Month: July 2011

The Star Wars Diaries

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…

Images from Nalut Offensive

Nalut/Djerba- Well yesterday’s long promised rebel/NATO offensive against the nearby Qaddafists finally got underway and it was hell upon earth. The morning started out in a deadly quiet, still fog that obscured the Q controlled towns down on the plains…

8 Lives Left

Qwaleesh- Spent a strange, somewhat hostile day in Zintan yesterday trying for hours to get this permission paper that you now need as a journo in order to go forward through the main checkpoint to the front. Finally got the…

The Long Night

Nalut- Last night a cool wind came sweeping up from the Sahara and brought the temperature here in the western Jebel Nafusa way down. It also was a miraculous night to observe the brilliant cosmos above. Nalut really wasn’t such…

Jebel Nafusa Imagery

Nalut- It’s hot as Hades here today but then where is it not that hot? Wilting from the temperatures with the local Nalutis, I am putting up a few snaps from my Blackberry to kill some time and illustrate part…

In Western Libya

Nalut- Spent a very quiet day working in the rebel media center after a long day yesterday. Nalut is a hot, dusty, empty town but in some odd way I feel rather comfortable here. My Amazigh (Berber) hosts are incredibly…

Jebel Nafusa or Bust!

Djerba- Heading via a couple of what I expect will be very hot louage (minibus/taxi things) rides to the western Libyan border tomorrow. I’m sure going to miss Djerba. It’s quite a nice place and I’m looking forward to coming…

La Dulce Vida

Barcelona- I’ve got a new feature length piece in this week’s edition of Terrorism Monitor on this vague, ill formed concept of reconciliation with the Quetta shura Omar-led Taliban and what it could mean for the future of inter-ethnic and…

Rumba de Barcelona

Barcelona- I’ve just come back to Barca for the first time since 2008 and the town is as vibrant as ever. Everyone is so thin and bronzed that coming from the bowels of outer borough New York City, one may…