"States and their rulers expect to monopolise violence, and
that is why they react so virulently to terrorism."

"In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility,
fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain
their power."

" ... al-Qaida did not even have a name until early 2001,
when the American government decided to prosecute Bin Laden in his
absence and had to use anti-Mafia laws that required the existence of a
named criminal organisation."