> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://media.proudamericanstudios.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The War Within America Premieres on the 25th Anniversary of September 11th - URL: https://media.proudamericanstudios.com/podcasts/the-war-within-america-premieres-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-september-11th/ - Published: 2026-09-10T19:53:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-14T21:03:07.000Z - Description: Twenty-five years ago, Al Qaeda murdered nearly 3,000 people on American soil. Dino Buloha, a Moroccan Muslim American who spent years in intelligence hunting terrorists, says the threat he never expected is now the one that matters most: the division being encouraged from American podiums. - Author: Editor-in-Chief, Proud American Studios - Tags: The War Within America, podcast, U.S. Politics & National Cohesion [Watch the Full Episode Now on Proud American Studios](https://app.proudamericanstudios.com/programs/war-within-america?cid=4982582&permalink=war-within-america-ep-1-25-years-after-september-11&ref=media.proudamericanstudios.com) > I will defend the United States from foreign threats and from domestic threats. My job does not stop here. It only gets started. — Dino Buloha, Counterterrorism Veteran & Host, The War Within America Twenty-five years ago, Al Qaeda murdered nearly 3,000 people on American soil. For most Americans, September 11, 2001, changed the way they saw the world. For [Dino Buloha](https://proudamericanstudios.com/team/dinobuloha?ref=media.proudamericanstudios.com), it changed the direction of his life. Buloha grew up in Morocco’s Jewish quarter, the Mellah, where roughly 60 percent of his neighbors were Moroccan Jews. His mother prepared Shabbat dinners for the Jewish families in their building. Those same families prepared iftar for his during Ramadan. Faith was not debated in his household. It was practiced side by side, in the kitchen, at the table, across the hall. “That’s the Islam I grew up with,” he says. “It wasn’t a speech given to me in the mosque. It wasn’t a speech given to me on TV.” That upbringing followed him to America. ## **The Oath** When Buloha took the U.S. citizenship oath, one line stayed with him: the commitment to defend the Constitution and the United States against enemies foreign and domestic. The foreign half was obvious. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, the terrorist networks. The domestic half was abstract, almost unimaginable, because the country he was swearing into was, in his view, one of the greatest in the world, and not because of its military or economic power. “It comes from its own constitution,” he says. “It comes from the freedom of speech. It comes from the idea that every person can immigrate to the United States, and once they take that oath, they belong.” He never expected the domestic half of that oath to matter. ## **September 11th** The attacks shattered something in Buloha that had never been touched before. He describes a shame he had never felt, not in his religion, but in the people who had hijacked it to murder innocents under its banner. “That’s not the Islam I grew up with,” he says. “That’s not the Islam I understood and I still understand and believe in.” Hiding was not an option. Buloha joined one of the highest-ranking intelligence agencies in the United States and took a second oath. His mission: pursue Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Boko Haram wherever they operated or believed they were hiding. He lost friends in New York that day. More American lives were lost hunting those networks across Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. [Watch the Full Episode Now on Proud American Studios](https://app.proudamericanstudios.com/programs/war-within-america?cid=4982582&permalink=war-within-america-ep-1-25-years-after-september-11&ref=media.proudamericanstudios.com) ## **A Different Threat** > “They were Al Qaeda terrorists, not some people. We lost brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends. There is no room for gray area here. Words matter.” For years, Buloha’s professional life was focused outward, on the foreign threat. Today, he says he is concerned about something closer to home: political rhetoric that generates outrage, social media that feeds on hatred, and elected officials who plant seeds of division rather than unity. He is specific, and he does not sort by party. Representative Ilhan Omar drew his attention in 2019, when she described the September 11th attackers as “some people” who “did something.” Buloha’s response is blunt: “They were Al Qaeda terrorists, not some people. We lost brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends. There is no room for gray area here. Words matter.” He applies the same standard to Representative Rashida Tlaib’s use of “from the river to the sea,” which Tlaib has framed as aspirational language about freedom. Buloha argues it communicates something else entirely to Jewish Americans: that there is no place for a Jewish state. > “Maybe for others it’s a motivational speech,” he says. “But it’s only going to motivate hate and more violence.” He also addresses New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s use of the word “intifada” during his campaign, for which Mamdani later apologized. The apology does not settle the matter for Buloha. “You’re not talking to Palestinians,” he says. “You’re addressing Americans. And for most Jewish Americans, if not all of them, that word is a call for violence.” His message to all three is the same: “You’ve been elected by the people. They gave you their voice to seek what they’re looking for, to improve their life, get more jobs, and live in peace. Spreading hate speech- that’s not your mission.” ## **One Voice, Not a Bloc** Buloha is careful to mark the boundaries of his own standing. There are millions of Muslim Americans, he says, and they are not a political bloc. They see the world through different lenses, shaped by different backgrounds and different understandings of politics. No politician owns their voice. > “I’m not claiming that I represent the Muslim voices in the United States,” he says. “That’s the point. Everybody has a voice. And this is only mine.” His position on the Middle East is brief and symmetrical: Israelis deserve peace and dignity, Palestinians deserve dignity and peace, and importing that conflict as a domestic wedge only generates more hate, more violence, and more division. ## **The Microphone** *The War Within America* is Buloha’s answer. Not a call to silence anyone, but a commitment to challenge anyone, regardless of party, who he believes is using his faith for political gain or jeopardizing constitutional rights. “They have their microphone,” he says. “Now I have mine.” He closes where he opened, on the oath he took twice: once as a citizen, once as an intelligence officer. “I will defend the United States from foreign threats and from domestic threats. My job does not stop here. It only gets started.” [Watch the Full Episode Now on Proud American Studios](https://app.proudamericanstudios.com/programs/war-within-america?cid=4982582&permalink=war-within-america-ep-1-25-years-after-september-11&ref=media.proudamericanstudios.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/61/7e/617ea0f9-9c68-4cf4-99c3-4aefef529f30/content/images/2026/09/GHOST-BIG-BLOCK-top-left-logo-2.png) ## ****Join Proud American Studios** Join a growing community of Americans who value faith, freedom, and country. Enjoy exclusive programming, member-only events, and a private community—all while saving over 50% with an annual membership. [BECOME A FOUNDING MEMBER](https://app.proudamericanstudios.com/join?ref=media.proudamericanstudios.com)