This memorandum from the Congressional Research Service attempts to clarify the debate over lethal targeting of U.S. citizens with suspected ties to terrorist activites by providing legal background, setting forth what is known about the Administration's positionz and identifying possible points of contention among legal experts and other observers.

Osama bin Laden's messages reached his followers and his opponents through multiple media channels. Research Links aims to provide researchers with a more comprehensive timeline of statements made by bin Laden between 1994 to 2011, as well as additional background information.

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point released these documents on May 3, 2012. There are 17 declassified letters or draft letters from al-Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden; the letters were captured during the Abbottabad raid in Pakistan in May 2011.

This Georgetown Journal of International Law article conducts a historical survey of assassinations and targeted killings, following up with a legal analysis of the bin Laden killing as a precedent for future American counterterrorism operations.

Osama bin Laden's killing helped spawn a crisis in Pakistan and left tough al-Qaeda-affiliated movements in the Mideast and Africa, says CFR's Linda Robinson.

John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, gave these remarks at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC on April 30, 2012.

A year after Osama bin Laden's death, the obituaries for his terrorist group are still way too premature, writes Seth G. Jones for Foreign Policy.

The UN General Assembly adopted resolution 60/288, regarding the United Nations' global counter-terrorism strategy, on September 20, 2006.

The Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism was adopted in Warsaw, Poland on May 16, 2005.

The UN/IMF Model Legislation on Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism is dated December 1, 2005.

The latest spate of violence in Afghanistan is unlikely to change the course of planned troop withdrawals, but should refocus efforts on bringing under control Pakistan-based militants, says CFR's Daniel Markey.

This Congressional Research Service report outlines the background and history of recent Navy irregular warfare and counterterrorism activities, a number of which may pose critical oversight issues for Congress.

The war on terror may be over, but it's left behind a terrible human rights legacy--and Barack Obama has done very little about it, says James Traub, a fellow at the Center on International Cooperation.

News of planned military trials for five 9/11 suspects underscores the Obama administration's need to more forcefully defend the necessity of military tribunals if they are to have legitimacy at home and abroad, says CFR's Matthew Waxman.

The UN's Political Declaration and Action Plan against Money Laundering was adopted on June 10, 1998 at the Twentieth Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly devoted to "countering the world drug problem together".

American drones have changed everything for al-Qaeda and its local allies in Pakistan, becoming a fact of life in a secret war that is far from over, writes Foreign Policy's Pir Zubair Shah.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published these recommendations on terrorist financing in October 2001. The report states, "Recognising the vital importance of taking action to combat the financing of terrorism, the FATF has agreed these Recommendations, which, when combined with the FATF Forty Recommendations on money laundering, set out".

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its "Forty Recommendations" document in October 2003. The recommendations "now apply not only to money laundering but also to terrorist financing, and when combined with the Eight Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing provide an enhanced, comprehensive and consistent framework of measures for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. "

This Congressional Research Service report details the background and issues surrounding Special Operations Forces (SOF), elite military units with special training and equipment that can infiltrate into hostile territory through land, sea, or air to conduct a variety of operations, many of them classified.

The CIA's drone program, while successful, has been largely unpopular in Pakistan. But drone strikes are decreasing since they peaked in 2010. Peter Bergen and Jennifer Rowland of CNN ask: Is it because of politics or because we're running out of real targets?