Glossary
A
Adam Gadahn:sometimes known as Adam Pearlman, a U.S. citizen and senior operative and spokesperson for al-Qaeda. He was on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, and in 2006 the United States indicted him for treason. On April 23, 2015, the White House announced its belief that Gadahn had been killed in January in a U.S. counterterrorism operation, said to be a drone strike.
Al-Qaeda:an international terrorist network established around 1988 by Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda, which means the Base, was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks, among many others. In recent years, its core leadership has operated out of Pakistan, though it has affiliate terrorist groups in many countries. The network adheres to a fundamentalist Islamic ideology that aims to eliminate Western influence on Islamic countries and replace those countries’ governments with regimes based on Islamic law.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP):a Yemen-based offshoot of al-Qaeda that grew out of a 2009 merger of al-Qaeda branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Members of AQAP orchestrated the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, in Aden, Yemen. The group has also launched several attacks in the region and has unsuccessfully tried to attack U.S. soil on multiple occasions. The U.S. intelligence community considers it the strongest and most dangerous of al-Qaeda’s regional groups.
Anwar al-Awlaki:an American-born radical cleric killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen. He was the first U.S. citizen to be intentionally targeted by such a strike. A senior al-Qaeda operative, Awlaki was involved in recruitment for the organization and had ties to the September 11, 2001, hijackers as well as other terrorists. His death raised questions about due process (he was never indicted) and whether the U.S. government can lawfully target its own citizens with lethal force.
B
Bilateral:undertaken between two entities, generally countries.
C
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA):the primary U.S. federal agency involved in the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence. The CIA also runs the United States’ drone operations, though some officials, including former President Barack Obama, favor transferring this responsibility to the Department of Defense.
Counterterrorism:the set of policies and actions—including intelligence collection and analysis, military action, and homeland security measures—designed to combat terrorism.
D
Drone:an unmanned, remotely piloted vehicle generally used for reconnaissance and combat. Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones have become a major instrument in the U.S. campaign against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
E
Extrajudicial:outside the bounds of customary legal proceedings and unauthorized by a court of law. Extrajudicial killings, for example, stand apart from death sentences pronounced by a court.
F
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA):a remote, quasi-autonomous, and loosely governed Pakistani region on the border with Afghanistan. Inhabited by about five million people, primarily Pashtuns, the region is home to many militants, including senior al-Qaeda and Taliban figures. Militants in the FATA became a primary target of U.S. drone strikes after the Taliban, which harbored al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was toppled.
H
Houthi rebels:a predominantly Shiite military and political movement based in Yemen, founded in the 1990s, and named after its founder Hussein al Houthi. After waging a decade-long insurgency, the group took control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2015 and has fought to consolidate control over the country and resist a Saudi-led intervention attempting to restore the former Yemeni government.
I
Insurgencies:rebellions, the primary goal of which is to overthrow or delegitimize a government. Insurgents are irregular forces that have varying levels of organizational sophistication and use political violence and guerrilla action to achieve their goals. An example of an insurgency is the ongoing Taliban campaign against the U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan.
Intelligence:information collected and analyzed by specialists for use by decision-makers. This includes data, photographs, and communications, among other materials, and is collected, often secretly, by individuals and technological methods.
J
Jihad:a concept from the Quran, the holy book of Islam, that refers in part to a war fought against enemies of that religion. Today it is commonly used to denote an Islamic holy war meant to expand the influence of extremist Muslim beliefs.
M
Major non-NATO ally (MNNA):a U.S. government designation that confers military and financial privileges on a country that is considered friendly to the United States but is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
N
National Security Agency (NSA):the U.S. federal intelligence agency responsible for collecting and analyzing cryptographic and signals intelligence, which is information gathered from communications and other electronic signals.
Non-battlefield zones:areas outside of a war zone. Pakistan is considered a non-battlefield zone in the context of U.S. policy because the United States is not fighting a war there.
Noncombatants:civilians or others not engaged in battle, such as civil servants or off-duty members of armed forces.
O
Osama bin Laden:the Saudi-born cofounder and longtime leader of al-Qaeda, killed in Pakistan in 2011 during a raid by U.S. Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams. Active in resisting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and deeply opposed to cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States, bin Laden was the driving force behind the USS Cole bombing and the September 11, 2001, attacks, among others.
