Epstein Secrets

ther bureaucracies, and thus had no legitimacy. Marcus Aurelius was one thing; Tunisia's Zine el- Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Syria's Bashar al- Assad, quite another. Certainly, the Arab Spring has proved much: that there is no otherness to Arab civilization, that Arabs yearn for univers

r supply have diminished. There are three reasons. First, the most substantial fallout from the Arab world's recent upheaval is behind us. Syria's Bashar al-Assad continues to fight for survival and Yemen continues to flirt with failed-state status, but the Gulf's major oil-producing states are quite stable.

cracies, and thus had no legitimacy. Marcus Aurelius was one thing; Tunisia's Zine el- Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Syria's Bashar al- Assad, quite another. Certainly, the Arab Spring has proved much: that there is no otherness to Arab civilization, that Arabs yearn for universal values

hael Noonan. "I don't think [Gates's] accomplishments merit the sky-high reputation that he enjoys as he leaves office," former senior CIA analyst Paul Pillar says. "Gates has long had a knack for nurturing his own reputation." Pillar recalls that Gates during his CIA days was "always saying, 'I'm going

East" there is that age-old instinct for reading the wind and riding with the victor. It had taken some five months for President Obama to call on Bashar al- Assad to relinquish power, but once that call was made we were reduced to mere spectators of the Syrian calamity. We exaggerated the might of th

nic ambitions of Iranian theocracy, and an Iraq in the orbit of U.S. power would have been less likely to cast its fate with the embattled House of Assad in Syria. For a year now, the people of Syria have been in the midst of a heroic struggle against a tyrannical regime, but no American help has com

tly because of the scar tissue they still have from Iraq," added Mr. Thielmann, now a senior fellow at the Arms Control Association in Washington. Paul Pillar, a former senior C.I.A. analyst on the Middle East, says he believes that analysts are guided by the facts in making their assessments about Iran,

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.

final word. And since Israel is as likely to stop spying here as it is to give up matzo for Passover, the visa barriers are likely to stay up. As Paul Pillar, the CIA's former national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, told Newsweek, old habits are hard to break: Zionists were dispat

e terrifying scale of Libya's Qaddafi and Syria's Assad nor stifled economic progress with such alacrity.

Michael Noonan. "I don't think [Gates's] accomplishments merit the sky-high reputation that he enjoys as he leaves office," former senior CIA analyst Paul Pillar says. "Gates has long had a knack for nurturing his own reputation." Pillar recalls that Gates during his CIA days was "always saying, 'I'm going to

other bureaucracies, and thus had no legitimacy. Marcus Aurelius was one thing; Tunisia's Zine el- Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Syria's Bashar al- Assad, quite another. Certainly, the Arab Spring has proved much: that there is no otherness to Arab civilization, that Arabs yearn for universal values ju