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Paul Cruickshank Archives

Belgian "Al Qaeda Cell" in touch with Architect of Transantlantic Airline Plot

By Paul Cruickshank

This connection is revealed in the CNN program "One Woman's War," my documentary about the extraordinary story of Malika el Aroud, a Belgian woman who authorities say has become an icon of the global jihadist movement. The documentary will make...

My CNN Interview with "Al Qaeda Living Legend"

By Paul Cruickshank

Back in February 2006, in a pine-wood chalet in central Switzerland, I interviewed Malika el Aroud, the woman allegedly at the center of the terrorism plot that was broken up today in Belgium. The interview was for CNN's two hour...

'Airline' Plotters Trained In FATA

By Paul Cruickshank

Last night NBC aired a one hour documentary on the 2006 'Airline Plot', widely regarded as Al Qaeda's most ambitious plot since 9/11. Following on from the documentary, Richard Greenberg and Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC and myself have just...

New Information on U.K. Airline Plot

By Paul Cruickshank

Please tune in tonight at 10pm to Dateline NBC with Chris Hansen for a one hour documentary, which I co-produced with Richard Greenberg, that sheds new light on the Al Qaeda connection in the 2006 Airline Plot. Editor's Note: "Inside...

The Inside Story of the 2006 Airline Plot

By Paul Cruickshank

I have spent the last several months co-producing a documentary for "Dateline NBC," along with Richard Greenberg of NBC News, on the 2006 Airline terror plot, widely considered Al Qaeda's most ambitious plot since 9/11. The program will air this...

The Beginning of the End for Al Qaeda?

By Paul Cruickshank

Peter Bergen (my colleague at the NYU Center on Law and Security) and myself have a cover story out in the latest issue of the New Republic -- published online last week and now on news stands --- entitled the...

New Concern Over Pakistan

By Paul Cruickshank

The Spanish daily El Pais on Sunday reported that European intelligence services now believe that Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, whom the CIA believe ordered the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, also orchestrated a plot last month to...

First Bhutto, Now Barcelona?

By Paul Cruickshank

Late last week Spanish authorities arrested 14 suspects, 12 of them of Pakistani descent, suspected of plotting an attack in Barcelona. Explosives were seized in the raids. The revelation that several of the plotters were of Pakistani descent will alarm...

Belgium on Edge as Female Suicide Bomber's Terror Cell Jailed

By Paul Cruickshank

Today five men were found guilty of being part of a Brussels-based terrorist cell that sent Muriel Degauque, a pretty Belgian baker’s assistant to die in Iraq. On November 9, 2005 Degauque became Al Qaeda’s first western female suicide...

Capturing Bhutto's Killer

By Paul Cruickshank

It is much too early to say for sure who ordered Benazir Bhutto killed. The Musharraf regime has not done itself any favors by the way it has handled the aftermath of her assassination, helping to fuel conspiracy theories about...