Featured Article

Chertoff: Looking Ahead
to What's Next in the
War on Terror

By Michael Chertoff, Co-Founder and Managing Principal
Published in: USA Today - May 2, 2011

With the World Trade Center still smoldering, America promised to bring Osama bin Laden to justice or justice to him. President Obama's announcement that bin Laden has been killed brings a tremendous amount of gratification for all those who have fought for years to achieve this result as well as great comfort to those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001. There is no doubt, this is a great moment for America.

This victory is a tribute to the years of work done by our brave servicemen and women as well as those in the national security and intelligence community, particularly those who carried out this incredible mission over the past few days.

Bin Laden's elimination has real symbolic and psychological significance. For Americans, and others who lost loved ones on 9/11, bin Laden's death is just punishment. For the world, the impressive accomplishment of our military and intelligence operators is proof that the United States will be unyielding and intrepid in waging war against those who attack us. Bin Laden's unceremonious demise and burial also deal a blow to those who lionized his diabolical leadership. While we celebrate, however, we must remember that al-Qaeda still remains a threat to all those who cherish freedom.

Al-Qaeda is a network, not a hierarchy. The network's determination to kill and harm Americans and our allies around the world does not stop. This network is not isolated to one specific location, and as of today, is not under the control of one leader. Instead, it is distributed within some of the most loosely governed parts of the world, particularly Yemen and North Africa.

For the near term, the United States and the world must be on guard for spontaneous attacks or efforts at retaliation. Terrorist plots in the planning stage may be accelerated, especially as we approach the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. While we have made it much harder for al-Qaeda to conduct large-scale attacks in the United States due to our hardened infrastructure and comprehensive layers of security, al-Qaeda's desire to demonstrate its strength in the absence of Osama bin Laden should not be taken lightly.

As we take into account where the al-Qaeda threat has spread today, we cannot forget that bin Laden was captured and killed in Pakistan and one of the nation's strategic military installations, there are legitimate questions about whether elements of the country's political and military establishment may have some sympathy toward al-Qaeda and its supporters.

As we look around the world to where the threats are developing, we must not shift focus from Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the terrorist threat has continued to nurture its roots.