The Latest - Arab Spring
How Saudi Arabia Has Survived—So Far
On December 17, 2010, the self-immolation of Tunisian street vendor Muhammad Bouazizi, who was protesting the confiscation of his wares and harassment by the country’s authorities. more...
Egypt’s Presidential Debate was a Historic Triumph for Democracy. So Why Did We Ignore It?
On Thursday night, something historic took place in Egypt: The first televised presidential debate ever held in the Arab world. This was four-and-a-half hours of real cut-and-thrust on sensitive issue... more...
Syrian Exiles Lead Call to Arm the Opposition
Five years after being jailed, beaten, and tortured by government forces as a student in Damascus, Ahed al-Hendi is a Syrian dissident in the U.S. calling for Washington to arm the opposition fighting President Bashar al-Assad and his forces. more...
Osama bin Laden on the Muslim Brotherhood
One of the chief beneficiaries of the Arab Spring thus far has been the Muslim Brotherhood, which has gained power in Egypt and elsewhere. This did not escape Osama bin Laden's attention prior to his demise. more...
News Update
The situation in Syria, Russia's policy, the Annan plan, and the two suicide bombings in Damascus. more...
Suicide Bombers Kill 55 in Syrian Capital
A pair of suicide bombers killed at least 55 people and wounded 372 more in a coordinated attack on a military intelligence headquarters in the Syrian capital of Damascus. more...
Has America Given Up?
The Barack Obama administration gussies up everything it says and does in meaningless, New Age diplospeak. Its Atrocities Prevention Board is but the latest, and most ridiculous, example. more...
The Foggiest War
The “fog of war” is a concept derived from the writings of Carl von Clausewitz, the great 19th century Prussian military theorist who recognized that those leading troops into battle often lack data, perspective and situational awareness. more...
Damascus via Moscow
Despite its admission that the UN-backed Kofi Annan plan in Syria was failing, the Obama administration appears to have settled into the plan’s process. The administration’s backing of the plan has brought US policy back to where it was last fall. more...
Lou Dobbs Tonight
FDD's Jonathan Schanzer and Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, on President Obama's visit to Afghanistan and other threats in the region. more...
Syrian Uprising Shifts Toward Suicide Bombings. Al Qaeda’s Handiwork?
"The only Al Qaeda cells that operate in Syria are those manipulated by Assad's security apparatuses," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a US-based Syrian opposition activist in an online newsletter emailed today. more...
Syrian Opposition Activists Ask Kosovo for Advice
Ammar Abdulhamid, an exiled anti-Assad activist, said that seeing a new country "emerging out of the nightmare and emerging as a state" could be inspiring for Syrian dissidents. more...
News Update
Syria and the Annan mission. more...
Russia’s Strategic Clarity in Syria
Russian foreign policy scored another victory last week with the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2043, which established a supervision mission in Syria for an initial 90-day period. more...
Syrians Fall Victim to ‘Dual Logic’ of Sectarianism and Realpolitik
The task admittedly more complex than in Libya, but “from a purely moral point of view, Western inaction is a display of hypocrisy that is bound to undermine future attempts to invoke universal principles in the name of policy,”... more...
UN Mission in Syria Faces Criticism
For some anti-Assad activists, those aren’t enough to successfully overturn the regime. Ammar Abdulhamid, a Damascus-born activist serving as a fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. more...
March on Syria
The Assad dynasty is not content with slaughtering its own people in great numbers. It is also destroying Syria's rich archaeological past. Writing last month in the US Weekly Standard, Victoria Coates described the devastation in detail. more...
Mubarak’s Old Stalwarts Vie for Supremacy
In late May, Egyptians will vote in the first free presidential election in their history. But despite parliamentary elections and other inklings of democracy, the forces of the old dictatorship under deposed President Hosni Mubarak still hold the cards. more...
The Whole World Is Watching
Obama’s Atrocities Prevention Board institutionalizes indifference to mass murder. more...
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