The Obama Administration may unwisely decide to ignore the advice of its own military advisers and cut the number of U.S. troops in Iraq down to 3,000 by the end of the year, according to press reports. Iraqi and U.S. officials are currently negotiating behind the scenes about how many of the roughly 45,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq will be allowed to stay past the December 31 deadline set by the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement. Senior commanders were reportedly “livid” at the increased risks that will be imposed …
The search for Muammar Qadhafi has intensified after Libyan rebels seized most of Tripoli. The initial focus was on Qadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound and nearby apartment blocks in a neighborhood that contains many Qadhafi loyalists. Today, the chairman of the rebel Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abul Jalil, stated that the rebels have no concrete information on Qadhafi’s location. Although the erratic dictator had recently been thought to be in Tripoli, he has remained in hiding long enough that he may have escaped the disorganized noose fashioned by a poorly coordinated …
Rebel forces reportedly took control of Muammar Qadhafi’s fortified Bab al-Aziziya command base in Tripoli today as they further consolidated control of the capital. Confusion reigned amid reports that Qadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam, whom the opposition Transitional National Council had claimed to detain, apparently roamed free inside Tripoli rallying support for the regime. As the murky situation in Tripoli gradually is sorted out, the United States must remain focused on the long-term goal of helping Libyans build a free, stable, and democratic Libya that will be an ally against terrorists. …
Libyan rebels converged on the capital city of Tripoli early on Monday with reports that the forces arrested two of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s sons, that the presidential guard protecting Qadhafi surrendered, and that the rebel forces controlled much of the city with the exception of Qadhafi’s leadership compound. Meanwhile, President Obama released a statement saying the U.S. believes Qadhafi’s regime is nearing its end and that it recognizes the Transitional National Council “as the legitimate governing authority in Libya.” The Obama Administration, which stumbled into the war in Libya with no …
On Saturday, an Iranian court sentenced two innocent American hikers to eight years in jail for allegedly straying across the Iran–Iraq border two years ago. The politicized verdict once again underscores the Islamist regime’s twisted sense of “justice,” which is meted out against Iranians as well as foreigners to advance the interests of a ruthlessly brutal regime. The show trial of the hiker/hostages is one more slap in the face of the Obama Administration, whose eager rush to engage Tehran has produced no tangible results. The two American hikers, Shane …
A string of coordinated cross-border terrorist attacks against Israelis launched from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula and Gaza yesterday underscored one of the ominous side effects of the “Arab Spring”: Egypt’s state security institutions have lost control over the Sinai region and are fighting a losing battle against Islamist terrorist groups and Bedouin smugglers along the border. The attacks claimed the lives of seven Israelis traveling in vehicles in southern Israel, and an eighth Israeli, a soldier, was killed fighting the terrorist infiltrators on Thursday night. Israeli officials said they had indications …
The Obama Administration, which has been tragically slow to condemn President Bashar al-Assad’s violent repression of peaceful demonstrators and call for his resignation, finally took action to do so yesterday. After muting its criticism of Assad’s serial mass murders of his own people for five months, the White House released a statement that ratcheted up sanctions on Syria’s dictatorship and called for Assad to step down. Since protests erupted in March, the Assad regime has killed more than 1,800 Syrians and jailed more than 10,000 in a brutal crackdown against …
Iraq’s fragile peace was shattered on Monday by a coordinated campaign of terrorist attacks in 17 cities that targeted Iraqi security forces and civilians, killing more than 70 people. The attacks occurred almost simultaneously in Baghdad, Karbala, Kut, Kirkuk, Najaf, and other locations and involved suicide bombers, car bombs, and armed attacks on government facilities, police, and Iraqi army posts. Although no group claimed responsibility, early signs point to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has mounted many similar attacks in the past. An Iraqi military official cited the attacks as “evidence …
The Wall Street Journal yesterday published an important op-ed by a distinguished intelligence specialist, Fred Fleitz, that alleges that the U.S. intelligence community remains in denial about Iran’s accelerating drive for nuclear weapons. Fleitz noted that Iran has accumulated over 4,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, enough to arm four nuclear weapons if it is further enriched to weapons grade. Tehran has accelerated its uranium enrichment efforts and recently announced plans to install more advanced centrifuges in a fortified facility build deep inside a mountain. Yet despite mounting evidence that Iran’s …
Turkish authorities arrested 15 suspected al-Qaeda militants this week and foiled a plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Ankara shortly before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to arrive in Turkey for a diplomatic conference regarding Libya. This should serve as a reminder that al-Qaeda has survived the loss of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in May and still poses a threat to Americans and American national interests. Al-Qaeda long has operated within Turkey. Last month, Turkish police arrested 10 al-Qaeda suspects in the city of Adana, near …
