"The instability and the uncertainty that characterize the current state of affairs is best exploited, as mentioned before, by the most prominent enemies from the Radical Islamic camp – both Iran and its surrogates and the Sunni Radicals." The … [Read more...] about A Century after Sykes-Picot: Strategic and Geopolitical Aspects*
Al Qaeda
U.N. Resolution Will Not Stop ISIS Funding
Left: Security Council first ever meeting at Finance Ministers’ level. UN Photo/Evan Schneider Today’s U.N. Security Council’s resolution to curb the funding of ISIS is essentially the same as resolution 2199 that was adopted earlier this year, and … [Read more...] about U.N. Resolution Will Not Stop ISIS Funding
The Salafis Daddy Warbucks – Saudi Arabia
The first-ever global meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) network of some 200 jurisdictions over the weekend in Paris, “to discuss actions…to combat the financing of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) …and to combat the … [Read more...] about The Salafis Daddy Warbucks – Saudi Arabia
A Response to Bernard-Henri Lévy*
On November 16, 2015, French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy published a commentary in which he urges the West to acknowledge that it is at war and must call things by their right names. He subsequently argues that we must battle Islamic jihad … [Read more...] about A Response to Bernard-Henri Lévy*
Which Side Are YOU On?
The world has been at war for sixty-eight of the past hundred years. World War I lasted four years, World War II six years, the Cold War 44 years and the war with radical is now fourteen years old and counting. Western civilization eventually won … [Read more...] about Which Side Are YOU On?
Islamist Terrorism and European Amnesia
Left: Jo Goldenberg's restaurant at the Marais district, Paris, attacked in 1982 by PLO mastermind Souhaur Mohammed Hassan Khalil al-Abbassi, aka "Amjad Atta" that killed six people and wounding 22 others. Politicians and the media in Europe and the … [Read more...] about Islamist Terrorism and European Amnesia
Obama’s illogic
Left: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President Barack Obama. (Photo: Cihan), Nov.13, 2015 The confusion in the President’s thinking and strategy about the current terrorist crisis is frightening in its implications. As the tragic … [Read more...] about Obama’s illogic
MANPADS Threats To Civilian Aviation
Left: Two insurgents in Iraq with SA-7b and SA-14 MANPADS. Courtesy of U.S. Department of Homeland Security What crashed the Russian Airbus A321 in the Sinai Peninsula is yet to be determined. The British Telegraph reported an ISIS "bomb plot was … [Read more...] about MANPADS Threats To Civilian Aviation
One Year of the Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula*
Left: Egyptian President al-Sisi (C) inspects weapons, found with militants, in Sinai peninsula on July 4, 2015.(Photo: Reuters) Sinai militancy changed over 2015, following the decision of the peninsula’s main violent jihadi group to pledge … [Read more...] about One Year of the Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula*
Weekly Review, Oct 18-23, 2015
Taiwan's Democracy Needs U.S. Arms - Sol W. Sanders - If there was any doubt that Taiwan is the first democratic state in the long history of the Chinese, it came this week in the buildup to January presidential election. The current ruling … [Read more...] about Weekly Review, Oct 18-23, 2015