Blog

Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Hizbollah, is believed to have issued the fatwa that encouraged suicide terrorists to detonate truck bombs outside the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. But as David ...  (Read more)

It’s hard to imagine that America beating Portugal at anything would be newsworthy, but the American team’s 3-2 victory over Portugal in their World Cup match today is amazing; it’s the most significant U.S. soccer ...  (Read more)

Oddly, I feel somewhat relieved after learning about the many ways in which the CIA and FBI failed to prevent 9/11. Until these stories emerged, I had the terrifying (and erroneous) ...  (Read more)

There’s been a lot of attention focused on the role played by the Special Forces in getting rid of the Taliban, and the role of smart bombs and JDAMs and Daisy Cutters and all manner of military materiel. But what about money? When I was in Kandahar in December I learned that cash played an ...  (Read more)

You know things are not going well in a country when businessmen begin commuting to work in helicopters, not to avoid traffic jams but to avoid being kidnapped or shot on the streets. Things are not going well in Sao Paulo, according to The Washington Post:

Michael Klein quietly stared out the window. ...  (Read more)

Al Qaeda is linking up with home-grown terrorists in Pakistan for new attacks on westerners and Gen. Musharraf’s regime, according to this story in The Washington Post. Not all stories about the activities ...  (Read more)

This is my newest article, in the June issue of Outside; a profile of Tomaz Humar, an amazing dude. For an easy-to-read text version, go here.

From the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times:

The White House and Congress are trumpeting their determination to bring economic opportunity to the people of Africa. But first, a few million sub-Saharan farmers will have to suffer.

The Bush administration has been busy extending special ...  (Read more)

That’s the message, though with greater complexity and shading, of a new book, “Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam,” by Gilles Kepel. Although the author is a French ...  (Read more)