A fantastic start to Frontline's 2011 events calendar with a First Wednesday meeting on Al Qaeda. A fascinating panel, and an engaged audience. You can watch it online here http://frontlineclub.com/events/2011/01/first-wednesday-inside-al-qaeda.html The talk was moderated by the always excellent Paddy O'Connell. The panel were: Dr Maha Azzam, Associate Fellow, Chatham House. Investigative journalist and Al-Qaeda expert Camille Tawil. Tawil has covered Islamic militant groups for Al-Hayat Arabic daily in London since the early 1990s and is the author of The Armed Islamic Movement in Algeria - from the FIS to the GIA and Brothers in Arms - the Story of al-Qaeda and the Arab jihadists. Deepak Tripathi, historian, journalist, researcher and author of Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism and Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Noman Benotman, a senior analyst at Quilliam. He was previously a leader of the jihadist Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and an associate of senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan. In September 2010, he published an open letter to his former colleague Osama bin Laden calling on him to abandon violence.