Lee Bollinger, former president of Columbia University, echoes a suggestion I made last year: U.S. law enforcement could prosecute the killers of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. I wrote here that the use of U.S. communication facilities in furtherance of the crime would give U.S. prosecutors jurisdiction. Writing in The Washington Post Bollinger agrees: The case...
Category: Middle East
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RIP Rafi Eitan, Mastermind of Mossad’s Uranium Heist
On September 10, 1968 Raphael Eitan and three other Israeli nationals arrived in Apollo, Pennsylvania, a small city north of Pittsburgh that was home to a company called the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation. NUMEC packaged and stored enriched uranium, which it supplied to nuclear power plants in northeastern United States. Eitan, who died Saturday...
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Withdrawal Symptoms: Is the U.S. Leaving Syria or Not?
President Trump’s decision to leave Syria prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis and a continuing rear-guard bureaucratic action to limit or reverse the president’s decision. First, there was the report that 400 troops would stay. Then there was the report that the U.S. would stay in the eastern Syria border town of El-Tanf...
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Did Iran Hack Israel’s Election? Or Did Netanyahu Hack His Rival?
Iranian hackers, suspected of penetrating the phone of Benny Gantz, former Israeli general running for prime minister, have thrown Israeli politics into turmoil. Or maybe Iranian hackers had nothing to do with it. The story broke last week on Israeli television and was picked up by Haaretz.com Lurid rumors regarding what was on the phone...
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Erik Prince Still Wants Blackwater to Replace U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
When the idea of replacing U.S. troops in Afghanistan with mercenaries was first proposed, Defense Secretary James Mattis said, rather generously, that “it was not a wise idea.” In fact, it’s a crackpot scheme that refuses to die, mostly because of Prince’s connections to the Trump White House. Prince is on good terms with the...