of iraq, al qaeda mutated. Al qaeda is no one organization. It became a message in a message became a very potent message. By the time Osama Bin Laden was killed he had affiliates in places like yemen, places like somalia, in places like you know, north africa mainly algeria all the way down to molly. They have affiliates that support narrative al qaeda in places like indonesia and even organizations the pledge allegiance to al qaeda and the caucasus, in the balkans and so forth. So, the organization was spreading, but it wasnt spreading as a terrorist organization way it was spreading as a message. It was more a message that a group. When bin laden was killed on may 2, 2011, i was happy that we finally got him, but also i was troubled. I was troubled that i felt if we dont counter that message appropriately, counter the narrative, counter the ideology bin laden will be more popular dead that he was alive. He is going to be a martyr and i wrote the same night i wrote my concerns in an oped in the New York Times. The New York Times contacted me and said can you write something, bin laden just killed what you think about it, so you know i was happy that my mentor, the person i mentioned, john oneill unfortunately he died on 9 11. He left the fbi to become the head of security for the World Trade Center and he was helping people, getting out people from the building when the building collapsed, so i was happy to see bin laden dead because i lost friends and i lost mentors and i lost a lot of people along the way who fought to stop this guy narrative in this guise of bloodshed. Unfortunately, 16 years after 911 i stand before you they dont feel any better about the a qaeda. 16 years after 9 11 we still dont have a deep understanding of that network thats trying to cause harm. 16 years after 9 11 we dont have a conference at strategy that put all our assets together focusing on eliminating that right. Its fine and danny to find and danny to arrest people every now and then. Its fine and dandy to even use drones and these other tactics and special operations, special military operations they do phenomenal job and god bless them, but its not fair to just trust that our military intelligence appeared diplomats had something to do here. People who work in aid programs have something to do here. Law enforcer has something to do here. We had since 911 a lot of tactics and most of our tactics have been phenomenally successful, but the chelation of the tactics without a conference of strategy led to a strategic failure and thats why 16 years after 9 11, 20 years almost after bin laden declared war on the us we have a threat that is way more dangerous today than it used to be back when bin laden did 9 11. So, how is it more dangerous . On the eve of 9 11 bin laden had 400 members who pledged allegiance to al qaeda. 19 of them died on 911. Today, al qaeda in iraq and syria alone has 20000 people. Today, al qaeda in yemen, which is al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has between four to 5000 people. Today, al qaeda in somalia has up to 7000 people. Today, a q i am, in an organization that was not able to get their act together, they always follow each other based on rival boundaries, ethnic boundaries, the blacks wont work with the arabs and arabs wont work with them and the whole thing was fragmented. About two months ago to get together and they pledged allegiance to the local manager of al qaeda in north africa, an algerian and all of them through him pledge to al qaeda. So, we see an organization growing. Wise the organization growing . The organization is growing because they are taking advantage of the chaos happening today in the middle east. Thats something that did not happen because hes a genius. Ayman alzawahiri is the current leader of al qaeda or could happen because bin laden ordered it to happen before the bullets of the navy seals took them down. Bin laden was watching the arab spring from his hideout and he realized that there was something historic happening here. He told his commanders, forget everything i told you. I always told you dont worry about anything, just hit the us, hit the west, hit the head of the snake and we can kill all these regimes if we destroy america or if we make america so weak and so scared to be involved in the middle east. Now, im telling you something totally different. Im telling you even do not send people to go to afghanistan because we are ready according to his word when he said defeated and broke across afghanistan. Now, we have to focus on the middle east. Because what we are experiencing today is something so big that we did not see in the muslim world since the time of slot in. That his words. Lets focus on guaranteeing that when these regimes are thought, when omar qaddafi is falling in libya, when they are falling in tunisia but as guarantee that no one will come and fill that vacuum. Most importantly, lets guarantee that there is no democracy because god forbid that people have the ability to choose. Democracy is totally against sharia, so the believers in unbelievers have the same boat and they are equal in their selection of what kind of governments they want, so anyway his commanders understood exactly what he was saying. Theres something called the management of savagery, a strategy that has been out about how al qaeda view its strategy. So, first hit the United States until the United States is so weak to support these arab regimes and second creative vacuum. Dont allow anyone to fill that vacuum because whoever will fill it will be the new dictator working on behalf of the americans as they see it, so the create this vacuum. Manage that chaos and savagery happening over there. Number three, declare a state and after you declare a state you can start the final confrontation with the west and nonbelievers. Thats their strategy, so bin laden they basically understood at this phase or phase two lets create the chaos. Bin laden told his commanders i know what im telling you when i talk about chaos, its means a lot of people will die. And lots of muslims will die and then he continued to say and to write we have to kill them to save them. We have to kill them to save them. So, when bin laden died, that order he gave just before he was killed, change the whole power structure in the middle east in such a phenomenal way. Now, you see the terrorism threats is totally different than it used it to me back on 9 11. Now, the terrorist threat is embedded in very complicated political wars. Whats happening in syria is not only a civil war in syria. Its not fool ourselves. Its not only people who wanted