Armenian Church of Greater Boston hosts CNN analyst Peter Bergen

PanARMENIAN.Net - As part of its Dr. Michael and Joyce Kolligian Distinguished Speaker Series, Holy Trinity Armenian Church of Greater Boston hosted a May 7 lecture by CNN national security analyst and journalist, Peter Bergen, who shared his first-hand experience of meeting al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, The Armenian Mirror-Spectator reported.

Bergen, best-selling author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Osama Bin Laden — From 9/11 to Abbottabad, gave a talk titled “The Awakening: The Remaking of the Middle East” to an audience of more than 120 people in the church’s Charles and Nevart Talanian Cultural Hall.

Bergen’s previous books include: “Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden” (2001), “The Osama bin Laden I Know” (2006) and “The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and al-Qaeda” (2011).

Bergen began by recounting his 1997 meeting with Bin Laden in Afghanistan after a long process of negotiations, during which he described Bin Laden as “intelligent” and revered as a cleric by those around him.

Specifically referencing the recent Boston Marathon bombings, Bergen said, “His [Bin Laden’s ] ideas can live on. His ideas can be very deadly […] Bin Laden’s most toxic legacy is that he supplied an ideology.”

Bergen explained the decrease in attacks as partially a result of several factors, including the U.S.’s highly-integrated and educated Muslim population, the effectiveness of U.S. Task Forces, the increase since 9/11 in CIA/FBI collaboration and information-sharing, other precautions such as the 20,000 names on the “no-fly list” at U.S. airports and finally, improvements in public understanding and awareness which have prevented several attacks on US soil.

This was the fourth lecture in the Dr. Michael and Joyce Kolligian Distinguished Speaker Series, which was established in 2000 by Joyce Kolligian and her family in memory of her husband, Dr. Michael Kolligian, with the purpose of “providing high-quality, educational and cultural programs to enhance knowledge and provide enjoyment to the members of Holy Trinity Armenian Church, as well as the community at large.”