Qifa Nabki
United States
When Langley Met Dahiyeh: A Trans-Oceanic Love Story
Some folks are up in arms about the recent revelation that US intelligence agencies warned the Lebanese government about an Al-Qaida plot to smuggle several tons of explosives into Lebanon. As Mitch Prothero writes in McClatchy: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned Lebanese officials last week that al Qaida-linked groups are planning a campaign of … Continue reading
A Compromise in Syria: The Regime’s View
The recent decision by the United States to start arming the Syrian opposition, coupled with the intervention by Hizbullah in al-Qusayr point to a deepening conflict in Syria. In the current context, the prospect of a peaceful solution based on a political compromise at the Geneva II Conference next month is desperately slim. The regime appears determined to … Continue reading
A Response to Spencer Ackerman
Spencer Ackerman, thanks to some prompting from my friend Sean, has responded to my post about people drawing the wrong conclusions about Al-Qaeda’s abilities. He writes: Blowing up an airplane is not the same thing as simultaneously hijacking multiple aircraft and turning them into missiles. There’s literally an order of magnitude difference between the 300 … Continue reading
Drawing the Wrong Conclusions About Terrorism?
David Brooks had a good op-ed in The New York Times a couple of days ago (“The God that Fails“) in which he argued that the (largely Republican) outcry over the failure to catch the would-be Christmas bomber is symptomatic of a misguided belief in the idea that technology can prevent terrorism. “After Sept. 11, … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…