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Unlike many U.S. embassies in the Arab world that have been forced by security concerns to move from the center of capital cities to fortress-like suburban compounds, the Damascus embassy still occupies prime real estate - just a stone's throw from the residence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria's much feared state-security apparatus keeps close tabs on everyone entering and leaving the embassy; it also helps keeps the embassy relatively safe from the occasional jihadist sneak attack. In turn, living close to the Americans may help Assad sleep more easily at night, say Damascene wags, because...
...three years since allying itself with Osama bin Laden, North Africa's al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) militant group has worked hard to align its terror activities and communications with those of its radical parent organization. Topping the list of the techniques AQIM has borrowed from its brothers in the Middle East and South Asia is kidnapping Westerners to net big-money ransoms - or carefully choreographing their executions to shock the world. As the fates of several hostages hang in the balance in Mali and Mauritania, Western governments are grappling with how to deal with the growing problem: should...
...Iraq or Afghanistan and, at times, even in supposedly more secure settings like Pakistan and Yemen. But apart from a one-off abduction of 32 Europeans trekking in the Algerian desert in 2003, North African militants never showed much of an interest in kidnapping until they linked up with al-Qaeda in 2007. Since then, it's become a veritable habit. (See pictures of heartbreak in the Middle East...
...criminal justice system has proven to be one of the most effective weapons available to our government for both incapacitating terrorists and collecting intelligence from them. Removing this highly effective weapon from our arsenal would be as foolish as taking our military and intelligence options off the table against al- Qaeda, and as dangerous," Holder wrote. Separately, administration officials now also report that Abdulmutallab, who stopped talking after about 50 minutes in custody, has recently begun providing new information to interrogators after his family was brought to him from Nigeria...
...room, away from the dinner table. Families generally sit together to watch shows - veritable home cinemas. (Iranians are notorious film buffs, their love affair with movies stretching back to the birth of cinema itself. The first films were brought to Iran in 1900 by the monarch Mozaffar al-Din Shah, just five years after the Lumière brothers premiered their light machine in Paris.) In order for a film or TV series to truly achieve cult status, it has to be viewable by all members of the household. A great drama and entertainment for adults, Lost is also sexy...