Amman- This is a shorter than usual post about a shorter than usual video on my channel. On the way back to Beirut from Srifa last month, we made a quick stop at the Sadia sea castle. I’d always wanted…
A Little Lebanon Sidon Trip
Category: Lebanon
City of the Sun Lay in Ruins-Fabled City Episode 9
Aqaba- My latest Fabled City episode takes you though both ancient and present day Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley. Today is the area is more known as a Hezbollah stronghold and an area of illicit narcotics production. But this…
Of Men and Martyrdom: Back to South Lebanon
Aqaba- I finished my latest Fabled City episode (above) which is a bit of a very personal mini-documentary. It is rare that I revisit specific sites from past wars. Usually you report a story a move on to the next…
Lebanon in the Red for The Redline
Amman- I have a new piece out this week for The Redline Podcast based on my recent experiences in a very troubled Lebanon. When last in the country in early 2019, it was in a far better place than it…
Stepping Into the Mosaic
Beirut- It had been twelve and a half years since I’d last set foot into Lebanon’s cacophonous seaside capital. In July of 2006 I arrived here to cover the war that had suddenly erupted between a troika of war fighting…
Walk It Home
New York- A couple of photos of mine from the ‘Summer War’ in 2006-era Lebanon are featured in a new documentary film on The Wanton Bishops, a Lebanese blues band that subsequently tours the heartland of the blues in the southern…
Looking Back at Lebanon
New York- I have a photo of the Israeli destruction of Haret Hreik, Lebanon from the UN-mediated ceasefire in August, 2006 in the new issue of Research Horizons magazine published by the University of Cambridge. Haret Hreik, a souher suburb…
Ten Years On, Militant Salafism and Millenarian Shi’ism Conflating Iraq and Syria Wars
New York- I have a new article out on how the ongoing war in Syria is helping stoke sectarian tensions in Iraq that are manifesting themselves in the form of daily suicide bombings, shootings, and dual massive AQ jailbreaks. My article…
How Syria Has Changed
New York- I have an article out this week in Asia Times Online based on my very different experiences in Syria from 2002-2012. Throughout the decade after 9/11, Syria–though absolutely central to the history and culture of the Arab realm–was viewed as…
A Decade of War and Peace
Barcelona- Partly out of boredom and partly out of the itch to simply create something new out of old, I threw together this photo montage over the weekend. In this era of digital photography where one shoots thousands of frames…
The Kalashnikov
New York- The Avtomat Kalashnikova assault rifle, known popularly as the AK-47 or Kalashnikov, became one of the defining symbols of Third World national liberation movements and a physical manifestation of anti-imperialist thought in the second half of the twentieth…
In Syria, like Father, like Son & Mali Slides from Democracy to Junta
New York- It’s been quite a while since I’ve managed to slug out a blog update due to bouts of sickness, busy-ness, and relaxing-ness. None of that is to say that TWD hasn’t been busy though. Where to begin…well things…
It’s a Hazy Shade of Winter on the Syrian Border
Antakya- I have an article out in today’s edition of Asia Times Online on my view from a rain soaked Hatay Province of events just over the border in a besieged Syria. It’s been raining here nonstop since my arrival,…
Tough Times for the Free Syrian Army
New York- A couple of notable videos came online today which I gleaned from the Syrian Youth Movement site. In the first, a German filmmaker snuck into Homs at great risk and links up with FSA rebels in Baba Amr.…
My Lebanon War
New York- I posted a new video on my still nascent youtube channel about covering a mass guerrilla funeral on August 17th, 2006 in Srifa, South Lebanon after the U.N. mediated ceasefire. My driver Kamal was from the neighboring village…
More From Friends…
New York- While I am in total go mode getting ready to launch my new publication, Militant Leadership Monitor, from the Jamestown Foundation, I want to quickly plug a couple of friend’s projects. Jen Marlowe is still hard at work…
The Islamist Revolution
I attended an event with Alastair Crooke, author of Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution and veteran EU Middle East diplomat at the New America Foundation here in Washington. The event was webcast on the The Washington Note and Crooke’s presentation was…