* On June 7, 1797 President Adams received a unanimous ratification of the Treaty of Tripoli from the US Senate. This is significant for two reasons. The first is that this was the 5th United States Congress and had a significant number of founders and framers serving in it. So these were the men responsible …
Silverman on Security
Levantine Chicken: Russia, Turkey, and NATO
As I’m sure everyone, including those buried at airports trying to get home or somewhere for Thanksgiving now know, Russian and Turkish pilots played chicken yesterday and the Russian’s lost. After several previous Russian aerial incursions, and repeated warnings to clear Turkish airspace, the Turks decided to lay down a marker. And if the Turks were …
Levantine Chicken: Russia, Turkey, and NATOPost + Comments (150)
Booo! ISIS and the Use of Terrorism as Psychological Operations
* In the discussion of ISIS and its actions we need to clearly get a handle on what it is that ISIS is hoping to accomplish with the attacks in Paris and Beirut and Baghdad and the Russian airplane bombing. What they are doing is using terrorism, and even more so the responses to terrorism, …
Booo! ISIS and the Use of Terrorism as Psychological OperationsPost + Comments (70)
Ask and You Shall Receive: Counter to Countering Terrorism Edition
Both John and Ann Laurie have touched on the domestic, US political response to Syrian refugees in the wake of Friday’s attacks in Paris. And in the article John cites there is a reference to the suspicion that the Syrian passports found with the attackers were forged/fake. That was actually confirmed yesterday. And the Egyptian …
Ask and You Shall Receive: Counter to Countering Terrorism EditionPost + Comments (130)
Very Early AM Open Thread
Since its been a few hours since the last post, and I’m sure the insomniacs and night owls could use it, here’s a fresh thread to follow up on the events in Paris or anything else you wish to remark on.
Paris Attack Updates: Updated with France 24 Live Feed; Updated Again and Again
Since Betty C’s thread is a few hours old, here’s a front page update on the attacks in Paris. The BBC is reporting that there was an explosion near the Stade de France, though it is unclear if this was a suicide attack or a more conventional bombing. The Beeb is also reporting fifteen killed …
Paris Attack Updates: Updated with France 24 Live Feed; Updated Again and AgainPost + Comments (170)
A Dustbowl Where a Breadbasket Should Be
That big blue space west of the City of Baghdad, Mada’in Qada, was where I was deployed in Iraq. It is part of the agricultural belt that rings Baghdad. We also had an assumed risk are south of Mada’in in Wassit Province and, for about six to eight weeks, we had southern Diyala Province, …
A Dustbowl Where a Breadbasket Should BePost + Comments (71)