Epstein Secrets

ussian-backed government of Ukraine, the biggest standoff between Moscow and the West was in the Middle East— specifically in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad, with support from Russian President Vladimir Putin, is embroiled in a brutal four-year civil war. But while Washington's policymakers are focusin

ussia's southern fringe. Already Moscow knows there are a considerable number of Chechens fighting with al-Qaida-linked jihadist groups against the Assad regime, and the Russians are naturally concerned about these individuals returning to Russia if Assad is overthrown. EFTA00717210 The Russians al

ha is working on getting things [back] on the old track, and they're ending all their commitments to groups in Syria. The differences on President [Bashar al-] Assad's future will probably be left for the Syrian people to decide." EFTA00717216 The latest developments in the Gulf have led many to ret

moments of tension. Yet very quickly Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia, prompting Russia to mobilize in defense of Belgrade, prompting the Kaiser's Germany to attack France pre-emptively and Britain to declare war on Germany. The war haunts us still. The unthinkable is thinkable. Indeed, it m

l settlement in Syria has vanished. The United States needs an alternate strategy for strengthening Syrian moderates who can resist both the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime and al- Qaeda extremists. A new Syrian opposition leader who may help get the balance right is Jamal Maarouf. He heads a group called the S

rategy that sounded more pragmatic than anything I've heard from the opposition in recent months. Maarouf says his forces must simultaneously fight Assad's army and the fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islami tat of Iraq and Syria, two jihadist groups with al-Qaeda roots. That's easier said tha

ently toward its rulers. With them, Obama engaged in respectful competition; with Putin, he conveyed a lack of respect toward someone who, like the Kaiser in Roosevelt's time, craves respect for himself and for his country. Obama skipped meetings; he sent an underling—former EFTA00684183 Homeland Se

ing Saudi, the kingdom is nervous of what might be next. Similarly with Syria, where, with a second refugee camp being built in Jordan and with the Assad regime looking like exerting control again, that would leave hundreds of thousands of refugees permanently in Jordan, which is already vulnerable.

ccurred in the last week before war, as Luigi Albertini, one of the most insightful historians of these events, has explained. On July 28, when the Kaiser saw the Serbian response to Austria, he recognized that his Austrian client was out of control and sought to reign him in. He wrote to his foreign

y 30 to authorize a proposal to defuse the crisis, he crashed the meeting and stunned the Chancellor with the news that he had already obtained the Kaiser's approval for German mobilization to begin. The framework for an agreement short of war that the Kaiser outlined on July 28, and the Chancellor e