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Israeli raids on Hamas' infrastructure, along with troop movements around Gaza and the shelling of Israel by that organization, are troubling but certainly not surprising. Sadly, it's not the first time we've seen these images. Tragically, seven years after September 11 they seem to connect with similar bloodshed in Mosul, Kabul and Mumbai. Even if both sides in the current Gaza conflict insist that their confrontation is at the center of the world, in reality it isn't. Car bombs and missiles in Beirut, Baghdad and Islamabad are all horrifying. There is no "top horror" anymore, even in the never-ending cycle...

The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), an association of the world's Islamic states, is pushing the United Nations to outlaw "defamation" of religion in general, and of one religion in particular. My remarks that follow are based on 27 years of researching in the field of international relations and conflicts, and on a decade of teaching Religions and World Politics. Since I published my first book in Arabic in 1979, where I addressed the issue of relationships between civilizations and cultural blocs worldwide, I have had the opportunity to publish ten books and hundreds of articles focusing on the rise...

How will Obama deal with this threat? We have Carter II in the making.

South Ossetia: The perfect wrong war By Walid Phares By now, days after Georgian forces stormed the capital of south Ossetia and Russian units counter attacked across the breaking away province and beyond; a devastating war has spread across the Caucasus causing death, destruction and displacement of populations. All wars are terrible -- even the legitimate ones where country, freedom and survival at are at stake. But this war is particularly unnecessary, could have been avoided and above all is wrong; in fact I call it the perfect wrong war. Unfortunately, when battles are raging with tanks, artillery, bombs and...

The Winning Side of the Iraq Campaign by Walid Phares In his latest assessment of the state of the campaign in Iraq President Bush drew strategic assertions regarding the measurement of success and the risks of failure on that battlefield, in what we can coin as the next stage in the confrontation against the forces of terror in the region. The successful surge Practically the military surge has denied al-Qaeda and the Mahdi militia the realization of their current objectives. So far al-Qaeda wasn’t able to create an "Emirate" in the Sunni triangle, nor even to reconstitute a Fallujah-like enclave:...

Looking at the President's Assessment of the Iraq Campaign By Walid Phares April 1, 2008 President Bush's March 27 assessment of the state of the war in Iraq raised important strategic assertions that warrant greater attention from the public and the defense and national security sectors. The principles announced by the president with regard to the measurement of success and the risks of failure on the Iraqi battlefield constitute a series of components of what I would coin as the next stage in the confrontation against the forces of terror in the region. The surge's success The 2007-2008 military surge...

Published: March 18, 2008 ‘The Confrontation: Winning the War Against Future Jihad’ – The New Book from Dr. Walid PharesThe Editors Dr. Walid Phares, the Director of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is a respected author whose latest book is available to the public today. Titled The Confrontation: Winning the War Against Future Jihad, Dr. Phares, who has been acclaimed by peers as the “one who can best understand the minds of the Jihadists,” will finally tell us what he thinks should be done “globally” about the threat posed by Jihad. His first two...

Chad's future Taliban enters capital while the West is asleep The Transatlantic Conservative 3 February 2008 With the so called "rebel" attack on N'Djamena it becomes increasingly clear that the jihadist government and militia of Sudan expand their operations to neighboring Chad. Saudi-Arabia, Syria and Iran back the hardliners in Khartoum. The racist genocidal ethnic cleansing policies of the Arab muslim tribes in power in the Sudanese capital will can't be stopped by UN or EUFOR intervention troops anymore. Their only possible base of operations against the jihadis from Sudan WAS Chad. Chad is another piece of the map of...

With the selection of the next US President bound to affect the very survival of the American people, all the old rules of politics and elections are out the window.

The Best Person for the Job by Walid Phares, Ph.D. When it comes to US Presidential elections, the post 9/11 era has changed the rules of engagement for national security experts and for those who can read the Jihadists’ minds. While the counterterrorism community should let the voters chose their chief executive first, then later offer expert advice to the President, unfortunately, the world has changed. Indeed, since the 9/11 and the engagement of the nation in the war with Jihadism, the selection of the US President can fundamentally affect the very survival of the American people. Whoever occupies the...

The Candidate Who Can See the Enemy, Can Defeat It by Walid Phares The post 9/11 era has changed the rules of engagement for national security experts and for those who can read the mind of the Jihadists, when it comes to US Presidential elections. While the principle was that the counter Terrorism community should let the voters chose their candidates and select their chief executive first, then offer the expert advice to the President later, unfortunately for that principle, things have changed. Indeed, since the attacks against New York and Washington and the engagement of the nation in the...

