Latest Articles about Middle East
Mount Qandil: A Safe Haven for Kurdish Militants – Part 1
The following information and assessments are based upon the author's first-hand observations from his March 2006 visit to Kurdish camps on Mount Qandil. In recent months, Turkey has renewed its threats to enter Iraqi Kurdistan to attack the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Any Turkish attack... MORE
Al-Suri’s Adaptation of Fourth Generation Warfare Doctrine
In a highly influential and sizeable treatise posted in January 2005 and titled "The Global Islamic Resistance Call," jihadi ideologue Abu Musab al-Suri (aka Mustafa Setmariam Nasar) culminated a life of activity by providing his strategic template for the Global Salafi-Jihad [1]. This work, rare... MORE
PUTIN-GYURCSANY MEETING STEERS HUNGARY’S GOVERNMENT ON THE “THIRD PATH”
Hungary’s crisis-plagued government under Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany seems to have embarked on a “third-path” course between the institutional West, where Hungary belongs, and Russia toward which Gyurcsany and his closest associates seem increasingly to gravitate. The concept of a “Third Path” (Harmadik Ut) between... MORE
CORRUPTION IN PUTIN’S SYSTEM BECOMES MURDEROUS
The first week after the September 13 murder of Andrei Kozlov, first deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank, saw no breaks in the case. Investigators are still examining a range of possible options and do not have a single suspect. The 41-year old official... MORE
TRADE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA SLOWS DOWN
The Kremlin has repeatedly pledged to boost Russia’s economic ties with China. Recent statistics indicate that bilateral trade is rising, but at a rate slower than previously expected. In the first eight months of 2006, bilateral trade between Russia and China was up 20% year-on-year,... MORE
KIRIYENKO INSISTS BUSHEHR PLANT WILL BE OPERATIONAL BY SEPTEMBER 2007
On Monday September 18, the chief of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergei Kiriyenko, told reporters in Vienna that Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power reactor will be operational by September 2007 and is scheduled to begin producing commercial electric power in November 2007. Kiriyenko also... MORE
Al-Zawahiri’s September 11 Video Hits Main Themes of al-Qaeda Doctrine
On the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, al-Qaeda's media production unit presented a 70-plus-minute videotape of an interview with second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri [1]. Unlike videos issued to commemorate earlier 9/11 anniversaries, al-Zawahiri's video was not dedicated solely or even primarily to the actions... MORE
Iraqi Sufis Join the Fight Against Coalition Forces
Of all the Islamic trends, Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, is reputed to be the least prone to violence and more tolerant of other currents within Islam as well as other faiths. This is why the recent announcement by a group of Qadiri Sufis... MORE
RUSSIA CONCERNED BY CHINA’S CHEMICAL POLLUTION
China has pledged sizable investments to prevent pollution of rivers near its border with Russia. However, some Russian officials remained unconvinced. China plans to spend $1.7 billion between now and 2010 to monitor and protect the Songhua River from chemical pollution, Zhou Shenxian, head of... MORE
THUS SPAKE PUTIN: RUSSIA UPHOLDS PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY IN ENERGY SPHERE
Russia is aggressively seeking to revise the rules of the game on global energy markets. The Kremlin leadership asserts that, in today’s world, energy producers cease to be hapless raw-materials appendages mercilessly exploited by the more fortunate industrialized nations, but act as equals and, on... MORE