Epstein Secrets

tion of autocracy. Beholding Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, they would have been forgiven the conclusion that a similar fate awaited Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, and the large Egyptian state that had been the trendsetter in Arab political and cultural life. Yet beneath the surface stability, there was polit

led its affairs with relative ease. It elected a constituent assembly in which al Nanda, an Islamist party, secured a plurality. Al Nanda's leader, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, was a shrewd man; years in exile had taught him caution, and his party formed a coalition government with two secular partners. In Libya, foreign

old Muslim Brotherhood. Salafis are a growing influence in £yria's rebellion. And they have parties or factions in Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Yemen and among Palestinians. Salafis are only one slice of a rapidly evolving Islamist spectrum. The variety of Islamists in the early 21st century reca

all want to many you." Marriage may have been a euphemism. Other more modern Islamists fear the Salafi factor. "The Salafis try to push us," said Rachid al-Ghannouchi, founder of Ennanda, the ruling Islamist party in Tunisia. The two Islamist groups there are now rivals. "Salafis are against drafting a constituti

that will serve the Syrian's own savage regime. The same holds true for Ali Abdullah Saleh, holding out against his people and against the odds in Yemen, whose lawless territory harbors some of the most dangerous members of al Qaeda. The fundamentally important American alliance with Saudi Arabia,

hoose the same system for which the ten post-communist countries that have been admitted to the European Union opted, parliamentarianism. Finally, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who leads the largest Muslim- inspired political party, Al Nanda, went out of his way to tell me that he has signed an agreement with some secular

al leaders to choose the same system as the ten post- communist countries that have been admitted to the European Union: parliamentarianism. Finally, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who leads the largest Islamic- inspired political party, Al Nahda, went out of his way to tell me that he has signed an agreement with some secular

. And so was the variety of U.S. responses. In Bahrain, where the United States had established the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, and in Yemen, where counterterrorism is king, interests trumped values. You didn't hear Obama make any "Qaddafi must go"- style speeches directed against Bahrain'