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Showing posts from May 1, 2016

Startling book unpicks story behind Australia’s first major terrorist attack

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ONCE upon a time, Australia was truly the carefree, “lucky country” of our imagination. Now, we walk around on edge, knowing we are by no means protected from people who would do us harm. If you thought that started with the Sydney siege, you’d be wrong. What is seen as the first major act of terrorism on Australian soil took place 30 years ago, and it remains unsolved to this day. Author and award-winning filmmaker Dr Rachel Landers has dived into the archive documents on the Hilton bombing, trying to make sense of all the contradictory testimony surrounding that black day. On February 13, 1978, a bomb was planted in a rubbish bin outside the Sydney Hilton, which was hosting a Commonwealth meeting of Asia Pacific heads of government. The device exploded when it was loaded into a garbage truck, blowing the vehicle to pieces, along with two rubbish collectors, Alec Carter and William Favell. A police officer guarding the entrance to the hotel lounge, Paul Burmistriw, died la

An Interview With Terrorism Expert Dr. Max Abrahms

Dr. Max Abrahms teaches and researches on asymmetric conflict theory at Northeastern University, where he’s assistant professor of political science. Taking an academic approach to the study of terrorism has allowed him to cut through the conventional wisdom carried in the media narrative. In a telephone interview, we discussed ISIS from a number of angles, including its extreme focus on violence, social media recruiting techniques, what motivates people to join the group, and how Obama has dealt with defeating the terrorist group. Splice Today:  You're an academic. Many of the media pundits commenting on ISIS and terrorism in general come from think tanks. Do you think their methodology is rigorous enough? Max Abrahms: Pundits vary at think tanks, but generally professors of political science who focus on terrorism have stronger research methods and a broader understanding of militant group dynamics beyond the terrorist group. We also must publish in double-blind peer revi

Obama on the future of terrorism after bin Laden raid

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Washington (CNN) On the fifth anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, President Barack Obama sharply defended his targeted approached to fighting terror -- and said the next president would most likely follow his lead rather than his predecessor's. "The kinds of Special Forces and intelligence-gathering that we saw in the bin Laden raid is going to be, more often than not, the tool of choice for a president in dealing with that kind of threat," he said. "The ideology has not been extinguished," Obama acknowledged in an exclusive interview with CNN's Peter Bergen on Monday night. "The world is still dangerous. In many ways, the Middle East is in a more chaotic situation." But -- without directly referring to President George W. Bush's decisions to send U.S. troops into Afghanistan and then Iraq -- Obama said such large-scale operations, which continue to reverberate in the current presidential race, would only make the fight agains