Q
Qasem Soleimani:an Iranian General who commanded the Quds force, a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps focused on exerting influence outside of Iran, including by grooming proxy militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. A U.S. drone strike killed Soleimani outside Baghdad’s airport in January 2020.
S
September 11, 2001, attacks:terrorist attacks devised and executed by al-Qaeda, whose operatives hijacked passenger airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York City; the Pentagon outside of Washington, DC; and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. A total of 2,977 people were killed.
Signature strike:a type of drone strike, reportedly no longer in use, that targets an individual whose identity is unknown but who appears to be linked to terrorist activity based on their observable behavior.
Sovereignty:supreme or absolute authority over a territory.
Special operations forces:elite U.S. military units, such as Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) teams and Army Special Forces, grouped under U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). They conduct specialized and often sensitive missions that include guerrilla warfare, counterterrorism raids, counterproliferation, and advanced reconnaissance.
Surveillance:a type of intelligence collection that involves the systematic, and often concealed, observation of people, places, and things by visual, aural, electronic, photographic, or other methods. It is a technique used by civilian and military intelligence entities. Examples include drones with video capability, wire taps on communications lines, and malicious spyware.
T
Taliban:an Islamic fundamentalist militant organization formed by Afghan fighters in the early 1990s. The group ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S. invasion in 2001 and harbored al-Qaeda during that time. Many Taliban leaders then relocated to Pakistan, though the Taliban continues to mount an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan. Its membership is primarily Pashtun.
Targeted killing:the use of lethal force against a specific individual conducted in a non-battlefield zone. Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has used targeted killings, usually carried out by drones, as a central component of its counterterrorism operations.
Terrorist:a word used to describe an individual, organization, or act that employs violence to incite fear and achieve an objective, usually a political one.
U
U.S. Capitol:the building in Washington, DC, that houses the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams (SEALs):U.S. Navy special operations forces. Navy SEALs are responsible for a variety of missions, including reconnaissance and capturing and killing high-profile terrorist targets. They conducted the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.
Unilateral:undertaken by only one entity, generally a country.
United Nations Human Rights Council:a United Nations (UN) body established in 2006 to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights. It is dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.
Adam Gadahn:sometimes known as Adam Pearlman, a U.S. citizen and senior operative and spokesperson for al-Qaeda. He was on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, and in 2006 the United States indicted him for treason. On April 23, 2015, the White House announced its belief that Gadahn had been killed in January in a U.S. counterterrorism operation, said to be a drone strike.
Al-Qaeda:an international terrorist network established around 1988 by Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda, which means the Base, was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks, among many others. In recent years, its core leadership has operated out of Pakistan, though it has affiliate terrorist groups in many countries. The network adheres to a fundamentalist Islamic ideology that aims to eliminate Western influence on Islamic countries and replace those countries’ governments with regimes based on Islamic law.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP):a Yemen-based offshoot of al-Qaeda that grew out of a 2009 merger of al-Qaeda branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Members of AQAP orchestrated the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, in Aden, Yemen. The group has also launched several attacks in the region and has unsuccessfully tried to attack U.S. soil on multiple occasions. The U.S. intelligence community considers it the strongest and most dangerous of al-Qaeda’s regional groups.
Anwar al-Awlaki:an American-born radical cleric killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen. He was the first U.S. citizen to be intentionally targeted by such a strike. A senior al-Qaeda operative, Awlaki was involved in recruitment for the organization and had ties to the September 11, 2001, hijackers as well as other terrorists. His death raised questions about due process (he was never indicted) and whether the U.S. government can lawfully target its own citizens with lethal force.
B
Bilateral:undertaken between two entities, generally countries.
C
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA):the primary U.S. federal agency involved in the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence. The CIA also runs the United States’ drone operations, though some officials, including former President Barack Obama, favor transferring this responsibility to the Department of Defense.
Counterterrorism:the set of policies and actions—including intelligence collection and analysis, military action, and homeland security measures—designed to combat terrorism.
D
Drone:an unmanned, remotely piloted vehicle generally used for reconnaissance and combat. Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones have become a major instrument in the U.S. campaign against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
E
Extrajudicial:outside the bounds of customary legal proceedings and unauthorized by a court of law. Extrajudicial killings, for example, stand apart from death sentences pronounced by a court.
