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The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East
The promise of democracy for Muslims offers something historically unparalleled. Where Islamist groups once dreamed of revolution, quietly developed paramilitary cells, and assassinated their secular opponents, mainstream Islamist groups today see elections as a means for society to maintain akhlaq; the mores that define good Muslims.
Learn MoreAnalysis & Commentary - Mark Dubowitz
Tearing Down Iran’s Electronic Curtain
Three hundred and sixty seconds. That's all it would take for Iranian security services to identify and track an encrypted message sent to a mobile phone somewhere inside Iran, kick in the door, and seize the phone. more...
Hit Iran with Unity
We are fast approaching a point when sanctions will no longer be able to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. As tempting as it may be, Republican candidates should set aside the opportunity to score quick political points and support the president in taking a bold step on sanctions... more...
Closing Tehran’s Sanctions Loopholes
In his speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on Sunday, President Barack Obama once again promised that the United States would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. more...
Canceling the Mullahs’ Credit Card
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, better known as SWIFT, is a member-owned cooperative that provides some 10,000 financial institutions worldwide with the means to exchange secure electronic financial messages. more...
Economic Regime-Change Can Stop Iran Bomb
Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, the choke-point for Persian Gulf oil shipments, reveals how deeply the latest Western sanctions -- and the threat of even tougher measures -- have spooked the clerical regime. more...
Don’t Give Up on Sanctions
The release last week of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report on Iran’s progressing nuclear program has to make one wonder whether more than 30 years of sanctions have helped to thwart — or even stall — the country’s nuclear designs. more...
Why Has Canada Not Yet Banned Iran’s Terrorist Organization?
According to press reports, a United Nations organization has revealed that, "Iran's government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon." more...
Iran’s War on Religious Freedom
The Iranian regime is in the news again over an alleged terrorist plot on American soil. Back in Iran, the regime's brutality to its own people continues. more...
Iran Terror Plot: Will America Finally Respond?
The Iranian assassination plot is a major escalation in Tehran's war on America. For three decades, the Iranian regime, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, has murdered Americans abroad in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. more...
My Dual Loyalties Problem
I have a dual loyalties problem and, given the paranoia in Washington, D.C., it may prevent me from ever serving in a sensitive national security position. more...
Why Isn’t Ahmadinejad on a No-Fly List?
This week, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is making his annual visit to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. more...
FDD Remembers - The 9/11 Compendium
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies was created not quite 10 years ago in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. But the need for such an organization was envisaged before that. more...
Economic Sanctions On Iran Haven’t Been Enough
Ten years after Sept. 11, the Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes the most serious threat to American national security, and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the world’s most deadly terrorist organization. more...
Obama, American Liberator?
Libya was not a robust showing of liberal-internationalist conviction: The single greatest factor behind the West’s armed intrusion was the surreality of Moammar Gaddafi. more...
Energy is the Key in Syria
President Obama has called finally for Syrian strongman Bashar Assad’s departure. He also has issued an executive order that freezes Syrian government assets in the United States' jurisdiction, and prohibits Americans from making new investments in Syria or exporting any services to it. more...
Congress Should Consider Syrian Energy Sanctions
The Assad regime’s ruthlessness is on vivid display as the Syrian security forces, with Iranian assistance, continue their bloody campaign to crush a four-month long democracy uprising. more...
The Case for Targeting Iran’s Petroleum Sales
Ever since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, assumed Iran’s presidency in 2005, his cohorts in the IRGC have been busy. more...
The Case for an Iranian-Oil-Free Zone
If we buy oil from despotic states, are we somehow complicit in their crimes? Even after the Arab Spring has highlighted tyranny in the Middle East, Americans and Europeans still generally remove oil and natural gas from their moral calculations. more...
Iran’s Victims
On May 28, 1961, British lawyer Peter Benenson penned a passionate article in the London Observer, drawing attention to the plight of two Portuguese students who had delivered a toast calling for democratic reform in their country and were promptly carted off to prison for defying dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. more...
How the Obama Administration Can Get Serious About Iran Sanctions
The Obama administration made the correct decision earlier this week to impose sanctions on Belarusneft, a subsidiary of the Belarusian petrochemical company Belneftekhim, for doing business with Iran. But it’s small beer – Belarusneft is hardly a major player in Iran’s energy industry. more...