This week will mark 25 years since the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Those attacks, by al-Qaeda, killed nearly 3000 people.
What followed that tragedy was the 'War on Terror', characterized by a series of foreign wars and domestic security measures. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, detention and torture at Guantanamo Bay and countless other prisons, and a mass surveillance system designed to go after any perceived threat on American soil.
Spencer Ackerman is a national security reporter who has spent pretty much his entire career covering the aftermath of 9/11 and five years ago he released his book, 'Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 era Destabilized America and Produced Trump'. He joins us to talk about how this continues to shape U.S. politics today.
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