Peter Bergen Quotes

• The terrorists who have succeeded in carrying out spectacular attacks against Western targets in the past have been college-educated, technically proficient men who are capable of manufacturing and deploying chemical, radiological, and biological weapons. Al Qaeda attracts the kind of highly educated men who one day might be able to pull off such an attack.

  Peter Bergen

  Past, College, Men

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• Often it is important to listen to what people aren't saying.

  Peter Bergen

  People, Important

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• I am very suspicious of the notion that somehow bin Laden was a media creation... Bin Laden's actions made him into a big deal. Not the media.

  Peter Bergen

  Media, Action, Creation

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• There's some pretty good academic research that suggest that what Americans don't like is losing.

  Peter Bergen

  Research, Academic Research, Losing

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I stepped into the bedroom where he was killed and looked up at the ceiling, where you could still see the patterns of blood that had spurted from bin Laden's head when the bullet fired by a U.S. Navy SEAL tore through the terrorist leader's face.

  Peter Bergen

  Blood, Leader, Navy

  "A visit to Osama bin Laden's lair" by Peter Bergen, www.cnn.com. May 3, 2012.

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• At one point people in al Qaeda were actually drawing monthly paychecks when they were based in Sudan.

  Peter Bergen

  Drawing, People, Als

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• Bin Laden comes out of a business background - he studied public administration and economics at university, and he worked for his family company, which was obviously a rather successful enterprise.

  Peter Bergen

  Successful, Administration, Economics

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• Why should Americans care about the Nazi back story in World War II? If you don't have the Nazi back story in World War II, World War II is simply not comprehensible.

  Peter Bergen

  War, Stories, World

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• So Pakistan is a country that I'm very fond of and have spent a lot of time, but it is a country where conspiracy theories have a life of their own.

  Peter Bergen

  Country, Pakistan, Conspiracy

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• The image we have of bin Laden in his final years in Abbottabad is of an aging man with a graying beard watching old footage of himself; just another suburban dad flipping though the channels with his remote.

  Peter Bergen

  Dad, Men, Years

  "A visit to Osama bin Laden's lair" by Peter Bergen, www.cnn.com. May 3, 2012.

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• In February I secured permission to enter Osama bin Laden's compound in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad, where he was killed and where he had lived for the last half-decade of his life; the first, and only, journalist to do so.

  Peter Bergen

  Cities, Lasts, Firsts

  "A visit to Osama bin Laden's lair" by Peter Bergen, www.cnn.com. May 3, 2012.

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• If you don't understand what al Qaeda was trying to do on 9/11, if you don't have a sense of who Osama bin Laden is as a person, if you don't have a sense of what al Qaeda, the organization, was on 9/11, 9/11 appears to be more or less inexplicable.

  Peter Bergen

  Organization, Trying, Als

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• I've interviewed multiple people who know bin Laden... who tend to have a universal picture of what he's like, which is: modest, retiring, unassuming, kind of thoughtful - lots of things that don't fit with a mass murderer, which he is as well.

  Peter Bergen

  Thoughtful, People, Kind

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• Bin Laden's death is just a punctuation point on a set of problems they've had for a long time. I think the prognosis for al-Qaida and groups like it is really bad, and that's a good thing.

  Peter Bergen

  Thinking, Long, Groups

  "The 'Manhunt' To Capture Osama Bin Laden". "Fresh Air" with Dave Davies, www.npr.org. May 1, 2012.

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• Bin Laden was 200 miles away from the area where all of these drone strikes were taking out his key leaders in al-Qaida. He was able to indulge in his hobbies... He was making occasional video tapes and audio tapes for release to the wider world.

  Peter Bergen

  Indulge In, Keys, Leader

  "The 'Manhunt' To Capture Osama Bin Laden". "Fresh Air" with Dave Davies, www.npr.org. May 1, 2012.

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• Most Muslims don't want to live in some Taliban-style utopia, which is what bin Laden and allied groups are offering.

  Peter Bergen

  Offering, Style, Groups

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• And in the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound surrounded by his wives and children and far from the front lines of his holy war.

  Peter Bergen

  Children, War, Wife

  "A visit to Osama bin Laden's lair" by Peter Bergen, www.cnn.com. May 3, 2012.

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