News out of Boston today has focused attention on the increasing extremist violence in Russia’s North Caucasus region, as two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings have been identified as Chechnya natives. Russia’s Northern Caucasus is one of the most volatile, lawless regions in the world and a hotbed of …
Last week, NASA observed the largest solar flare of the year. The coronal mass ejection was one “powerful enough to cause a brief radio blackout.” Indeed, there were some small instances of radio interference last week following the solar flare. While the event made for some spectacular photographs, it also …
This week, the parliament of Bahrain voted unanimously to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization. “It is time we join the world in outlawing this group, which has terrorized the region enough and has been instrumental in spreading evil among us,” said lawmaker Shaikh Jassim Al Saeedi, a sponsor of the …
The Pentagon announced this week that those service members who had been wounded during the deadly attack at Fort Hood, Texas, perpetrated by Major Nidal Hassan would not be considered eligible for the Purple Heart medal. This is a wrong-headed decision. The Purple Heart, one of America’s oldest military awards, …
A Cypriot court on Thursday sentenced a member of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, to four years in jail for planning to attack Israeli citizens and targets in Cyprus. Yaacoub’s conviction a week earlier marked the first time a Hezbollah member had been found guilty in a European …
Under President Obama’s leadership, U.S. influence among Middle East nations has waned, and in fact declined since President Bush left office. During last week’s visit to Ramallah, Palestine, Obama was the object of demonstrations by irate Palestinians. They are not alone in their anger over neglect and unfulfilled presidential promises, …
The revelation that at least one survivor of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi remains hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Hospital has provoked renewed demands for accountability and answers. “Why hasn’t Congress had access to these survivors? Don’t we have an obligation to hear from them and …
At the end of February, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) certified that another six states are REAL ID compliant. Nearly eight years after Congress first passed the REAL ID Act—which calls on the states to implement minimum security standards in issuing driver’s licenses and state IDs—progress is finally being …
