by humbleauthor | Nov 21, 2011 | Monitor
Perception is reality. All sorts of media outlets are going into a low hover today over PERF, the Police Executive Research Forum, a think-tank that serves police chiefs of major cities in the US and apparently Canada. (See here, here, and here for examples.) It...
by humbleauthor | Nov 21, 2011 | Monitor
My friend Ryan Evans’ excellent review of Fawaz Gerges’ new book, The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda got me thinking about conspiracy theorism and its relationship to Al Qaeda’s fortunes. Ryan takes issue with Gerges’ contention that Al Qaeda never really had a “viable...
by humbleauthor | Nov 9, 2011 | Monitor
Apparently Anonymous has decided to take on the Ikhwan day after tomorrow. I’m curious what if anything will come of this. Probably nothing, but I’m prepared to be wrong. (I sort of hope I’m wrong, actually, as I’m not an enormous fan of the...
by humbleauthor | Oct 12, 2011 | Monitor
Last night I guest lectured in Stephen Tankel’s class on Al Qaida and information operations. We were discussing AQ’s lack of television stations and one student noted that the convergence between television and the Internet will probably solve that...
by humbleauthor | Aug 16, 2011 | Monitor
Interesting use of the epithet “Crusaders,” this time by Gaddafi’s government. I had not been previously aware of Arab governments using the term. Rather, I thought that this was generally a bit of jihadist terminology. Did I miss something? Or...