article_snippet.sent: Because the leader of the world refuses to look with clear eyes at the chief security challenges of the 21st century: the fruits of radical Islam.
article_snippet.sent: Academics who must say something new or different to garner interest in Academics who must say something new or different to garner interest in their work work may describe the agendas of ISIS and al Qaeda as distinctly different.
article_snippet.sent: But the fact is the agendas of ISIS and al Qaeda are not -- the agendas of ISIS and al Qaeda agendas, which constitute the foremost threats to the global security environment today, are manifestations of radical Islam.
article_snippet.sent: Just take the National Strategy for Counterterrorism published by the White House in 2011.
article_snippet.sent: That document contained the assertion that, "Since the beginning of 2011, the transformative change sweeping North Africa and the Middle East -- along with the death of Osama bin Laden -- has further changed the nature of the terrorist threat, par-ticularly as the relevance of al Qaeda and al Qaeda ideology has been further diminished.
article_snippet.sent: Yet, fast forward to January 2014 and America's top intelligence official, director of National Intelligence James Clapper, advised Congress that al Qaeda was no less capable of threatening the United States and our allies than a decade earlier.
article_snippet.sent: Soon after Clapper acknowledged al Qaeda was not a band on the run, as President Obama had described the terrorist enterprise, a report by terrorism expert Seth Jones of the RAND Corporation highlighted yet another inconvenient truth for the White House:  
article_snippet.sent: As restraints on freedom of expression of radical religious views vanished in places like Libya, Tunisia and Egypt during the Arab Spring, the United States became fertile recruitment grounds for terrorist groups -- including al Qaeda and groups aligned with al Qaeda.
article_snippet.sent: Most recently, absent from the National Security Strategy produced by the Obama White House in February 2015 is any real meaningful discussion concerning threats posed by al Qaeda.
article_snippet.sent: Indeed, within days of our new National Security Strategy's publication date, in the seventh issue of the al Qaeda offshoot ISIS's English-language magazine Dabiq, the group's leaders described the group's leaders jihad as a continuation of the jihad charted by Osama bin Laden, while accusing Osama bin Laden successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, of steering al Qaeda off the path of al Qaeda former leader.
article_snippet.sent: AQAP is helmed by the second-highest-ranking official in al Qaeda
article_snippet.sent: writ large, and the Obama administration views the Obama administration as the most dangerous component of al Qaeda global network.
article_snippet.sent: And how do the president and his advisers plan to combat AQAP now?
article_snippet.sent: And, although ISIS is trying to "out al Qaeda" al Qaeda, resorting to attention winning stunts to boost al Qaeda" al Qaeda profile on television sets around the world, al Qaeda itself is no less of a threat to the United States and our allies today than it was in January 2014.
article_snippet.sent: Indeed, President Obama's refusal to simply call a problem like radical Islam by radical Islam name strongly suggests President Obama is unwilling to make the difficult decisions that must be made today if our are to stand a chance of defeating radical Islamist groups.
highlights_snippet.sent: Authors warn President Obama must be clear about radical Islam threat .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Al Qaeda still a looming threat, Al Qaeda say .