All Backchannels
Following the Ukraine crisis on the Kremlin's favorite news channelKremlin outlet RT is a window into how Russia sees events in Ukraine, and where it wants things to go.
Isolationism, 'retreat,' and reasonAnd the ongoing refusal to recognize that pretending the US doesn't have limits to its power doesn't make it so.
Muqtada al-Sadr doesn't appear to have quit Iraqi politicsIraqi Shiite cleric and political powerhouse Muqtada al-Sadr has reversed his promise to quit politics. It now looks like gamesmanship ahead of April parliamentary elections.
Moazzam Begg, 'radicalization,' and blowback. Why worry?Lots of worry about foreign fighters returning home from the jihad in Syria. Is it well placed?
Hyperbole in NYT report on Australia and NSA spying on IndonesiaA New York Times story about how Australian intelligence might have passed information involving a US law firm and Indonesia is heavy on the drama.
Amid US-Russia tussle over Ukraine, a leaked tape of Victoria NulandWhile the authenticity of a YouTube recording of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland on a call to the US ambassador isn't confirmed, it sure sounds convincing.
An Egyptian propaganda video on journalists: So bad it's funny. Then just sad.It was distributed via a TV station that was born out of the Egyptian uprising against Hosni Mubarak.
4 questions to ponder ahead of Afghanistan's presidential electionThe only certainty is that Karzai's time is up.
Al Qaeda's boss is fed up with Al Qaeda's Syrian 'affiliate' ISISAnd what's an affiliate anyway?
Egypt fires a warning shot at the foreign pressCharges against 20 Al Jazeera journalists appear to be just the opening shot, with the government issuing warnings to foreign reporters in Egypt.
More Snowden leaks - and this time Al Qaeda is the surveillance targetUnredacted NSA power point slides, leaked by Snowden, reveal a program to track terrorists via their mobile phones.
Egypt Al Jazeera charges herald a cruder, less discriminate approach to censorshipForeign journalists like Peter Greste have been thrown into what amounts to dungeons. Though not more important than the Egyptians being detained, their treatment signals how Egypt is changing.
US support for democracy and EgyptAmy Hawthorne responds.
US support for human rights abroad: The case of Saudi ArabiaInterests rather than principles remain the focus.
Another Afghanistan spending boondoggle: illiterate Afghan soldiers and copsContractors billing for education that barely happened and vast numbers of illiterate recruits in the field? Yes.
Predicting the coups of 2014The dart-throwing chimp takes a look.
Karzai doubles down on anti-American propagandaCould it be time to take Karzai's words and actions at face value, and give him what he appears to want?
Three years after Egypt's revolution, a sweeping crackdown on dissentEgypt's military-led government is expanding its crackdown from the Muslim Brotherhood to academics, bloggers and liberal activists.聽
Israel's Netanyahu draws line in the sand on Jordan Valley settlementsWhich is more evidence that the peace process is going nowhere fast.
Right now, democracy can't fix Egypt's problemsBeware the democracy industrial complex.
