7/16/13 From Benghazi to Boston: The state of the jihad
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories and opinion pieces previewing the upcoming Aspen Security Forum. Security Clearance is a media sponsor of the event, which is taking place from July 17 to 20 in Aspen, Colorado. Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst and the author of “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden, from 9/11 to Abbottabad.”
(CNN) — Every July in the lush, green mountains of Aspen, Colorado, many of the top present and former U.S. national security officials and other experts gather to discuss how the war against al Qaeda and its allies is going.
Ahead of last year’s Aspen conference, I wrote a piece for CNN provocatively titled “Time to declare victory: Al Qaeda is defeated.”And I then spoke on a panel at Aspen where I tried to make the case for this position.