Monday, March 14, 2011

The end of THE COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG

Here's what it was:
THE COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG

Welcome to the Counterterrorism Blog, a unique, multi-expert blog dedicated to providing a one-stop gateway to the counterterrorism community. To our knowledge, there was no such blog on the internet prior to our opening on January 5, 2005. We envision the blog’s audience to be the policymakers in the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch, as well as serious students elsewhere, who want to visit a single site to access (1) overnight and breaking news, with realtime intel and commentary by operational experts ("Contributing Experts"); (2) discussions of long-term trends in counterterrorism; (3) summaries of and discussions about US and international law; and (4) a calendar of upcoming events, hearings, and seminars featuring the Contributing Experts. We want to highlight those experts who are or have been deeply involved in counterterrorism cases, and thus enable them to expand their opportunities to bring their expertise to the attention of policymakers.

The site is intended to provide fresh information and various perspectives (sometimes opposing), as presented by the Contributing Experts and in the news articles, columns, and website links posted on the blog. Contributing Experts are responsible only for the content of their posts and links. The editor is responsible for sidebar content and design.
And, sadly, here's what it is now:

The End of The Counterterrorism Blog

Many of you probably know one of the contributors - Steven Emerson - for his books such as Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US and American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.

You may also know Walid Phares, a Fox News constributor since 2007.

The Editor, Douglas Farah (not Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily.com) posted this on 3/11/11:
The End of The Counterterrorism Blog

By Douglas Farah

To Our Readers:

Thank you for your faithful readership through the past five years. Over its short run, the Counterterrorism Blog served an important role both as a leading terrorism news and information aggregator and as a site where noted practitioner-experts presented commentary and analysis. This combined to make the site a regular “one-stop” bookmark for the interested public, media and policy community at a crucial time. CTB has had a remarkable run, and a tremendous impact – in addition to being visited over 8.2 million times, the CTB spurred news stories, held Congressional briefings, embedded reporters in war zones, and informed the policy debate – even earning a negative review from Al Qaeda!

As the world has changed and the terrorism community has evolved so has the ability of the volunteer contributing experts on the Counterterrorism Blog to dedicate their time and energy to this enterprise. In light of this, the Board has made the decision to discontinue publishing here. In addition to their other policy, professional, publishing, teaching and research responsibilities, many of the CTB’s former contributing experts will be posting on other blogs and can continue to be read.

Thanks again for all the support through the years in making the CTB a leading voice in the Counterterrorism community and for your support and interest.

The Counterterrorism Foundation Board, publishers

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