liberty and freedom. That was at the very beginning of the syrian rebellion. Its a geopolitical complex and an international conflict. Thats why we are there. Thats what the russians are there. Thats why the iranians are there and the turks and the iranian state. Its not about the Syrian People regionally, secretary is being used to score geopolitical points against Regional Powers against each other between iran and saudi arabia and we see it all across this conflict zones and who is benefiting from the . Extremist groups on the hsia side the sunni side. So come on may, may 2, 2011, e killed bin laden. We do not kill al qaeda. Those navy seals took down the messenger, but unfortunately our Political Leadership did not take down the message. Thats what we have today. So, why did i read this book . I wrote the book because even 16 years after 9 11 we still dont have deeper understanding of the enemy. Do i mean by that . Some across ages said, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you will win 100 times in a hundred battles. Do we know our enemy on that level . If you watch television we are still fighting 16 years after 911. What we call the enemy . Do we call them islam is, islamic extremist, radical islamic extreme is or i love this one, losers. [laughter] would you call them . That indicates that we have no understanding of what the enemy is, so every time we have a disaster when i was talk about, my gosh we could not imagine Something Like this would happen thats the very first thing. Even the 9 11 commission they spent millions of dollars on investigating and they did a great job, but they called the 9 11 attack a failure of imagination. They said every time they talk to people in the Intelligence Committee come on for security they said we could not imagine a plane hit the building. Fine. When he went testified in front of congress he said we could not imagine it would take more troops to take down saddam. Cannot imagine. Y . Because our imagination is limited. Our imagination is limited. Our experiences, limited our views of history, our understanding of the others. Its limited with their own expertise. Its limited with our own prejudices, so what we need to do . We need to expand our imagination. Had we expand our imagination . You expand your imagination by adding empathy and i dont mean empathy in the colloquial sense to be sympathetic to these guys, no, i mean empathy in the clinical sense, understanding them, understanding the reviews of history, understanding the views of religion, understanding their reviews of their own history. This is what gives us a better understanding of how they operate. This is what gives us a sense of predictability of what they going to do and i hope in this book in a small little way i contribute to that understanding, so i did not want to write another terrorism and book. I did not want to write another black banner or terrorism book like many of these, some excellent terrorism books out there. I dont want to write a book about policy or bad geopolitics. At one up book book about who fault if Something Like this happens. This is not what this book is all about. This book is about delving into the personalities and the characters of people who want to do us harm. Men who calls so much bloodshed and suffering. Understanding them, not only on a personal level, but also on ideological level for this book tells you the history of the terrorist organization in the terrorist message that we deal with today from the beginning until today. I start with bin laden. I start with bin laden escaping and i talk about his relationship with his family, his relationship with his commanders, his relationship with his other senior members of al qaeda, how he was micromanaging. A lot of people say oh using cave. No, he was micromanaging the organization and the weight you negotiate cost is, micromanaging the way they operate, micromanaging the training manuals. He was micromanaging the organization and how his views changed. s views changed after 911. Became a message with affiliates and how you control the affiliates. He was so concerned his brand need to be intact that actually he send in order to al qaeda and saying you have no idea what im talking about because you dont speak arabic, so translate everything to french when you send it over there because i want them to understand what im talking about, so he was a micromanager in semi different ways. Bin laden, i go from the time he left afghanistan until he was killed by the navy seal and then the new leader they appointed was an interim leader to get all the allegiances from the different affiliates in the different commanders for the one who was known to be the number two of al qaeda. That was saif aladel, an ejection was with al qaeda, i dont say was he is still live. He was one of the founding members and was involved virtually with every operation al qaeda did against anyone. Saif aladel is an ejection federal forces and very loyal to bin laden, but he disagreed with them on and. He thought it could be a disaster. Most of the original members of al qaeda told bin laden at the Council Meeting no, dont do that. Only Ayman Alzawahiri in the egyptian freeloaders told him no, we are with you. Bin laden did not get the votes for 9 11, but he decided to go with it anyway. Saif aladel is in a position now to collect the allegiances because hes very wellknown among the members of al qaeda and very trusted. Through saif aladel i introduce al qaeda from the beginning until he is collecting on the allegiances and then i go to all the different affiliates and what we know about the leaders of these affiliates . So, its not a terrorism book as much as a novel with these characters, characters who actually created a lot of damage and bloodshed. So, with saif aladel understanding the organization, understanding the history of the organization and then understanding the divisions, internal divisions inside the organization. For example, the head of al qaeda in the horn of africa, the person who basically was intra modes instrumental establishing in somalia, he did not want in the old days when he was involved in east African Embassy bombing is to be the chief of staff of saif aladel. Hes like i think Ayman Alzawahiri is a freeloader, not one of us just because he fooled bin laden doesnt mean im going to and suddenly he was killed at a checkpoint by the somali forces. I dont make any conclusions or judgments who killed him. I keep it up to you to decide who killed him by reading the novel. But, broke affiliate that gave them gave al qaeda so much headache is a qaeda and iraq and espec