Sat, 01/10/2015 - 22:53

Al Qaeda wins this round against Daesh, but what’s with the rival claims?

Al Qaeda’s most dangerous branch, AQAP, has claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack, edging arch jihadist foe Daesh (IS) for the moment. So why were there rivals claims in the Paris two hostage crises?
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Mon, 06/30/2014 - 22:02

Ignoring the Syrian side of the Sykes-Picot line

ISIS delivers a multilingual, postcolonial, post-national, proto-caliphate jihadist message to beat all prior propaganda ploys. So, why are we divorcing Iraq from Syria? And why do we always ignore a battlefield to rush into Iraq?
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Wed, 06/18/2014 - 22:58

Kenyatta’s al Shabaab denial inflames Kenya’s divisive discourse

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta dragged Kenya’s whodunit into dangerous terrain when he insisted “politically motivated ethnic violence” – and not al Shabaab – was responsible for recent deadly attacks.
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Wed, 06/18/2014 - 00:06

Maliki’s wrong: ISIS is so rich, it doesn’t need Saudi money

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has blamed Saudi Arabia for funding Islamists. But ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria) is also a threat to the Saudis and for once, Saudi money does not talk.
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Sun, 10/20/2013 - 10:33

Let’s admit it, we overlooked and underestimated al Shabaab

Westgate has shown that underestimated al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group and now the al Shabaab threat is at our doorsteps – our citizens were the victims, perpetrators, and our immigrant community leaders are being threatened.
Wed, 01/30/2013 - 20:35

Old foes, new friends: Mali eases suspicious minds

In the old days, France was wary of the US messing around on its African turf. But the Mali intervention changed that. Then there’s Nigeria, France’s old Anglophone West African bogey, now turned new best friend. What a difference a war makes.
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Tue, 12/18/2012 - 13:57

Media-mad US jihadist in Somalia finally kicked out of al Shabaab ranks

America’s best-known jihadist in Somalia, Omar Hammami – also called “al Amriki” – has officially been kicked out of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab in one of the Islamist group’s smarter moves.
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