Senussi el-Bijou and Muftah Abdelsamad spent the last 34 years protesting outside the Libyan embassy in London. Today, they can come and go as they please, honored guests of the building’s new management: the National Transitional Council. “It is thanks to these men, our elders, that we are here,” says Emad Elgaziwe, one of …
Terrorism
What Was Behind the Attack in the Israeli Desert?
What headlines described as a terrorist attack in the desert just north of the Israeli resort city of Eilat was in fact a sustained assault, a complex military attack that included missiles, mortars, improvised explosive devices, small arms and, on the bodies of two of the seven assailants killed, explosive vests. Israeli security …
Why Iraq’s Terror Uptick Won’t Affect Decisions on U.S. Troops
The 32 terror attacks that killed 70 people across Iraq on Monday prompted a knee-jerk question in much of the media: Would or should the uptick in violence prompt a rethink of plans to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by New Year’s Eve?
The short answer is no, and the longer answer is probably not.
U.S. withdrawal from Iraq …
Why Did Pakistan’s Spy Chief Make a Secret Trip to China?
Reports reveal Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan’s main military intelligence agency, the ISI, flew on a secret mission to Beijing for urgent talks this Monday. The visit followed swiftly on the heels of yet another round of diplomatic squabbling between Washington and Islamabad. During a heated summer of disputes, tensions …
China’s Restive Xinjiang Region Shaken by More Attacks
Authorities in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang say a pair of terrorist attacks over the weekend left as many as 20 people dead, including five suspects. The assaults cap a violent month in the restive border area. Less than two weeks ago rioters stormed a police station in the southwestern Xinjiang city of Hotan, an assault …
China’s Uighur Problem: One Man’s Ordeal Echoes the Plight of a People
Who is Ershidin Israil? An Islamic terrorist? A brave journalist? Or a Chinese spy? This much appears to be clear. In 2009 after riots convulsed Xinjiang, the tumultuous northwestern region of China that is home to the ethnic Uighur people, the 38-year-old teacher decamped to neighboring Kazakhstan. Ershidin’s friends and relatives …
The Knights Templar: The Militant Order Championed by Norway’s Terror Suspect
Anders Behring Breivik’s massive, 1,500-pg “2083” manifesto carries within it many odd and jarring tidbits, but nothing piques curiosity more than the Norwegian terror suspect’s obsession with the Knights Templar, a militant-monastic order that participated with bloody effect in the medieval Crusades. Breivik — who is …
A Spade Is a Spade: Why a Western Terrorist Is No Different from a Muslim One
Last year on Sept. 11, I stood by the site of Ground Zero amid hundreds of people shouting obscenities against Muslims and the religion of Islam. They were gathered to protest the proposed construction of a nearby Muslim-run interfaith community center, which had earned the inaccurate moniker “Ground Zero Mosque.” The rally was …
What the Oslo Bombing May Reveal About the State of the Global Terrorist Threat
(Update July 23: This post was originally written hours after Friday’s blast, when police and media speculation — and jihadist web sites — were pointing at Islamist extremists as the likely perpetrators of the Oslo terror attacks. On Saturday, however, Norwegian police had charged a 32-year-old Norwegian who they said was a Christian …
Is the CIA Helping Run a Secret Prison in Somalia?
An interesting exposé in The Nation, the left-of-center U.S. newsweekly, explores how the CIA has participated in the running of secret detention and interrogation centers in Somalia. The article’s author, Jeremy Scahill, claims the CIA mans an operation in a “sprawling walled compound” by Mogadishu’s airport and sends out …
Militant Groups Would Benefit if Pakistan is Blamed for Latest Mumbai Attacks
There’s no reason yet to believe the latest Mumbai terror attacks bear the same signature as the 2008 massacre that left 164 people dead. Wednesday’s multiple explosions appear from early reports to have involved small-scale and relatively crude bombs, even though they appear to have inflicted substantial casualties. That might point …
Three Bomb Blasts Hit Mumbai: Has Jihadi Terrorism Struck Again?
Mumbai was hit by three serial blasts in heavily populated areas during rush hour on Wednesday night. Confirmed details are scarce, but local television channels are reporting as many as 21 people killed and dozens, perhaps over 100, injured. Police so far have not made any clear announcements, and India’s Home Ministry has …
Thousands of Afghans Flee Shelling at Border, Leaving Worrying Vacuum Behind
The specter of unintended consequences has haunted most military decisions made since the U.S. declared its war on terror nearly a decade ago. And so it should not be surprising that the death of Osama bin Laden — once envisioned as the blow to end this now-global fight — may itself be causing a fresh and unforeseen aftershock in …