Counter-Terrorism

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – While fighting against the Islamic State group drags on in Mosul, tribal and military forces in Anbar are preparing for what will likely be the final battle against the extremists. But this fight will take many months. Many Iraqis and international observers are continuing to […]

Counter-Terrorism

A distracted Trump administration Couldn’t even focus on its own anti-ISIL summit.

contributors

By Paul Rogers | ( OpenDemocracy.net ) | – – Donald Trump’s election campaign made much of his predecessor Barack Obama’s failure to control and defeat ISIL, contrasting this with his own determination to destroy the movement if and when he became the United States president. Around the time of his inauguration in January, he […]

Counter-Terrorism

Daesh/ISIL encouraging Loner attacks to Mask its Death Spiral

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The terrorist organization known as Daesh in the Middle East and Europe but as ISIS or ISIL in the US is in a death spiral. Daesh hit its peak of territory in 2015 on taking Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s al-Anbar province. Since then, it has […]

Authoritarianism

Will Trump use the Next ISIL attack to sweep away our Liberties?

contributors

By Allison Beth Hodgkins | (Informed Comment) | – – You have to hand to the civil society groups pushing back on the Trump administration’s recent executive orders banning the entry of Syrian refugees and all other types of visa holders from Syria, Iran and five other majority Muslim countries in the Middle East and […]

Counter-Terrorism

Trump Counter-Terrorism Program to drop White Supremacists, focus on Islam

contributors

TeleSur | – – He could rename the “Countering Violent Extremism” program to “Countering Islamic Extremism,” according to Reuters sources. The Trump administration wants to revamp a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies into one that gives a pass to white supremacists and focuses solely on Islamist extremism. The program, “Countering Violent […]

Counter-Terrorism

Real-Life Trolling: How Provocation Works and How to Respond

contributors

By Joshua Cole | ( The Michigan Daily) Yesterday was the anniversary of the attacks in Paris at the Bataclan concert venue and other locations throughout the city. These terrorist attacks in 2015 were provocations intended, as my colleague Juan Cole, a history professor put it, to “sharpen the contradictions” within French society. The goal […]

Counter-Terrorism

Sting & Gandhian anti-Terrorism: Your Paris vacation can help cripple ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Sting, 65, played a concert at the Bataclan Theater where ISIL terrorists killed 90 innocent people a year ago, in one of the worst attacks in the West in recent years. Although the attackers appear to have told their victims the strike was in revenge for […]

Arms Sales

Selling arms to Arab rulers won’t improve security in the Middle East

contributors

By Stephanie Dornschneider | (Informed Comment) | – – As a child, Najeh Ibrahim, who founded one of the most violent groups in recent Egyptian history, loved his president. “We all loved Nasser,” he recalls. However, Ibrahim’s positive attitude toward the leader of his country changed. Observing waves of arrests in which Muslim Brothers and […]

Boko Haram

Family & Friends, not Religion, Draw People into Terrorist Groups

contributors

By Rose Delaney | (Inter Press Service) | – – LONDON (IPS) – A recent study supported by the government of Finland has found widespread misconceptions regarding what drives people to join Islamist militant groups like Boko Haram. Boko Haram is Nigeria’s militant Islamist group, wreaking havoc across the nation through a series of abductions, […]