Summary
Their attacks of September 11 2001 sparked a War on Terror which has a legacy that very much lasts to this day, but where did Al-Qaeda come from, how did their ideologies form and what role do they play in the world today?
In this episode James is joined by Dr Afzal Ashraf, an expert on the terror group's ideologies and violent religious extremism. Dr Ashraf spent over 30 years in the UK Armed Forces as a senior officer and is a Senior Government Advisor.
A version of this episode was originally released in September 2021.
For more Warfare content, subscribe to our Warfare Wednesday newsletter here.
If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - enter promo code WARFARE for two weeks free + 50% off your first three months' subscription. To download, go to Android or Apple store.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | At 618 a.18 a.m. on July 31st, 2022, a CIA drone fired two missiles that killed Al-Qaeda leader Aiman al-Zawahiri. |
| 0:09.2 | A former deputy of Osama bin Laden, he and bin Laden had plotted the 9-11 attacks together. |
| 0:14.8 | He was one of America's most wanted terrorists, and as President Biden stated, |
| 0:19.6 | Al-Zawahiri had carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens. |
| 0:24.9 | I'm your host James Rogers. |
| 0:26.2 | This is the warfare podcast and with this latest development in mind and as it's a holiday here in |
| 0:30.9 | the UK, I have bought back an episode with my old friend Dr |
| 0:34.3 | Afsul Ashraf. Dr Ashraf is one of the UK's leading counter-terrorism |
| 0:38.3 | experts with decades of experience serving in the Royal Air Force and he talks to us about the history, development, and possible future of Al-Qaeda. |
| 0:47.0 | Hi, Effie, welcome to the History Hit Warfare Podcast. How you doing today? |
| 0:51.0 | Fine, thank you, James. Lovely to see you. |
| 0:53.0 | Yeah, great to see you again. |
| 0:55.0 | Great to talk. |
| 0:56.0 | I think the last time I saw you is when we were in Denmark at a military |
| 1:01.0 | transformations conference and I think I was giving a lecture on drones |
| 1:05.1 | and spying drones and then one ominously appeared outside the window. |
| 1:09.4 | Yes I remember that well. |
| 1:15.0 | I'm pretty convinced you set that one up. Yes, that that was very interesting. |
| 1:17.0 | I wish I had. |
| 1:18.0 | That would have been cool. |
| 1:19.0 | It would have been a little bit of showmanship |
| 1:20.0 | of having some, I don't know, Russian or Chinese spying drone flying out the window watching us. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.