Our Thanks to Many on Our Second Anniversary

By Andrew Cochran

Two years ago today, after dozens of hours of development and design, I pushed a couple of keyboard buttons and launched this blog; you can see my introductory post from that day. This is the 2,199th post, and we've added over 17,600 links to news and commentaries to the right sidebar. We are pleased that in the past year we've maintained our reputation in the CT community as a "must-read" site for breaking news and analysis. U.S. News & World Reports recently named us as one of the nine "Best Blogs of '06" in the investigative arena, an honor which inspires us to improve and grow. We sincerely appreciate our relationships with the dedicated reporters who cover these topics; many have risked their lives (and some lost their lives) to bring you inside details. Our friends in the blogosphere have been complimentary and recommended us to their readers, for which we are truly grateful. We especially thank our readers for your support, advice, and assistance in many ways (special tip to "Sophie" for your special e-mails).

My business partners and co-workers at GAGE LLC are fully supportive of this unpaid vocation in many ways every day. Leo Giacometto, the founding partner and a former chief of staff to a U.S. Senator, served as an officer in the U.S. Army, as the U.S. Marshal for Montana, and as a special staffperson for the State Department's Counterterrorism Section, during which he was deployed around the world. As a result, Leo understands the imperative of winning the long-term struggle against terrrorism and the contribution of this site towards that goal. His experience and contacts are invaluable.

Finally, I want to thank my friends and colleagues, the Contributing Experts, for their outstanding contributions and sound advice. They have broken stories on such issues as the fight against insurgents in Iraq, developments in Lebanon and Afghanistan, and the links between Islamic terror groups on different continents. Change is inevitable and usually good; just this week, Doug Farah added "Co-Editor" to his title, and we've undertaken an internal discussion of potential improvements. Jeffrey Imm is an irreplaceable partner for adding links to the "Newslinks" box, a true genius at finding the "hot" stories and commentaries of importance.

My hopes on this anniversary are the same as on our first anniversary last year. To quote, "We hope that we can close this site down someday for lack of terrorist activity. But until then, God willing, we'll be here. Many of the experts and I were able to visit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon sites after the 9/11 attacks. The vision of hell on earth that I saw at Ground Zero in New York City, and the tears of the victims' families standing next to me on the platform 100 feet from smoking rubble, drive me daily towards providing a single site to educate the world on the scope of the threats, our successes, and failures." And I dedicate the third year of this site as I did this past year: "to the victims of terrorism, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or expressing any other faith or creed, in any corner of the globe."

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