New York- I have an article out now for IHS Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst on the eruption of violence in Iraq’s sprawling western al-Anbar Governorate that borders the relatively calm governorates of Ma’an, Amman, Mafraq, and the somewhat sketchier Zarqa in…
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Scenes From an Enclave
Erbil- Here are a handful of snapshots from my iPod from my day running around the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan while trying to get situated.
Kachin Days
Guest blogger: Raymond Pagnucco Follow Raymond on Twitter at @RaymondPagnucco See Raymond’s site here New York- I’ve known Ray Pagnucco for some twenty years now. Ray is constantly on the move in Asia and Africa, often interested in uncovering the world’s lesser…
Syria Rough Cut
DHFlood_Syri
TWD Inside Free Syria
Antakya- I have a new article out in today’s edition of Asia Times Online on my journey into rebel-held northern Syria. In over a decade of jihads, war zones and civil unrest, I think this was the most difficult thing…
War’s Antidote
Barcelona- This hilarious article came out in the Daily Mail about show jumping rabbits here in Europe, something I never knew existed. So as not to get overly exercised about certain frustrating geopolitical constructs, one need only to picture Snoopy…
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…
June Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor Out
New York- Got the new issue of MLM out yesterday. In this one we have a profile of Saudi jihadi ideologue Faris al-Zahrani by Murad Batal al-Shishani, sketchy Malaysian JI/AQ operative Marwan by Jacob Zenn, the real Sajid Mir of…
“We Still Seek No Wider War?”
New York- I appeared on Saudi state television’s KSA 2 Friday to discuss the extension and, I suppose, expansion of the American war in Afghanistan (and to a lesser extent Pakistan) from the initially trumpeted July 2011 withdrawal to sometime…
May Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor Online
Los Angeles- The May issue of MLM is out. Worked hard on this one. Enjoy! If you’re not already enjoying, subscribe!
Increased Security for NYC?
New Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor
New York- The new issue of Militant Leadership Monitor is online. In this issue we have two pieces from two of Yemen’s three fronts. A profile of Adel al-Abbab of AQAP by Murad Batal al-Shishani and a bio of Abdulmalik…
Young Stalin
Gori, Georgia- This photo hangs in a museum that has not been updated since it opened thirty years ago at the twilight of the Brezhnev era. It is the B-side to the photo on the cover of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Young…
New Jamestown Article!
I have a new piece in this week’s edition of Terrorism Monitor on the Jamestown Foundation site that can be read here. It is the first long form interview with PJAK leadership that I’m aware of.
The Tbilisi Terror Museum
Tbilisi, Georgia- I had a meeting here with the Deputy Counter Terrorism Chief from the Ministry of Internal Affairs relevant to some book research I’m doing here. My contact there showed me the cornered end of the hallway where the…
A Friend’s Gambian Gambit
A friend of mine from Anglistan aka merry old England is doing a massive bush walk in one of Africa’s most obscure post-colonial constructs, The Gambia. He and his team will be blogging about it on the cleverly titled A…
Off to Turkey
Tomorrow and possibly points beyond. It’s been fun here in Greece although the weather wasn’t what it should be but let’s just say I’m looking forward to that trusty old Turkish hospitality after a week and a half here.
From the Highlands to the Islands
When I first began this never ending story a decade ago, I was sitting in a travel agent’s office in some mildewed office building in downtown Karachi waiting for a ticket to Dubai, then in its infancy. There was a…
Abu Dhabi
I’m en route to the UAE today and off to parts known and unknown. Kabul, Hyderabad and who knows where else?
New Piece in DJ July Issue
I’ve got a new piece (sort of) on the death of MJ. I swear this is the last of my Jackson mania coverage! It is in the Dispatches section of the July issue of the Digital Journalist.
Goodbye 1980’s
In a brief departure from my Middle East/South Asia blogging, I covered the death of the King of Pop here in Los Angeles yesterday for Polaris Images and the Huffington Post. I’ve never covered a non-political related event before…
Just Another Monday
NYT journo David Rohde escaped from a Haqqani network compound in North Waziristan this weekend after being taken hostage in Afghanistan’s Logar Province last November on his way to interview a Taleban commander. The commander set up Rohde, his driver…
BBC Appearance on Drones and Demonization
I participated in a contentious debate on the BBC at the last minute today with Owen Bennett-Jones, author of Eye of the Storm, who was hosting a show from Islamabad. Initially, I didn’t realize I was on with a perennially…
Old and New in “On the Grand Trunk Road”
I’ve just finished this spring’s reissue of Steve Coll’s On the Grand Trunk Road:A Journey Into South Asia. Written starting twenty years ago in the dying days of the Cold War and long before the “World was Flat,” Coll was…
A Lament for Pakistan
I have a piece this week on the Huffington Post on where Pakistan was and where it is or could be going. Read it here…
Pakistan’s Troubled Frontier
On April 15th, Jamestown hosted and exhaustive conference on the subject of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and its Federally Administered Tribal Areas. There’s too much else to include for the number of people gathered and the all the topics covered under…
Pakistan’s Confused Militants
I was sitting with my family in an Indian restaurant in Queens, New York at our annual pre-Thanksgiving dinner as my eye occasionally darted up to the screen overhead with images of Mumbai’s Taj Hotel smoldering on a Hindi-language satellite…
From South to South Part 2
Refugees as Migrants: The Rohingya in Pakistan Bouncing in and out of muddy pot-holes, I noticed something fairly unusual in Pakistan. In a nation with perhaps the most feverish cricket obsession in the commonwealth, it is almost a strange…
The Lion, the Arrow and the Bicycle
Along The Mall, Lahore’s primary commercial strip, a cluster of curious traffic police stood watch upon the odd rickshaw and teenage cyclist. Normally choked with a riot of buzzing traffic, The Mall was eerily quiet as the polls opened this…