F
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA):a remote, quasi-autonomous, and loosely governed Pakistani region on the border with Afghanistan. Inhabited by about five million people, primarily Pashtuns, the region is home to many militants, including senior al-Qaeda and Taliban figures. Militants in the FATA became a primary target of U.S. drone strikes after the Taliban, which harbored al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was toppled.
H
Houthi rebels:a predominantly Shiite military and political movement based in Yemen, founded in the 1990s, and named after its founder Hussein al Houthi. After waging a decade-long insurgency, the group took control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2015 and has fought to consolidate control over the country and resist a Saudi-led intervention attempting to restore the former Yemeni government.
I
Insurgencies:rebellions, the primary goal of which is to overthrow or delegitimize a government. Insurgents are irregular forces that have varying levels of organizational sophistication and use political violence and guerrilla action to achieve their goals. An example of an insurgency is the ongoing Taliban campaign against the U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan.
Intelligence:information collected and analyzed by specialists for use by decision-makers. This includes data, photographs, and communications, among other materials, and is collected, often secretly, by individuals and technological methods.
J
Jihad:a concept from the Quran, the holy book of Islam, that refers in part to a war fought against enemies of that religion. Today it is commonly used to denote an Islamic holy war meant to expand the influence of extremist Muslim beliefs.
M
Major non-NATO ally (MNNA):a U.S. government designation that confers military and financial privileges on a country that is considered friendly to the United States but is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
N
National Security Agency (NSA):the U.S. federal intelligence agency responsible for collecting and analyzing cryptographic and signals intelligence, which is information gathered from communications and other electronic signals.
Non-battlefield zones:areas outside of a war zone. Pakistan is considered a non-battlefield zone in the context of U.S. policy because the United States is not fighting a war there.
Noncombatants:civilians or others not engaged in battle, such as civil servants or off-duty members of armed forces.
O
Osama bin Laden:the Saudi-born cofounder and longtime leader of al-Qaeda, killed in Pakistan in 2011 during a raid by U.S. Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams. Active in resisting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and deeply opposed to cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States, bin Laden was the driving force behind the USS Cole bombing and the September 11, 2001, attacks, among others.
Q
Qasem Soleimani:an Iranian General who commanded the Quds force, a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps focused on exerting influence outside of Iran, including by grooming proxy militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. A U.S. drone strike killed Soleimani outside Baghdad’s airport in January 2020.
S
September 11, 2001, attacks:terrorist attacks devised and executed by al-Qaeda, whose operatives hijacked passenger airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York City; the Pentagon outside of Washington, DC; and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. A total of 2,977 people were killed.
Signature strike:a type of drone strike, reportedly no longer in use, that targets an individual whose identity is unknown but who appears to be linked to terrorist activity based on their observable behavior.
Sovereignty:supreme or absolute authority over a territory.
Special operations forces:elite U.S. military units, such as Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) teams and Army Special Forces, grouped under U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). They conduct specialized and often sensitive missions that include guerrilla warfare, counterterrorism raids, counterproliferation, and advanced reconnaissance.
Surveillance:a type of intelligence collection that involves the systematic, and often concealed, observation of people, places, and things by visual, aural, electronic, photographic, or other methods. It is a technique used by civilian and military intelligence entities. Examples include drones with video capability, wire taps on communications lines, and malicious spyware.
T
Taliban:an Islamic fundamentalist militant organization formed by Afghan fighters in the early 1990s. The group ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S. invasion in 2001 and harbored al-Qaeda during that time. Many Taliban leaders then relocated to Pakistan, though the Taliban continues to mount an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan. Its membership is primarily Pashtun.
Targeted killing:the use of lethal force against a specific individual conducted in a non-battlefield zone. Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has used targeted killings, usually carried out by drones, as a central component of its counterterrorism operations.
Terrorist:a word used to describe an individual, organization, or act that employs violence to incite fear and achieve an objective, usually a political one.
U
U.S. Capitol:the building in Washington, DC, that houses the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams (SEALs):U.S. Navy special operations forces. Navy SEALs are responsible for a variety of missions, including reconnaissance and capturing and killing high-profile terrorist targets. They conducted the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.
Unilateral:undertaken by only one entity, generally a country.
United Nations Human Rights Council:a United Nations (UN) body established in 2006 to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights. It is dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.