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A Caliphate has been Declared in the Middle East
Osama bin Laden’s death in May 2011 did not diminish al-Qaeda’s quest to destroy Western civilization. “The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it” was the ‘fatwa’ issued by bin Laden in 1998....
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Al-Qaeda’s Presence Has Not Been Diminished
In the 1980’s the U.S. supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in their fight against the Soviets. Our ally was Osama bin Laden who organized his Arab fighters to help defeat the Soviets. When the dictator, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 Osama...
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Bin Laden’s Death Hasn’t Stanched Metastasizing of al Qaeda
"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it...." — Osama bin Laden, February 1998 Bin Laden, the al Qaeda terrorist leader, issued his "fatwa" only seven months before the U.S. embassies in...
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Education is Best Way to Defeat Radical Islam
On June 10, 2014 our family returned to Africa as we do every year. Kenya’s Masai Mara was again selected. There were fourteen of us, including twelve family members and two close friends, ranging in age from eight to eighty. The youngest family member...
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It’s Time for Muslim Nations to Take the Lead
On Tuesday September 30, 2014 I appeared on a segment of Bloomberg TV’s Bottom Line with Mark Crumpton, focusing on the U.S. airstrikes against ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates. Mark asked what the U.S. should have known when our troops left Iraq 2011. I...
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Obama to Assad: Weapons Cache Must be Verifiable, or There Will be Consequences
On Friday President Barrack Obama told Kuwait’s Emir Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah that any diplomatic solution in Syria depended on President Bashar al-Assad listing all of the chemical weapons in his arsenal, and signing on to the Chemical Weapons...
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Obama’s Line in the Sand May Prove to be a Quagmire
President Barrack Obama in making his case for a military strike against Syria stated that Bashar al-Assad had used deadly nerve agents against his people. Politicos around the world however are not convinced that the U.S. and UN inspectors have...
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Partitioning May Be a Peaceful Solution
The goal of building democratic institutions in North Africa and the Middle East could prove to be futile. The Arab Spring uprisings that brought about regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen did not bring peace to the region. The U.S. push...
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Regime Change Will Not Diminish Al-Qaeda Attacks
In Syria how will the U.S. clearly define moderate opposition groups? That has become a major difficulty as well in Libya. Rebel groups break down into tribes, clans, and broader religious factions—some with fundamentalist beliefs, while others have a...
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Russia’s Military Presence in the Middle East
President Vladimir V. Putin has been waiting for the opportunity to undermine the United States power in the Middle East. Seizing on that opportunity in Syria was in part due to a lack of U.S. policy that allowed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria...
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The 14th Anniversary of Terrorist Attacks on America
As I sat in our New York apartment on Friday looking across Central Park I could see the early morning runners, bike riders, and people just leisurely walking through the maze of tree lined walkways. It suddenly dawned on me today was September 11, the...
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The Increase of Islamist Attacks is Alarming
We are living in the most crucial time in modern history since the Cold War. Today’s enemy is not a standing army of a sovereign nation. It is a theological movement with a mission to destroy Western civilization. As the Cold War ended in the 1980s,...
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The Republic of Yemen: Al-Qaeda’s Backyard
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Horn of Africa, East Africa and Sahel region The Republic of Yemen is divided into two principal Islamic religious factions, the Shia Zaydi sect in the north, and Sunni Shafi sect in the south. Before...
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U.S. at War: Airstrikes have begun in Syria
Fighting between tribal and religious factions is not new. Rulers and dictators have come and gone through history. In the 12th century Sultan Saladin’s Muslim forces defeated the Crusaders, and created a caliphate in the Middle East and North Africa....
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U.S. Policy Advisors on the Middle East Region
The world is wondering why the United States has moved so slowly to wipe out radical Islamist groups, as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that are destabilizing much of the Middle East and parts of Africa. Battle-hardened rebels have been...
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What Did the Arab Spring Accomplish?
The root of discontent stemmed from unjust governance, poverty, food insecurity and unemployment issues. Regime change did not build democratic institutions. The political instability opened the door to Islamists bent on creating Islamic states. The...