Michael J. Totten's Blog, page 18

ISIS Whacks Egypt’s Chief Prosecutor

Assassins killed Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s Prosecutor General, with a massive explosion that targeted his convoy in Cairo.

ISIS’ Egyptian branch, the so-called State of Sinai, is taking credit for the hit.

Barakat is part of a gangster regime that sentences people to death for their political affiliation, so one might say that what comes around goes around, but if the alternative to Egypt’s military dictatorship is a “state” that beheads journalists and aid workers and crucifies children as ISI...

The Background of a Lynching

Earlier this week, on the Golan Heights, an enraged mob assaulted an ambulance and attacked two wounded men inside with rocks, clubs, and chains, killing one and seriously wounding another.

The ambulance was Israeli. The wounded men were Arab fighters from Syria. The assailants were also Arabs, though they were Druze rather than Muslims.

Several readers have emailed and asked me to explain this, so I assume others are also scratching their heads. I don’t have all the answers. What kind of per...

Turkey Chooses ISIS Over the Kurds

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furious that the Kurds in Syria are advancing against ISIS.

Ponder the ramifications of that sentence.

Turkey is a member of NATO. On paper, at least, it’s one of America’s greatest allies. ISIS, meanwhile, is the world’s most deranged army of psychopaths. Even Al Qaeda disowns it. The Kurds, though, are America’s most reliable allies in the Middle East alongside the Israelis.

So our nominal ally thinks it’s a problem when one of our real allies make...

Linkage

I posted the following over on Instapundit today while filling in for Glenn Reynolds while he’s on vacation.

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BABY KILLERS: ISIS crucifies two children for eating during Ramadan when they were supposed to be fasting.

I lived in Beirut during Ramadan. Restaurants were a little less busy, but plenty of people were eating. And I lived on the Muslim side of the city.

WHAT THE FUSS IS ALL ABOUT. You may have heard that Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, is stirring up...

Will Greece Tilt Toward Moscow?

Geoff Dyer in the Financial Times wonders if Greece will tilt toward Russia if it defaults on its debts and is bailed out by Vladimir Putin.

As Washington tries to maintain a united western front in support of sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, a Greek default could provide Moscow an opportunity to sow new divisions among America’s European allies.

“You can easily see how geopolitically this would be a gift to Russia,” says Sebastian Mallaby at the Council on Foreign Relations. “You do not wa...

Guest-Blogging at Instapundit

Glenn Reynolds is off scuba diving and he’s asked a whole gaggle of us to fill in for him at Instapundit while he’s gone.

As usual, I’m covering the world affairs beat over there.

You can follow my posts at the source if you want. I’ll also cross-post them here for your convenience.

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YES, REALLY. Iranian-backed Shia militias are sharing a base with American soldiers in Iraq.

OUR ONLY REAL FRIENDS OVER THERE: Syria’s Kurds are advancing deeper into ISIS-held territory.

TOURISM IN CUBA. Grah...

The "Snap Back" Delusion

“Snap back.” That's the term used by officials in Washington to describe an automatic re-imposition of multilateral sanctions on Iran if it violates a deal with the United States to scale backs its nuclear weapons program.

“We will retain the ability to snap back multilateral sanctions architecture back in place, without Russian or Chinese support,” Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said earlier this week to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

She says she can't explain how thi...

Al Qaeda's Bogus Apology

The Nusra Front accused members of the Druze minority of blasphemy in Syria's Idlib Province and massacred twenty innocent people, prompting a ludicrous headline in the Christian Science Monitor.

Syrian Druze massacre: Can jihadists salvage their image?

What image? They're terrorists. They're the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. And they're identified right there in the headline as jihadists.

Some of us seem to be forgetting what jihadists are. How about we let them define themselves in their own...

The Saudis Team Up With Israel

Saudi and Israeli diplomats jointly announced that they've held five meetings in secret since early last year in India, Italy, and the Czech Republic.

The reason? Iran. The Israelis and the Saudis have a common enemy in Tehran, and they're increasingly relying on each other now that the United States, contrary to the interests of both, might ease sanctions if a nuclear deal gets hammered out later this year.

Retired Saudi general Anwar Majed Eshki and Israeli diplomat Dore Gold shook hands in...

When Selfies Kill

It looks like some members of ISIS are on the JV team after all.

From Gizmodo:

Many of us know the feeling of posting a regrettable pic or two online. But while your thoughtless photos might be an embarrassment, they (typically) aren’t offensive enough to merit a US Air Force strike. If you’re a terrorist, on the other hand, a wee bit more discretion is probably advised.

ISIS didn’t post dick pics, but in hindsight that might have been a better call for the Islamic State militants who instea...