
New York- My fieldwork among the Amazigh rebels in the Jebel Nafusa region of Libya’s Tripolitania region who were then in armed revolt against the regime of Mu’ammar al-Qadaffi in mid-2011 was cited by the University of Texas Press at…
New York- After what media attention was paid to the disgusting al-Mourabitoun attack on the Cappuccino Café and the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, a story seeped out that I found disturbingly relatable. Among those killed…
New York- One of my first notions of this still new year is that the heyday of the ‘Arab Spring’ was firmly five years ago. The uprisings and revolutions of 2011 were either usurped, crushed, or soundly defeated, It is…
New York- I’m appearing in a new series which premiered last week for Discovery Networks entitled Evolution of Evil about the rise of dictatorships in the twentieth century. In the first episode I discuss the rise of Muammar Qaddafi (alt. Gaddafi) over…
New York- The first images have seeped out of the Franco-Chadian battles in the Adrar des Ifoghas and the Adrar Tigharghar areas of northeastern Mali’s Kidal Region today. Both Chadian state television and al-Jazeera Arabic gained (or were given) access. Contained…
New York- I had a couple of long term projects published at the end of this past week. The first was an examination of the little known history conjoining Mali in West Africa with North Korea in Northeast Asia over at…
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…
Barcelona- The above title is a line from the remix of M.I.A.’s Paper Planes single with Bun B and Rich Boy. It kind of capture’s my day today in a way. Sitting in the First World which seems at points…
Barcelona- I finally was able to upload this Libya mash-up video I had been working on in NYC from here in Catalunya. For technical reasons beyond my knowledge or control, I was having a devil of a time getting the…
Barcelona- It is never not a strange, sometimes awkward transition from a war in the third world to the oft petty tranquility of the first. Unable to get a flight from Tunis directly to Catalunya, my best bet was flying…
Tozeur- I made a hellacious trek across southern Tunisia in high summer for a Lucasfilm pilgrimage I have dreamed of for decades. Both Star Wars: Episdoe IV A New Hope and Raiders of the Lost Ark were filmed in the…
Djerba- Took a break from some seriousness and hired a taxi for the afternoon to find the island’s three Star Wars film locales from the shoot back in 1976. I started out on the island’s west coast road heading south…
New York- I have become increasingly interested in the gradual opening up of large swaths of western Libya in the peaks and valleys of the Nafusa Mountains. Until recently, this Berber populated area was one of the more under reported…
Addis Ababa- Crashed the African Union HQ here in Addis yesterday to do research on my next Jamestown article. Absolutely fascinating, rather quiet place. I just showed up at the front gate, which took me a bit to locate, handed…
Addis Ababa- Finally made it down to sub-Saharan Africa after a completely sketchy 24 hour excursion to Bahrain to get a first-hand glimpse into the repression there-story forthcoming. The internet connectivity situation here in Addis does not seem so great…
Cairo- I had one of those accidentally fantastic days in Cairo today. Spent most of the day lazing around Zamalek, shot a few phot’s of some killer post-revolutionary street murals, and all I ate were two heaping bowls of mega…
Cairo- The new issue of Militant Leadership Monitor (MLM) was released today by the Jamestown Foundation and it is our strongest issue yet. In this issue: • The MILF’s Murad Ebrahim by Zachary Abuza (which is our gratis article this…
Cairo- I’ve been enjoying myself wandering around Cairo’s slightly Islamabad-esque (but way more lively) Zamalek island the last couple of days. Zamalek, the city’s diplomatic enclave, is a breezy oasis squeezed in the middle of the Arab world’s Mumbai. I’m…
Cairo- Took a very leisurely journey from the relative calm of Alexandria’s Midan Saad Zaghloul and a week of regrouping after the previous two in the Libyan insurrection, to Cairo’s posh Zalalek island, a leafy, diplomatic enclave in the center…
New York- Off to Libya tomorrow evening via Cairo and Alexandria. Can’t stop, won’t stop. My colleague at Jamestown, Andrew McGregor appeared on PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer discussing the possible military strengths and weakness of Libya’s opposing forces.