Michael J. Totten's Blog, page 53

Egypt's President Imitates Ayatollah Khomeini

While Libya’s people and government seem genuinely shocked and appalled by the murderous attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Egypt’s president Mohamed Morsi has instructed the Egyptian Embassy in Washington to use “all legal measures” to punish whoever it was who made the “blasphemous” film that sent the Arab world’s fanatics over the edge.

Meanwhile, protesters outside our embassy in Cairo are demanding that President Barack Obama take action against the filmmaker.

There is no chance anything...

U.S. Ambassador Killed

Yesterday we learned that an American official was killed when a terrorist militia stormed the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. And today we find out that the person killed was the American ambassador. Three others also were killed.

UPDATE: A new CNN report suggests that the attack in Benghazi may have had nothing to do with the now-infamous Internet video.

Meanwhile, a London think tank with strong ties to Libya speculated Wednesday that Stevens was actually the victim of a targeted al Q...

Salafists Attack U.S. Embassy in Cairo

A mob of Salafists attacked the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to “protest” a “blasphemous” Internet video made by some yahoos in Florida who decided to put the Prophet Mohamed on trial. The Salafists scaled the embassy walls, took down the American flag, set it on fire, and replaced it with their black flag.

Even though no one was (apparently) hurt, attacking an embassy is technically an act of war. Yet our embassy responded in part with the following statement: “We firmly reject the actions by those...

Salafists Surge into Syria

A French physician who volunteers for Doctors Without Borders recently returned to Paris from the Syrian city of Aleppo. He says “at least half” the rebel fighters he treated were from somewhere other than Syria.

He worked in Idlib Province and Homs earlier this year and saw few foreign fighters, but apparently now they're all over the place.

"It's really something strange to see. They are directly saying that they aren't interested in Bashar al-Assad's fall, but are thinking about how to take...

Illiterate Libya

My World Affairs colleague Ann Marlowe has spent more time in Libya than I have, and this week she brings our attention to problems that have been thus far completely ignored.

“Our life was chaos,” Loui Hatem el-Magri said the other day in Benghazi. The young architect continued, referring to Qaddafi, “He ruled us by chaos.” No one knew from one day to the next how any aspect of life would work.

Libya’s new government has struggled to break free of the old way. Dr. Iman Bugaighis, a Benghazi ac...

The World According to Syrian Kurdistan

The odds that Syria’s tyrant Bashar al-Assad will survive the insurrection against him are increasingly slim, but the civil war might last a lot longer. The opening chapter pits the Baath Party regime and its paramilitary units against the Free Syrian Army, but there are other factions that have a stake in what happens next. Most of Syria’s Alawites—who make up roughly twelve percent of the population—are with the regime. They may face persecution from the majority if Assad loses. They might...

Book Release Party / Reading

Here’s a reminder for those of you who live in the Pacific Northwest that I’m having a book release party Wednesday night, September 5, where I’ll read from my new book, Where the West Ends. Autographed copies will be for sale. Coffee and treats will be provided by Ristretto Roasters and wine will be provided by Anne Amie vineyards.

Wednesday, September 5 at 7pm.

Ristretto Roasters

3808 N. Williams Ave.

Portland, Oregon

Syria's War Spills Into Lebanon

Syria's civil war was doomed from the very beginning to spill into Lebanon. Trouble started last year shortly after peaceful demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's regime turned violent, and it started again last week when sectarian clashes ripped through the northern city of Tripoli, the second-largest in Lebanon after Beirut, and turned parts of it into a war zone.

Sunni militiamen from the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh are slugging it out again with militants from the adjacent Alawite s...

Interviewed on the Ricochet Podcast

The three guys at Ricochet--the always funny James Lileks, my one-time traveling companion Rob Long, and Stanford's invaluable Peter Robinson--interviewed me about my new book, Where the West Ends, on their podcast this week.

You can download it from iTunes or listen to it right here. I come on at 41:00.

The Anti-Imperialism of Fools

Judith Butler, a comparative literature professor at UC Berkeley, is embroiled in controversy again now that the city of Frankfurt intends to give her a prize worth 50,000 Euros on September 11.

German Middle East expert Thomas von der Osten-Sacken told Benjamin Weinthal at the Jerusalem Post that Frankfurt is legitimizing a “de facto boycott of its partner city Tel Aviv’s academic and cultural institutions” because Butler is a booster for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions move...