Jack Carr interviews journalist and author Peter Bergen about the legacy of 9/11 and executive war powers, drawing on Bergen’s reporting and his book All the President’s Wars. Bergen argues the post-9/11 presidency became an “imperial commander-in-chief”, with successive administrations expanding the practical ability to use force with limited accountability. He is sharply critical of the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, claiming NATO allies warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken against leaving and that President Joe Biden proceeded anyway; he also contends abandoning Bagram Air Base weakened US strategic positioning.
On the pre-9/11 period, Bergen recounts writing to a New York Times correspondent in August 2001 urging coverage of signs an al-Qaeda attack was coming, and disputes the framing of 9/11 as primarily an “intelligence failure”, placing more responsibility on policy-makers’ inaction. The conversation also addresses Guantánamo prosecutions, with Bergen saying alleged 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed remains in pre-trial and that courts have ruled key confessions inadmissible due to torture-related issues.
Bergen discusses ongoing litigation alleging Saudi-linked support networks, describing newly disclosed material he says emerged in 2024 involving Saudi official Omar al-Bayoumi, while noting denials. Separately, he alleges widespread unauthorised use of his work by AI platforms and claims a major settlement figure in a publishing dispute. Carr and Bergen also touch on coalition warfare, the long tail of the “war on terror”, and how tactical competence can be undermined by strategic misjudgement at the political level.
Peter Bergen says alleged 9/11 operational commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammed remains in pre-trial proceedings at Guantánamo Bay. Bergen also claims a judge has ruled Mohammed’s later FBI confession inadmissible, which he links to torture and the military commissions system.
Read this moment →Peter Bergen argues that calling 9/11 an “intelligence failure” shifts responsibility away from policy-level decisions in the Bush administration. He says US agencies were issuing warnings in spring and summer 2001, while also citing a CIA mistake in not alerting the FBI sooner about two al-Qaeda figures believed to be in the US.
Read this moment →Peter Bergen alleges NATO allies warned in March 2021 that a US withdrawal would weaken the Afghan government. He claims Antony Blinken relayed those concerns to President Joe Biden, who proceeded anyway.
Read this moment →Peter Bergen says he was struck to learn that about 8,000 US contractors died in the post-9/11 wars, compared with about 7,000 US service members. He argues contractors carried out warlike activities but received far less public attention than uniformed casualties.
Read this moment →Peter Bergen recalls writing a four-page letter to New York Times correspondent John Burns on 14 August 2001, urging responsible reporting on signs of a major attack. He says he based it on publicly visible signals such as embassy closures and an al-Qaeda video, not classified information. Bergen says Burns later posted a related piece online the weekend before 9/11, but it did not run in print due to an editing error.
Read this moment →Peter Bergen claims that CIA officials concluded within two hours of the 9/11 attacks that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible, citing access to passenger manifests and prior tracking of two al-Qaeda-linked individuals. He contrasts that rapid attribution with what he describes as earlier failures to act on warning signs in 2001.
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