Bhutto’s Murder: Al Qaeda’s Security BlanketWalid Phares Former Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto was murdered by the combined forces of Jihadism in Pakistan because of her potential actions in that country. In short, Jihadists executed her to preempt her future war of ideas. This is the bottom line, and here is why. The long-term plan of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan during the 1990s was to eventually spread to Pakistan and seize power and ultimately, after 1999, to seize Pakistan’s nukes, too. Miscalculating on September 11th, Osama bin Laden lost Kabul and the Jihadi war room crossed over to their...

The conflict we call the War on Terror still continues at the end of 2007 and all indications are that its battlefields are expected to spread further, and escalate, in the upcoming year. The following is a global assessment of the confrontation that has taken place since 2001, though the systematic war waged by the Jihadi forces against democracies and the free world began at least a decade before 9/11. This evaluation isn't comprehensive or definitive, but a collection of observations related to major benchmarks, directions and projections. Global cohesion lacking The main powers and allies involved in the War...

Future Jihad: How Bin Laden Outsmarts the US with al Qaeda Propaganda Walid Phares What is interesting about the latest audio message of Usama Bin Laden, carried by al Jazeera, is its delayed argument. Strangely he is trying to convince the Europeans - seven years later - that they are wrong to have followed the United States into Afghanistan. Why? In his speech - irrespective of the ritual investigative questions regarding its location, technology and other details - the central issue appears to be his growing concern with the European role in Afghanistan, and perhaps because of it, the potential...

The oddest of all factional relationships is the open alliance between the Jihadists and the so-called "antiwar" neo-Left movement in the West. The jumble of causes thrown together is mind-bending: globalization hobnobs with the caliphate, class struggle with Wahabism, proletariat with infidels, and North Korea with Palestine. While still shedding each others' blood, the Reds (neo-Left) and the Dark Greens (Islamists) are conducting a joint offensive against both democracy-pushing America and the democracy-craving Middle East. They are not letting old or new grudges get in their way. The Wahabis fiercely fought the Soviet Communists in Afghanistan; the Muslim Brotherhood and...

Iran's Plan for Iraq   By Walid PharesWorld Defense Review | Monday, September 10, 2007 [Part one of a series on "Freedom Lines," adapted from seminars conducted for the U.S. House of Representatives' Caucus on Counter Terrorism, summer 2007]In March 2003, the United States made a strategic decision to send troops into Iraq and defeat the Saddam Hussein regime militarily. This decision is still being debated nationwide and internationally as to its legitimacy and rationality.One camp claims Washington didn't have a right to change the regime and engage in an armed confrontation with Iraqis. Another camp says Saddam was...

No matter what its historical relevance or context, the political and legal dimensions of historical jihad cannot be played out in the international or public policy affairs of modern society. FSM Contributing Editor Dr. Walid Phares explains why modern Jihad is unquestionably against the law. ____________________________________________ Why Military Jihad in Modern Times Is Illegal By Walid Phares One of the strangest, but not unexpected, battles of words and ideologies is over the claims made about the Muslim perception of jihad and Jihadism and their impact on public speech. Although there are various clashes on this level, it is appropriate here...

Western apologist literature has convinced and confused readers, including those in America’s Defense intelligentsia, that Jihad is not as lethal as it is. FSM Contributing Editor Dr. Walid Phares opens our eyes to the stunning successes of this enemy’s disinformation campaigns. For full article see: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=1157956

The current media rush to interpret what the US Government is releasing in terms of potential infiltration by an al Qaeda cell (or cells) to strike this summer is warranted but still unfocused. ABC News and AP have reported new official "concerns" of an attack on the US homeland this summer. ABC specified that (according to its sources) the Terrorists intend to attack a Government facility. Furthermore, as reported widely in the press, "new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the US, or may already be here." The report added that the White House...

Expert: Britain Is Jihad Central NewsMax.com July 1, 2007 "Britain is at War with the Jihadists, that's the bottom line" says Dr. Walid Phares. British officials "need to cope with the reality that they are the target of a Jihad war," Dr. Phares told Jack Riccardi on San Antonio's KTSA Saturday. Dr. Phares, director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a visiting fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy and several books on the Islamic jihad against the West including the most recent "Future Jihad," said that Britain "is one of the most...