Uncategorized

See All Press
Saudi Student Linked to Marathon Bombings under Deportation Order: ‘Suspicious Terrorist Ties’
April 18, 2013 9 min. read

But the obfuscation, or confusion–it’s your call–in the Boston Bomber case is masterful. Now we hear reports that Ali Alharbi the young Saudi national in Boston on a student visa, the same young man authorities released after questioning him so he could ‘get back to classes'(and who issued the order to release him is still unknown)is under a DHS-issued deportation order based on an investigation that determined he has ‘suspicious terrorist ties’ and has been determined by the US government to be ‘a security risk.’ (Please see my blog of February 26–“ICE Agents Claim Napolitano Forcing Them to Violate U.S. Law–New Immigration Directives Invitation to Terrorists and Cartels.”

QED: let’s assume enforcement officials used the fact that Ali Alharbi had been investigated and was scheduled for deportation, and that it was this information, that the young man had already been tagged as a ‘national security risk,’ that helped authorities convince a judge that a search warrant was in order.

So what’s happening now? Will the Saudi student with the black backpack be retained in the US while enforcement officials continue to work with him to obtain more information? Keep him around, look for connections, leads, associations? Makes sense, don’t you think?

Not to the FBI, apparently, nor to Janet Napolitano, who heads the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS, it is rumored, is said to be following through with Alharbi’s deportation and getting ready to send him back home to Saudi Arabia.

The administration wants that boy gone.

Read more
Unrest in the Middle East: A Conversation With Siddique and Wuite
April 17, 2013 13 min. read

by Abul-Hasanat Siddique and Casper Wuite Abul-Hasanat Siddique and Casper Wuite, co-authors of The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction, talk about the political unrest in the Middle East, the Syrian Civil War, the globalization of media, and the future prospects for the region. Is the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa homegrown or a Western-sponsored revolution for change? Abul-Hasanat Siddique: Home-grown. […]

Read more
Security in the Sahel: Atlantic Memo #43
April 15, 2013 1 min. read
Tags:

A few weeks back I contributed to an Atlantic Community theme week on Security Issues in the Sahel. The result was Atlantic Memo #43, Security in the Sahel: Regional Initiatives in Pursuit of Long-Term Stability (pdf, web). The memo has already received a response from Dr. Thomas Bagger, Head of the Policy Planning Staff of […]

Read more
Sectarianism in the Arab World
April 15, 2013 5 min. read

Division, a word so simple yet characterized by many intricacies has led mankind through its political evolution. The development of the modern nation-state, which was birthed by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 was based on it. The United States and the Soviet Union threatened to lob nuclear weapons at one another, in part because […]

Read more
FPA’s Must Reads (April 5-12)
April 12, 2013 3 min. read

Each week, the editorial team at ForeignPolicyBlogs.com publishes a list of must-read articles from around the web. This week: Tweeting diplomacy, Cuba, Jordan, the U.S. in Pakistan, and one article on Margaret Thatcher.

Read more
Innovation in the U.S., Innovation in China
April 11, 2013 5 min. read

President Obama’s decision to take a five percent pay cut to express solidarity with federal workers affected by the sequester is just one more reminder of the many economic challenges that the United States confronts, some of them a consequence of recent political decisions but others rooted in deeper structural causes. Despite this reality, American […]

Read more
Obama’s 2013 Africa Visit
April 11, 2013 6 min. read

It was a story that many people missed. United States president Barack Obama met with four African leaders in Washington in late March 2013: President Sall from Senegal, President Banda from Malawi, President Koroma from Sierra Leone, and Prime Minister Neves from Cape Verde. A positive step in the right direction for America in Africa, […]

Read more
Obama Visit to Israel Key Link in Redesign of U.S. Foreign Policy
April 9, 2013 5 min. read

By Sarwar Kashmeri It would be a mistake to view President Obama’s visit to Israel as just a fence-mending exercise. It is in fact part of a planned redesign of U.S. foreign policy that will change the face of American leadership around the world. The redesign began with the appointment of John Kerry as Secretary […]

Read more
No News Is Bad News for Brazil
April 9, 2013 2 min. read
Tags:

Brazil’s economy has turned tepid. Last year growth was one perccent, the lowest rate of any major emerging economy. Mexico is now Latin America’s growth darling. Meanwhile Sao Paulo’s jetsetters are squirreling away their savings in Miami real estate, a trend that perhaps has less to do with the perception that U.S. real estate has […]

Read more
The Great Latin American Class Debate
April 5, 2013 5 min. read

This week the BBC was promoting a new study that redefined the traditional class structure in Britain into new modern categories. With the assistance of some U.K. universities and research institutes, they made a class calculator that can be taken online and will define in what part of British society you currently belong. You can […]

Read more
The Afghan Local Police and the U.S. exit strategy: Paying village militias
April 5, 2013 9 min. read

by Jennifer Norris Americans who left the theatre watching “Zero Dark Thirty” thinking that the dark stain of torture is in our past, should be cautioned by our exit strategy in Afghanistan. As a 2014 deadline for ending our combat mission in Afghanistan approaches, policymakers say that our main objective is to prepare Afghan security […]

Read more

Popular from Press