Obama Continues Indefinite Detention of Terrorism Suspects

Rusty Shackleford: Bush-Hitler: Holding terrorists indefinitely without charge in Gitmo. Hope-Change: Holding terrorists indefinitely without charge somewhere else. As Jacob Sullum notes in much more thorough post, it's a natural consequence of the Obama administration's continuing the Bush perspective that we're at war with terrorists. In Holder's view, then, we are engaged in a war that started years before we noticed it and may ...

Mahdi Army Transforming into Salvation Army?

The Mahdi Army might soon be the Iraqi equivalent of the Salvation Army, Gina Chon reports for the Wall Street Journal. Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- long a thorn in the side of the U.S. military and Iraqi government -- intends to disarm his once-dominant Mahdi Army militia and remake it as a social-services organization. The transformation would represent a significant turnabout ...

Tony Snow Dies of Cancer

Tony Snow has died. He was only 53. CNN Breaking: Former White House press secretary Tony Snow has died at the age of 53 after a second battle with cancer. Snow, who had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a recurrence of the disease, left his White House job September. 14, 2007, and joined CNN as a conservative commentator. More from ...

Is Time on the Iranians’ Side?

That's the central claim of David Ignatius's column in the Washington Post this morning: So imagine that you are Qassem Soleimani, commander of a covert Iranian army deployed across the Middle East: You doubt the Bush administration would run the risk of a military strike against Iran, but you can't be sure. You think America can't afford to play chicken in ...

Decapitation as a Counter-Terror Strategy

Aaron Mannes has done an extensive statistical analysis on the effectiveness of decapitation (in the figurative as well as the literal sense) in counter-terrorism. It is conventional wisdom that removing an organization's leaders is an effective counter-terror strategy, but the quantitative analysis is less clear on the issue. Most of the successes focus on specific instances, such as the ...

Mullen: We ‘Will Have to Deal with Iran in the Very Near Future’

Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a very profound statement at Monday night's Atlantic Council awards dinner that has received virtually no press notice: That we "will have to deal with Iran in the very near future." Here's the context: We also live in a time where Iran routinely pushes its way ...

Defeated Maliki Accepts Cease-Fire

Six days of Shiite-on-Shiite warfare in Basra appear over after Mahdi militia chief Moktada al-Sadr sued for peace* and the government agreed in a deal brokered by Iran. Whether this gets scored a "win" for Sadr or Prime Minister Maliki will likely vary depending on the predisposition of the evaluator. Based on what we know now, though, Maliki's gambit ...

Counterinsurgency Dulling Combat Skills?

Thomas Ricks reports that Matt Matthews, a historian at the Army's Combat Studies Institute, has written a new report concluding that "five years of fighting insurgents in Iraq may also have dulled U.S. soldiers' skills at more conventional combat." The study, apparently, isn't a case study of the U.S. military but rather the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and Israel's woeful ...

Hezbollah Leader Imad Mughniyeh Killed

Imad Mughniyeh, the man behind the the 1983 attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut and the TWA Flight 847 hijacking, has been killed. A senior Hezbollah commander suspected in some of the highest-profile international terrorist attacks of the last 25 years has died in an explosion in Syria, Hezbollah TV said Wednesday. Imad Mughniyeh died Tuesday in an explosion in ...

Most Saudis Oppose al Qaeda

A recent survey of Saudi Arabian adults finds a complicated view of America, terrorism, and freedom. Most Saudi Arabia citizens interviewed in a poll oppose terrorism and want closer ties with the United States. But many Saudis remain opposed to making peace with Israel, according to what researchers call an unprecedented survey of the kingdom. Ten percent of Saudis have ...

Does a Muslim Belong in the Cabinet?

Mansoor Ijaz reports that Mitt Romney has announced he would not appoint a Muslim to the cabinet were he elected president. His reasoning is a mite peculiar: I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal ...

Defining ‘Success’ for the Annapolis Conference

Like most analysts, Peter Brookes sees little chance that the Annapolis Conference will solve the longstanding Arab-Israeli crisis. He does think, however, that it is already a resounding success. The bulk of his column is devoted to the obstacles that will almost surely prevent much substantive change. Several major players have an interest in keeping the ...

Lebanon President Steps Down without Successor

Lebanon's president stepped down at midnight, as required by law, with no successor in place, leaving the country in constitutional crisis. Reuters reports a power vacuum: Lebanon stepped into uncharted territory on Saturday when time ran out on attempts to find a new president before President Emile Lahoud's mandate expired. Lahoud, a pro-Syrian retired general in power for nine years, left ...

Condoleeza Rice’s Highs and Lows

While Condoleeza Rice's tenure as Secretary of State is, so far as I'm aware, not set to expire for another fourteen months, the AP has nonetheless rolled out a story on Rice's Highs and Lows. Interestingly, the listed highs are pretty substantial and the lows seem to be almost entirely happenstance. Among the lows: Getting confirmed only 85-13, Hamas ...

Israeli Soldier Exposes Breasts to Flee Interrogation

Now, here's a headline you don't see every day: "Soldier flees interrogation by exposing breasts." An IDF soldier fled an interrogation room by exposing her breasts to a stunned officer. The soldier was interrogated at the Biranit army base on the northern border after she refused to undergo a drugs test. A short while after her questioning began the soldier was seen ...