Mustard Gas
The so-called Islamic State appeared to use a crude WMD in Iraq this week. But that’s just one of many problems tearing apart the forces Washington wants deployed on the ground.
Jamie Dettmer is an American-British journalist and broadcaster. He has worked for The Times of London, Newsweek, Sunday Telegraph, Washington Times, New York Sun, the Scotsman and The Hill. He has reported from Europe, Latin America and Africa, the Indian sub-continent and Russia and has covered Capitol Hill, U.S. politics and national security and the American intelligence community. Currently, as well as reporting on the Mideast for the Daily Beast, he broadcasts also for Voice of America, and has variously been based out of Beirut, Tripoli and Istanbul. He has had several trips into war-torn Syria. He spent also five months last year reporting from the front-lines on the conflict in east Ukraine and from Crimea and Kyiv. Read his blog at jamiedettmer.com
After four decades of Gaddafi, Libyans seem to have torture and abuse in their DNA. Amnesty International, at least, is horrified.
Wedge Issues
A year ago the Americans and their allies hoped they could divide and conquer the so-called Islamic State. But their policies, if anything, have made it more united.
AWOL
Only a handful of volunteers signed up for the training program, and many of them quit for Ramadan.
Jihad Nauseam
Only good intelligence gathering can stop terror attacks before they begin, and that’s harder to do post-Snowden. Meanwhile jihadist targets are getting ever more random.
HORROR
Terror attacks on three continents within hours of each other Friday killed dozens of people from southeastern France to Kuwait City.
Pushback
The so-called Islamic State is preparing to defend its capital in Syria against a major counteroffensive.
TWO-FACED
A new mosque has opened in Doha’s ‘Education City’ alongside U.S. university campuses. But what it’s teaching is the hate that’s on the ISIS curriculum.
Slaughterhouse Rules
A new report sorts through the record of sectarian carnage and leaves little doubt who are the worst offenders.
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Murderers’ Row
Supposed rival extremists were together when the U.S. tried to take out an infamous jihadi chieftain. So just how much are ISIS and al Qaeda really at odds?