Choose Your Path
What earlier operations, crises, failures, and acts of courage can still teach us now.
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Al-Qaeda held footage of Hamza bin Laden recorded as Afghanistan was falling in August 2021 and waited more than five years to release it. The timing tells us something about how the organization intends to use him now.
Read briefBriefing work
Current assessments and intelligence-style work connected to this subject.
AQIS is using the 25th anniversary of 9/11 to explain to a younger audience why it believes America should remain the priority and to connect September…
Read briefTwenty-five years after 9/11, the House Intelligence Committee reviewed what the U.S. fixed, what remains unfinished, and where new intelligence gaps may be forming. These are…
Read briefFive years after the Abbey Gate bombing, this brief reconstructs the twelve days before the attack: the authorization, the bomber’s release and movement, the network around…
Read briefFive years after Kabul fell, Afghanistan should not be understood simply as the end of America’s longest war. It marked the beginning of another cycle in…
Read briefThe return of Ebola to international headlines is a reminder that some threats never disappear; they simply fade from public attention until conditions allow them to…
Read briefThe recent federal indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue is being…
Read briefThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) continues to rely on controversial entrapment operations as a core component of its counterterrorism strategy—a practice increasingly criticized for targeting…
Read briefNew reporting from June 15th, 2025, has reignited outrage over the fate of missing American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012. According to…
Read briefOn this date in 2003, a series of coordinated suicide bombings struck residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, targeting Western nationals. Orchestrated by al-Qaeda, these attacks…
Read briefAs we approach the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, it is crucial to reflect on the enduring lessons of that fateful day. On December…
Read briefLast Saturday, October 26th, after former President and current Republican nominee Donald J. Trump received endorsements from elements of Michigan’s Muslim community, misinformation resurfaced regarding the…
Read briefToday, on the one-year anniversary of the October 7th, 2023, attacks in Israel, the profound implications of this tragedy become increasingly clear. The attacks, executed by…
Read briefIn the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the United States undertook an unprecedented restructuring of its counterterrorism and national security infrastructure. This response resulted in the…
Read briefAugust 28, 2024 Introduction This analysis compares al-Qaeda's leadership, global presence, operational capabilities, financial networks, ideological influence, relationship with the Taliban, recruitment strategies, and alliances in…
Read briefThe withdrawal of U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) from Afghanistan in 2021 has left behind a network of military and intelligence bases that offer…
Read briefOn July 30, 2024, senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr aka Hajj Mohsin was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in a Hezbollah…
Read briefResearch & source work
Investigations, reports, letters, source work, and earlier research that add context.
An expanded investigation into the attack at Abbey Gate, the network behind it, and the compressed plotting window that preceded it.
Open investigationAn investigation identifying members of the mortar team responsible for the attack on the CIA Annex in Benghazi.
Read articleLessons from the intelligence gaps and interconnected jihadist networks that shaped the Benghazi threat environment.
Read articleA call to remember the Benghazi victims by continuing the work of identifying and pursuing the planners responsible.
Read articleOutside publications
Magazine, journal, and outside publication work that belongs on this path.
Newly declassified 9/11 files show that warnings about Osama bin Laden and attacks inside the U.S. were reaching the highest levels of government years before September…
Read articleTwenty-five years after 9/11, one of the border-security reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission remains unfinished: a comprehensive biometric entry-exit system.
Read articleThe rebuilding of a historic Al-Qaeda institution offers one of the clearest indicators of the organization’s resurgence.
Read articleAn interview with Sarah Adams and Dave Benton about the investigation behind Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy and the continuing search for accountability.
Read the interviewThe Commons
Practical guidance from The Commons for turning lessons into capability.
A Nordic idea about courage, endurance, and taking the next useful step without pretending difficulty is easy.
Read the noteA Commons companion to the collaborative book—focused on endurance, service, memory, and what communities owe one another after a long war.
Enter the conversationA Nordic note on courage, perseverance, adaptation, and taking the next useful step when the path becomes difficult.
Read the noteA calmer approach to fear, judgment, and learning—plus books and resources that build confidence without feeding panic.
Read the briefBooks & enduring work
Books, collaborations, and other enduring material that helps round out the subject.
Two days before September 11, al-Qaeda assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud. Sarah joins Ahmad Massoud to examine why his father posed such a threat to al-Qaeda and…
Watch on YouTubeJohn Arquilla examines American military strategy from Hiroshima through the age of algorithms, including the growing role of information, computation, and AI.
View bookSarah contributed to the National Geographic series and its episode examining the hunt for Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah Lang.
View the episodeSarah wrote the foreword to this study of war, trauma, and the making of civilian rescuers.
View the bookAn oral-history project preserving firsthand accounts from people who experienced the war, rebuilding efforts, withdrawal, and Taliban takeover.
Explore HARTA Pineapple Press project examining Afghanistan, the withdrawal, and the people who carried its consequences.
View the bookLiza Mundy’s history of the women who transformed CIA operations, analysis, and modern targeting.
View bookA preserved 2023 exhibition bringing together Afghan artists, veterans, and volunteers through art, storytelling, and the lived consequences of war.
Explore the collectionSarah Adams and Dave “Boon” Benton reconstruct the Benghazi attacks, the network behind them, and the lessons that remain unfinished.
View bookToby Harnden tells the story of Team Alpha, Mike Spann, and the first CIA mission sent into Afghanistan after September 11.
View bookSarah Adams examines how Ukrainian artists documented war, preserved culture, countered disinformation, and used art to support a country under attack.
Read the articleSonia Purnell restores Virginia Hall’s extraordinary story of spycraft, resistance, and service during World War II.
View bookFred Burton and Samuel M. Katz examine the abduction and murder of CIA Station Chief William Buckley and the rise of Hezbollah’s war against America.
View bookDavid Priess traces the history of the President’s Daily Brief and the people who have prepared and received it.
View bookContributed to the investigation and final report examining the events surrounding the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
View the final reportHenry A. Crumpton reflects on clandestine service, counterterrorism, and the responsibilities of intelligence work.
View bookT. J. Waters offers a firsthand account of joining the CIA’s first post-9/11 Clandestine Service training class.
View bookGary Schroen’s first-person account of the CIA team sent into Afghanistan after September 11.
View bookTed Gup investigates the lives behind the stars on the CIA Memorial Wall and the human cost of secret service.
View bookHer own account of the work, hardship, friendships, and purpose that shaped her life as a writer.
Read at Project GutenbergOne of Hannah Adams’s most substantial works, tracing Jewish history from antiquity to her own time.
Find an editionA history from the settlement at Plymouth through the adoption of the United States Constitution.
Read the archiveHannah Adams’s pioneering comparative survey sought to describe religious communities in their own terms.
Read the archiveKeep the thread
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