A REVOLUTION IS NOT A JIHAD: A SALAFIST VIEW OF THE ARAB SPRING Mao Zedong once famously said “A revolution is not a dinner party.” Now, according to a Jordanian Salafi-Jihadist ideologue, “A revolution for a loaf of bread is not a jihad.”  Ahmad Bawadi,... MORE

YEMENI REGIME ACCUSES HAMID AL-AHMAR OF TRYING TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT SALEH A leading member of the Yemeni regime has accused prominent opposition leader Shaykh Hamid al-Ahmar of responsibility for the June 3 bombing of the presidential palace in Sana’a that nearly killed President Ali Abdullah... MORE

QADDAFI ALLY ROBERT MUGABE CALLS NATO “TERRORISTS,” THREATENS TO EXPROPRIATE WESTERN FIRMS IN ZIMBABWE Mu’ammar Qaddafi’s policy of using Libya’s oil wealth to build stronger ties with sub-Saharan African nations through financial aid, investment and arms supplies has resulted in a distinct lack of support... MORE

HUNT FOR THE “FIFTH COLUMN” COULD BE THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR LIBYA’S REBELS The brutal and as yet unexplained murder of General Abd al-Fatah Yunis and two of his aides on July 28 has left Libya’s Benghazi-based rebels eyeing their comrades with suspicion... MORE

PAKISTAN RELEASES LASHKAR-E-JHANGVI LEADER Pakistan’s Supreme Court has released Malik Mohammed Ishaq on bail, a key figure in the Sunni sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), after 14 years in prison (AFP, July 14). Ishaq is believed to have masterminded the deadly attack on the Sri Lankan... MORE

AFGHAN TALIBAN CONDEMN CIA FOR “DIABOLIC” HACKING OF THEIR OFFICIAL WEBSITE Various reports claiming the death of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar have emerged in the last year, all of them apparently false. The latest report of his death was the most unusual, as... MORE

HUNDREDS OF EGYPTIAN POLICE DISMISSED AS TROOPS RIOT IN ALEXANDRIA As protesters return to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities to try to force an acceleration in the pace of post-revolutionary political reform, Egypt’s Interior Ministry has dismissed 669 police officers, including many... MORE

CHADIAN REGIME AND REBELS ALIKE WELCOME TALK OF ENDING FRENCH MILITARY PRESENCE Indications from Paris that France may be ready to bring an end to Opération Épervier, its 25-year-old military mission in Chad, have been welcomed by both the government of President Idriss Déby and... MORE

UGANDA REORGANIZES MILITARY TO PRESS WAR AGAINST SOMALIA’S AL-SHABAAB Even as Somalia’s fragile Transitional Federal Government (TFG) threatens to collapse, Uganda is shaking up its military structure in order to sustain what it sees as some hard-won momentum in its struggle with al-Shabaab militants in... MORE

TALIBAN SUSPECT U.S. DRAWDOWN IN AFGHANISTAN A COVER FOR PERMANENT BASESAfghanistan’s Taliban movement has reacted to Washington’s announcement that it would begin a phased military withdrawal from Afghanistan, beginning with the withdrawal of 10,000 troops by the end of the year. In an official statement... MORE