In the aftermath of the take down of Osama Bin Laden, there has been much debate and speculation on the nature of the intelligence used to finally track him down. Front and center has been the role played using controversial interrogation techniques. On 5 May I participated in a press call sponsored by the National […]
The chap who deigned to take on the Bush Administration, refusing to kowtow to their demands that he provide evidence of Saddam Hussein’s imaginary nuclear weapons program, has published his memoir. In “The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times”, Mohamed ElBaradei, three-term Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), details his […]
I’d like to highlight three significant effects of the bin Laden killing. First, as I noted last week, some people view the operation as precedential. The first one I caught was from Knesset member, Shaul Mofaz, who took the opportunity to call for similar strikes on Hamas leaders. Additionally, as David Karl of the FPA […]
We are at war. Twelve new wars have broken out in the world since the dawn of the new millennium, including the United States’ war with Afghanistan, Iraq, and the even more recent civil wars in Libya and the Ivory Coast. So much global unrest is enough to make anyone uneasy, despite the recent death […]
Beware of arguments like those offered in Jonathan Schanzer’s Weekly Standard article, “The Hamas-al Qaeda Alliance.” The article was a response to the statement earlier this week from senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who condemned the bin Laden killing. Schanzer essentially attempts to conflate al Qaeda and Hamas, writing that “over the course of two […]
My very first post for this blog, on February 24th, discussed the need for consistency in U.S. policy regarding prevention of proliferation. I’d like to return to that subject to review recent Congressional action which, to my mind, helps to institutionalize some much-needed consistency in the context of Agreements for Cooperation, so-called 123 Agreements. The […]
Last week I wrote that inaction in Washington and at the UN does not live up to the brave and hopeful Syrians who have taken to the streets in protest of the Assad government. Many there probably looked at NATO’s intervention in Libya and expected something similar to happen if protests in Syria persisted. They […]
The debate about whether the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden was legal is on. It was legal, says John Bellinger, justified under the same rationale as U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan. Though there’s a pretty fierce debate about the legality of the drones program, thrust to a new level of complexity after Pakistan withdrew […]
Following my April 8th post, John Coster-Mullen wrote to me in response. Luckily, he didn’t dislike what I wrote. In fact, in a series of subsequent exchanges, he has breathlessly and enthusiastically shared with me a whole host of additional information he has obtained and developed in the course of his extensive research on Fat […]
But let’s talk about bin Laden. The first notion we can discard is that the US pulled this feat off alone–that our intelligence and military capabilities allowed a convoy of Blackhawk helicopters carrying teams of Navy Seals, along with gunships (loaded with 100+ Army Rangers or Marines) flying defense above the Blackhawks, to penetrate, probably from Afghanistan, 100 miles or more into Pakistan’s airspace to one of the country’s most heavily guarded locations (Pakistan’s ‘West Point’) without detection by Pakistan’s intelligence/ military forces or without encountering Pakistani fighter jets.
One of the most important dimensions of this development is the extent to which Pakistan was involved, both in harboring bin Laden and in executing the operation that killed him. The Pakistan section of Obama’s Sunday night speech jumped out at me: But it’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead […]
Just heard a news flash that DNA results have confirmed that the man Navy Seals killed last night in Pakistan is indeed Osama Bin Laden. That should cover any lingering doubts for most people. I say most because there are still some people who don’t believe Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Just […]
From ABC News: Syrian army units have clashed with each other over following President Bashar Assad’s orders to crack down on protesters in Daraa, a besieged city at the heart of the uprising, witnesses and human rights groups said Thursday… “There are some battalions that refused to open fire on the people,” Monajed told The […]
It’s a beautiful April day here in Brooklyn. New York Spring might be only just taking root but in the Middle East, the Arab Spring is in full bloom. I was there two months ago but thinking about it now makes it seem like decades ago. This morning I turned on Al Jazeera and watched […]
I want to highlight a story from a week and a half ago that I don’t think has received the attention it deserves: the decision of Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court to dissolve the National Democratic Party (NDP). As Christian Science Monitor reported: …[M]any in Egypt had feared that the party of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak […]