Epstein Secrets

icers in the Syrian army. The rise of Alawites in Syrian society throughout the 1960s was assisted by political infighting among the Sunnis and the Baath Party coup of 1963, which united working-class Alawites and Sunnis under one banner. Although Sunnis initially tolerated the growing clout of the Alawite

ccording to credible press reports. Obama actually inherited two separate drone programs when he took office — and at the urging of Vice President Joe Biden, who has pressed hard for a greater emphasis on counterterrorism tactics, he has dramatically expanded them both. The first program, under the purv

office — and at the urging of Vice President Joe Biden, who has pressed hard for a greater emphasis on

ook office — and at the urging of Vice President Joe Biden, who has pressed hard for a greater emphas

eelection bid, Maliki's Electoral Commission disqualified more than 500, mostly Sunni, candidates on charges that they had ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. For the Obama administration, however, tangling with Maliki meant investing time and energy in Iraq, a country it desperately wanted to pivot awa

control of much of largely Sunni Anbar province. Vice President Biden—the administration's point man on Iraq—was now t

jihadist rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or ISIL) had taken control of much of largely Sunni Anbar province. Vice President Biden—the administration's point man on Iraq—was now talking to Maliki frequently. But according to White House summaries of Biden's calls, he still spen

the Turks. Yet decades earlier, Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez -- a man of supreme cunning and political skill -- had ridden the military and the Baath Party to absolute power, creating a regime in which power rested with the country's Alawite minority. The marriage of despotism and sectarianism begat th

o "spread the wealth around," as he famously told Joe the Plumber in 2008 before he took the words bac