Epstein Secrets

n between our troubles with Syria and Iran is pretty straightforward. The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is Iran's closest ally, and its link to the Arab Middle East. Syria has provided the land bridge for the transport of Iranian weapons and militants to Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Without Syria, Iran's pretens

kely see Israeli- Palestinian negotiations as a bottomless pit for diplomatic energy rather than as a priority. If Obama is reelected, he will have no Middle East hands to whom he can turn. Mideast advisor Dennis Ross has left; Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, departed for

ill in all likelihood leave when a new secretary of state is appointed or a few months later. In January 2009, Obama appointed Mitchell as special Middle East envoy on his second day in office. That kind of priority will not be assigned to the "peace process" in January 2013 -- no matter who wins. The ne

ohan Lagerkvist June 11, 2012 -- One man, fruit seller Mohammad Bouazizi, sparked the Arab Spring with his self-immolation in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid in January 2011. Since then, leaders in Beijing have grappled with how to handle the political fallout of the democratic youth-quakes reverberating

aria (Islamic law) and too one-sided in favor of Israel. He's on record calling for "the permanent withdrawal of United States military forces from the Middle East and the Gulf." EFTA00712946 Feel better now? To its credit, the Times does not repeat the Journal's sleight of hand. Rather than being obscured,

xclusive and need not be in competition." Believing it was his role to repudiate neoconservatism, Obama completely missed the revolutionary wave of Middle Eastern democracy—precisely the wave the neocons had hoped to trigger with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. When revolution broke out—first in Iran

Islamists, Fear Salafis Robin Wright August 19, 2012 -- THIS spring, I traveled to the cradle of the Arab uprisings — a forlorn street corner in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, where a street vendor, drenched in paint thinner, struck a match in December 2010 that ignited the entire Middle East. "We have far more

s have different results: Think of how an open computer system plopped into the Middle East might be used differently than one placed in the American Midwest. It was these sorts of vibrations, the ones made by power pulsing through certain forms or networks in history, that led the Orientalist scholar Kar

elf-franchising social movement, appearing in hundreds of cities: Occupy Hollywood. Occupy Central in Hong Kong. Occupy - strangely — Vegas. Then in Sidi Bouzid, a Tunisian town you've never heard of, far away from all these unstable looking mobs, a spark lands. A local man has set himself on fire. Police (wo