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Few terrorist organisations survive for more than a few years. Al-Qaida was different. Jason Burke, who has spent much of his career reporting on the group, and former member Aimen Dean reflect on how it was able to carry out the September 11 attacks barely a decade after it was formed – and its struggle to survive the fallout from its ‘catastrophic success’This week we are revisiting some of our favourite episodes from 2021. This episode was first broadcast on 9 September.To many people, the sight of two airliners hitting the twin towers in New York prompted an immediate question: who did this? To Jason Burke and Aimen Dean, the answer was obvious. Burke had already reported extensively on the terrorist network, travelling in Afghanistan as he sought to understand its motivations and command structure. Dean knew first hand what Osama bin Laden’s agenda was: he had met the terrorist leader twice, and trained as a bomb-maker in Afghanistan before turning and becoming a spy for MI6. Continue reading...