Why is it that the media in the West seem to fixate on some stories while completely ignoring others? The strategic analysis firm Stratfor recently sent their subscribers a report by Robert Kaplan that contained the following quote that provides an insightful answer: The media love people stories; they love to humanize everything about a […]
There were many dangers faced by reporters during the four-year Bosnia war. Gunfire. Freezing. Food poisoning. Checkpoints manned by drugged out crazies. Yet one fear stood out, and it was usually away from the fighting. That was going to Zenica, a city in the central part of the area controlled by the Bosnian government. The […]
Whether it is lack of political will or capacity, the Nigerian government has failed to address the threat that the Islamist insurgency Boko Haram poses to its country’s security. The past week has been a particularly bloody one for Nigeria. Simultaneous attacks against This Day newspaper offices in Abuja and Kaduna killed nearly a dozen […]
Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that seeks to establish the return of the Islamic Caliphate over the Muslim world is believed to have grown way beyond “containment security parameters,” posing a very real threat to Yemen’s national hegemony within in its own territories. As Yemenis rose against President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the wake of Egyptian […]
Two days ago, I wrote a brief post about an apparent exodus of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) operatives to neighboring Syria – resulting in an abrupt drop in violence in the capital city of Mosul, and a surprising lull across Nineveh province in the northwest part of the country. Today, at least 60 people […]
21 February marked the deaths of a prominent foreign journalist and a foreign photographer covering the unrest in Homs, Syria: Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times and French photographer Remi Ochlik. Again, their deaths cast light upon the apparent crimes against humanity that are raging unabated in Syria. Colvin’s and Ochlik’s deaths in Baba Amr, […]
Interesting news from Iraq… the Christian Science Monitor is reporting that violence has dropped precipitously as al-Qaeda affiliates quit the field to battle President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The effects of egress have been most pronounced in Nineveh Province – the Iraqi governate borders Syria and once served as served as home to as many as […]
The Foreign Policy Association has asked the blog team to write year-end summaries and even provided a nice little template for us to follow. So, without further ado: Summary of the Past Year What an extraordinary year 2011 has turned out to be. The U.S. appears to have successfully navigated a year of extreme turbulence […]
Osama bin Laden: killed and al Qaeda: on the run. That’s the balance sheet — more or less — that the U.S. has to share with the world. Meanwhile, its biggest ally in the War on Terror — Pakistan — has nothing to present except that its own people have been terrorized by militants, with […]
What is more important: Securing Pakistan’s strategic relationship with the United States or asking what some may call the “tough questions”? The presence of Osama bin Laden in the country’s garrison town of Abbottabad may not have been in the knowledge of the top Pakistani military authorities but it is no coincidence that many other […]
About three weeks ago, President Saleh delivered a televised speech to the nation, in which he reassured his followers that he would indeed be coming back, his convalescence coming to a close. His rather lengthy address put to rest rumors that the Saudis and the Americans had managed to exert enough political pressure on the […]
It’s not exactly yellow cake, but the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the US Treasury Department accused Iran of aiding and partnering with Al Qaeda: The U.S. for the first time formally accused Iran of forging an agreement with al Qaeda, helping operatives move money, arms and fighters through Iranian territory to the terrorist […]
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