Michael J. Totten's Blog, page 51

Along Russia's Exposed Nerve

Matthew Clayfield is like an Australian version of me.

He recently returned from a nail-biting trip through the North Caucasus—the blood-soaked region of Russia that includes North Ossetia and Chechnya—and published an inexpensive novella-length e-book about his experience called The Caucasian Semi-Circle: A Journey Along Russia's Exposed Nerve. It’s like a shorter version of my full-length book Where the West Ends.

I read his book and even blurbed it for him. Here’s an excerpt:

The Caucasus is...

Temporarily Joining Instapundit

Glenn Reynolds asked me and the rest of his usual substitutes to join him at Instapundit while we’re heading into the election, so I’ll be posting there once in a while as well as here. Glenn is not on vacation, though. I’ll be helping out rather than filling in. This isn’t a full-time thing. I’ll still be here, but at the same time I’ll also be over there.

Libyan Civilians Overrun Islamist Militia Headquarters

Libya sure is different from Egypt.

This is the best news I’ve seen from the Arab world in some time:

Hundreds of Libyan protesters have stormed the Benghazi headquarters of Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia in a backlash against last week's attack on the US consulate.

Witnesses say militiamen opened fire as the crowd overran the base, but it is not clear if there are casualties.

Buildings and a car were set alight and fighters evicted following a day of anti-militia protests in the city.

US Ambassad...

The Terrorist's Veto

Using riots, mayhem, and murder to “protest” an asinine trailer for an anti-Mohammad video on the Internet, the Middle East’s mobs, assassins, and hostile regimes have vetoed freedom of speech in the United States. Not only did America’s overseas diplomatic officers and staff have to hunker down under siege for a week, individual citizens here at home have good reason to fear that if they criticize the wrong religion, the response could be catastrophic for themselves, for others, or both. Nei...

A Raw Salafist Power Play

It should be clear to almost everyone by now that the rampaging mob violence against American embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa last week was not primarily motivated by a video uploaded to YouTube. Something offensive to Muslims (along with something offensive to just about everyone else in the world) is posted on the Internet several times every second, yet massive international uprisings against this thing or that thing break out only periodically.

Rather than a sp...

Was the Benghazi Attack Launched by a Former Gitmo Detainee?

I’m a bit reluctant to say anything about this right now, but it’s being picked up all over the place, so I’ll go ahead.

Unnamed intelligence sources told Fox News that Sufyan bin Qumu, a former prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, is linked to the terrorist attack in Benghazi.

We don’t yet know if it’s true.

According to the New York Daily News, bin Qumu was released in 2007, when George W. Bush was president.

If it is true, the government—both the Bush and Obama administrations—will look spectacularly i...

The Benghazi Incident Was In Fact a Terrorist Attack

A few days ago I slagged the U.S. government for refusing to acknowledge that the assassination of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya was a terrorist attack. Today the government has finally figured out what has been obvious to everyone else since it happened.

Libya's president Mohammed el-Megarif dismissed Washington's earlier position, that the attack was a "spontaneous" reaction to a YouTube video, as "completely unfounded and preposterous," and that's exactly what it was.

Paul Berman on the Rushdie Affair and its Aftermath

Your quote of the day is from Paul Berman's The Flight of the Intellectuals.

When I met Hirsi Ali at a conference in Sweden last year, she was protected by no less than five bodyguards. Even in the United States she is protected by bodyguards. But this is no longer unusual. Buruma himself mentions in Murder in Amsterdam that the Dutch Social Democratic politician Ahmed Aboutaleb requires full-time bodyguards. At that same Swedish conference I happened to meet the British writer of immigrant ba...

Protests Claim Another Casualty

Fox News reports that a protester in Pakistan died after inhaling smoke and fumes from burning American flags.

Egypt Threatens to Execute American Citizens

Egypt is looking more like post-1979 Iran every day.

Cairo has issued international arrest warrants for eight Americans—seven of them Coptic Christians from Egypt—who are allegedly involved with the anti-Mohammad video everyone’s rioting over. The prosecutor’s office also issued a warrant for Terry Jones, the Koran-burning nutjob in Florida, just because, and says if convicted the defendants may get the death penalty.

Mahmoud Salem (aka “Sandmonkey”) was interviewed on CNN yesterday. He says th...