National Security

Over the next few days, here are 2 websites to compare – the Muslim Brotherhood’s English language and Arabic websites. First, the Muslim Brotherhood website in English – complete with the word “freedom” and a cute little girl, and no

Two incidents occurred on January 19th, with one involving talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the other a song performed later by a Chinese pianist named Lang Lang at the White House State Dinner for Chinese president Hu Jintao. During

Observers following tumultuous events across the Middle East in recent days may find it confusing that Iranian leadership figures would be cheering for the protesters in the streets of Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere. After all, not only are most Iranians

Suddenly, Washington is consumed with a question too long ignored: Can we safely do business with the Muslim Brotherhood? The reason this question has taken on such urgency is, of course, because the Muslim Brotherhood (or MB, also known by

Israel’s incoming of Military Intelligence (MI), Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, failed to recognize the imminent threat to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government on his first briefing before a crucial parliamentary committee – the same day that the unrest erupted in Cairo

Saturday evening Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Israel’s top military and intelligence brass into an emergency session to evaluate the chaotic situation engulfing their neighbor to the west, and its ramifications for relations with the Jewish State. Both Prime Minister

As soon as I’d heard about the events in Tunisia, I hopped over to the English-language website of the Ikhwan, or the Muslim Brotherhood. [One of the delights of tracking the Brotherhood in America and internationally is the differences between

Most countries that resulted from the Colonial Era are not like the United States or Canada. The native populations were not replaced, and many had to resort to varying levels of civil unrest to achieve independence. As I said in

A very astute and interesting observation from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about what is going on in the Middle East. It’s not the only explanation of events in the region, but Iran is enjoying the fact that attention is

Now isn’t this interesting: China has blocked the word “Egypt” from the country’s wildly popular Twitter-like service, while coverage of the political turmoil has been tightly restricted in state media. China’s ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any potential source

Egypt’s rebellion has been lingering in the horizon for a very long time. The brutal life of the ordinary Egyptian was waiting for the right moment to explode. But instead of understanding what was surely coming, the 82-year-old Mubarak has

It probably has something to do with the fact that the Iranian mullahs are willing to be as brutal as necessary to stay in power. Reuters is reporting that a Dutch citizen arrested after the Iranian protests of 2009 has

Don’t look for Thomas Jefferson to emerge from the rubble in Egypt. A report: The spiritual leader of the Muslim Brothers movement and one of the world’s most prominent Sunni clerics is urging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave Egypt.

A sobering reminder–based upon hard data–from an essay of mine published in April, 2007: In a rigorously conducted face-to-face University of Maryland/ WorldPublicOpinion.org interview survey of 1000 Egyptian Muslims conducted between December 9, 2006 and February 15, 2007, 67% of

CNN International coverage of the violent anti-Mubarak protests on the streets of Egypt:

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami in his Friday Sermon in Iran declared that the social unrest in Egypt and elsewhere is a continuance of the 1979 Iranian revolution and is inspired by Islamists. Here is a translated summary courtesy of MEMRI: “In

Reports that the Obama Administration may be secretly backing the protests in Egypt is troubling on several levels. First, there is the obvious fact that no one can ultimately direct and control social protests. Once they begin, they can quickly

Now is the time to go to school on the Muslim Brotherhood, especially if the Mubarak government goes down in Egypt. Today on Frank Gaffney’s Secure Freedom Radio, Frank is joined by Ray Locker, the managing director of The Investigative

Now that new START has been ratified by the US Senate and is apparently close to ratification by the Russian government, it might be useful to ask “What is the Future of Nuclear Arms Control?” Most Americans would think that

Che Guevara – an icon for morons Following in the footsteps of (among many other flower-children) Stephen Stills, Bonnie Raitt, Chrissie Hynde, Jimmy Buffet, and Carole King (who in 2002 serenaded Fidel Castro with a personal “You’ve Got a Friend”)

One severely misunderstood element in nation building is the effects of Colonialism. Typically people just look at post-colonial countries as targets for nation building, spinning how they got to such a state for political purposes, and ignoring that one element

Chinese bloggers have pretty clear evidence that China Central Television, in a report about air combat training involving Chinese pilots, was actually using footage from the movie “Top Gun” and trying to pass it off as the real thing. How

It is often said Israel lives in a “dangerous neighborhood” and the Middle East is a “volatile region.” To those characterizations you can now add another adjective “chaotic.” Even the usually self-assured Wall Street Journal seems flummoxed. In an editorial

Today the Egyptian regime faces its gravest threat since Anwar Sadat’s assassination 30 years ago. As protesters take to the street for the third day in a row demanding the overthrow of 82-year old President Hosni Mubarak, it is worth

The Wikileaks revolutions sweeping the Arab world seem democratically promising. Tweeting twenty-somethings challenge iron-fisted dictators. Populist mutineers trash the ruling clique’s Mediterranean villas. Royal families (and wannabe royal families) pack up their gold and flee to Europe or a nearby