Some of those drawn into the holy war had been secular nationalists only a few years before. If one looks at the biographies of these people, remarkable continuities are revealed.

One never really knows who one's enemy is.

Manhattan... capital of the 20th century, a city that has fascinated me for more than three decades.

Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems.

What was new was the symbolic force of the targets struck. The attackers did not just physically cause the highest buildings in Manhattan to collapse; they also destroyed an icon in the household imagery of the American nation.

After September 11, the European governments have completely failed. They are incapable of seeing beyond their own national scope of interests.

Each murder is one too many.