On March 2014, in an Islamic-State-sponsored prisoner swap, Mohammed Haydar Zammar, the al-Qaeda operative jailed in Syria in 2001, was freed in exchange for Syrian army officers held by the IS. News articles that covered the prisoner exchange did … [Read more...] about Old Islamists Never Die: Mohammed Haydar Zammar
MENA Region
Weekly Briefing – January 12-16, 2015
Charlie Hebdo – A Missed Opportunity - Rachel Ehrenfeld -- In less than a week the free world seems to have lost the United States’ leadership, and the media lost its courage. The winners are the Islamists, whose ‘sensitivities’ apparently weigh more … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing – January 12-16, 2015
Weekly Briefing – December 28-January 2, 2014/15
Cybersecurity and the 114th Congress - Rachel Ehrenfeld - The Sony hacking served as a national reminder that cybersecurity should be taken more seriously...In May 2010, former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander lamented, "The scale of … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing – December 28-January 2, 2014/15
The Dangers of Bad Tradecraft
Review of Kai Bird: The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames. Crown Publishers, New York, 2014, 430 p., $26.00 Kai Bird’s The Good Spy, The Life and Death of Robert Ames is more than a book about Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer … [Read more...] about The Dangers of Bad Tradecraft
The U.S.-Israel Crisis*
The United States and Israel are under full sail into a perfect storm. The caterwauling back and forth from the Israeli and Anglo-American left that Prime Minister Netanyahu is inviting Pres. Barack Hussein Obama’s intervention in upcoming Israeli … [Read more...] about The U.S.-Israel Crisis*
Weekly Briefing – December 8 – 13, 2014
By 2021 new nuclear missile systems, composed of new warheads and new delivery systems, will constitute 98 percent of Russia’s intercontinental ballistic missile forces. This modernization includes the new RS-24 Yars (which NATO calls the SS-27 Mod … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing – December 8 – 13, 2014
Hamas Directing Terrorism from Turkey*
1. In August and September 2014 the Israeli security forces exposed two Hamas military-terrorist networks operating in Judea and Samaria. They recruited squads to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets, including showcase attacks in … [Read more...] about Hamas Directing Terrorism from Turkey*
ISIS: Portrait of a Jihadi Terrorist Organization*
An ISIS operative holds a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile on the background of a black ISIS flag (Picture sent by ISIS via Twitter) Objectives 1. This study examines the nature of the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), an Islamic … [Read more...] about ISIS: Portrait of a Jihadi Terrorist Organization*
The Islamic State: Another Angle of the Threat*
The struggle against the Islamic State (IS) organization led by the United States and its allies appears thus far to be something of a Sisyphean war: ineffective, limited to scratches on the surface of the Jihadi pyramid, beyond the roots of the … [Read more...] about The Islamic State: Another Angle of the Threat*
ISIS’s Public Support for Egyptian Jihadis
Left: Call for aid to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis on the ISIS forum. Photo: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis operative who blew himself up in the security directorate building in the southern Sinai Peninsula on October 7, 2013. The inscription reads: “Together … [Read more...] about ISIS’s Public Support for Egyptian Jihadis