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Category Archives: Terrorism
Bill Burns – A Glimmer of Hope
Finally there is some ground for imagining a glimmer of hope in Afghanistan. CIA Director Bill Burns is reported to have met with Taliban leadership in Kabul Monday. Burns is exactly the right person with, hopefully, the right amount of … Continue reading
Posted in Allies, China, Intelligence, Russia, Terrorism
Tagged Afghanistan, Bill Burns, China, Russia, Taliban
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9/11 is Over
For almost two decades policymakers, intelligence analysts, defense planners and warfighters have focused on strategies and priorities birthed on September 11, 2001. “Today is September 12, 2001” was a sign posted in many offices and field operations. It’s not September … Continue reading
ISIS CW Attacks in Europe or Beyond?
In 2016, ISIS may once again take its terror out of the region of its “caliphate.” It had success in Paris last November and is losing ground in Iraq. Watch out for a new horror—they may take chemical attacks overseas—to … Continue reading
Posted in Intelligence, Iraq, ISIL, ISIS, ISIS Chemical Weapons, Sunni, Syria, Syria CW, Terrorism, United Nations, WMD
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Iraq – How do we answer the pleas of those about to die?
I expect every American official who has worked in Iraq with Iraqis gets calls like this. Here is an example of one call I got: A very prominent Iraqi–a former Minister and Ambassador, now out of Iraq called to relay … Continue reading
ISIS or ISIL or IS? Does it matter?
The President gave his speech on strategy towards ISIL…except everyone calls it ISIS in the West. ISIL is Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and ISIS is Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or al Shams, which is roughly … Continue reading
Video Driven Policy vs. Strategy
The need for a strategy on ISIS was provoked by the videos of Americans being barbarically executed. A year ago, there was horrible video of Sarin use against civilians in Syria. That provoked action by the White House. In both … Continue reading
ISIS – Next Steps
The President is now stuck with the ISIS problem. It is his, not former President Bush’s. The rest of his term may be defined by how he deals with ISIS, in some ways as Bush was defined by how he … Continue reading
Posted in Intelligence, Iran, Iraq, ISIL, ISIS, Russia, Sunni, Terrorism
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Don’t Trade Iraq for an Iran Nuclear “Agreement”
There will come a time, and that may be right now, when Washington has to decide if any deal on Iran nuclear programs is more important than the risk faced from ISIS in Iraq. So far it looks like we … Continue reading
NSA Scutinized, Not FBI?
There has been much discussion about NSA and whether it is collecting too much data (especially on American citizens) and whether the procedures and authorizations by which it operates should be revised. This debate will not be resolved anytime soon … Continue reading
Posted in Intelligence, NSA, Russia, Terrorism
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The New Russian Threat: May be Good News for some
Putin may discover to his surprise that it is in many American parties interests to have Russia as an enemy. It is not overly cynical to point out that, for many interests in Washington, there is a great need to … Continue reading
Posted in China, Financial Wars, Russia, Space, Terrorism, Ukraine
Tagged defense budget, Duelfer, Lavrov, Russia, Sergey Lavrov, Ukraine
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