“I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon….that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.” – Edward Snowden In the 1983 American science-fiction film “War Games” star Matthew Broderick played a teenage internet hacker who unwittingly accesses a U.S. military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes […]
Photo: POOL/Reuters As a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China has sometimes drawn criticism for the use of its veto to forestall other nation’s interference in the affairs of its allies. Recently, Beijing was roundly condemned, along with Russia, […]
Return to Auschwitz: How Israel keeps Holocaust memories alive By Kevin Connolly BBC News As the years pass, the number of Holocaust survivors continues to decline at a faster and faster rate. Now Israel finds itself faced with a struggle: How to keep the next generation of Israelis informed about what happened in Europe seven […]
By Tyler Hooper On Thursday, June 13, the White House announced that it will now provide military weapons and supplies to Syrian rebels. The announcement came with claims by the Obama administration that they have found evidence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime using chemical weapons against rebel forces, which is strictly prohibited by international […]
When U.S. President Obama sat down with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the latest G-8 Summit in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, the evolving civil war in Syria dominated the conversation. The push had been for a negotiated political settlement under the guise of the Geneva II process, but it seems fated to be a stillborn process […]
More than two years after the beginning of the Syrian rebellion, the Obama administration reported on Thursday, June 13, that it would begin supplying small arms and ammunition to rebels fighting the Syrian government. Proposals for more direct intervention, such as the establishment of a no-fly zone, were rejected, at least for the time being. […]
By Sarwar Kashmeri Robert Morgenthau, the legendary Manhattan District Attorney, used to have a framed Oliphant cartoon in his office. It comically depicted the attempt by the newly inaugurated President Nixon to fire Morgenthau, a Democrat, from his then position as U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York, arguably the most influential federal jurisdiction […]
Silent War By Michael Joseph Gross Vanity Fair Did the U.S. bid to stop nuclear proliferation unleash an even great threat? The cyberwar between Iran and the U.S. may not involve shooting, but it’s taken a number of casualties in the business community with it, whether they are banks or huge parts of the telecommunications […]
The Japanese government approved legislation last week to set up a national security council, according to a Thomson Reuters report. The council, a Japanese version of the White House’s National Security Council, is purported to facilitate more rapid foreign policy decisions for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the face of North Korean saber-rattling and territorial […]
On Monday Arab governments in the Persian Gulf pledged to put sanctions on the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. The militia-cum-political party’s foray into neighboring Syria, in an attempt to protect the regime of Bashar al-Assad, has elicited widespread condemnation across the Middle East. Its estimated 1,700 fighters inside Syria bolstered Alawite militias and the Syrian […]
By Manuel Langendorf & Abul-Hasanat Siddique After decades of secular dictatorships, how will a new Middle East and North Africa alter centuries-old Arab-Western relations? This is the last of a two part series. Read part one here. Security related issues and natural resources are of core concern for Western nations in the Middle East and North […]
Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi By Adam Johnson GQ Kenji Fujimoto, an alias, was Kim Jong-Il’s sushi chef and sidekick for eleven years. Once he finally escaped, he became one of the biggest intelligence assets for the Japanese intelligence services on the Kim family. Johnson interviews him to dig up some wild stories about the […]
The civil war in Syria could soon turn to favor the Assad regime’s unyielding hold on power. The minority Shia-Alawite regime has recaptured the strategically important city of Qusair, until now held by the rebel Free Syrian Army. It did so in part by employing overwhelming military force and in part by welcoming and recruiting […]
By Manuel Langendorf and Abul-Hasanat Siddique After decades of secular dictatorships, how will a new Middle East and North Africa alter centuries-old Arab-Western relations? This is the first of a two part series. Since December 2010, the Arab revolts have shaken an entire region. Uprisings, initiated by youth activists, have undoubtedly changed the history and […]
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