One-Off Strikes Accomplish Nothing. Assad Must Go.
The American strikes last week on Syrian chemical production, storage and delivery facilities amounted to no more than another pinprick and a slap on Syrian leader Bashar […] More
Terrorism
Infighting Threatens Mali Peace, Creating Space for Al Qaida
Bottom Line: A 2015 peace accord between the Mali government and ethnic Tuaregs in the north of the country has failed to produce economic or […] More
US Demands Pakistan Arrest “Hit List” of Top Haqqani & Taliban Leaders
The Trump administration has given Pakistan a new “hit list” of nearly a dozen top militants to detain, to show its willingness to fight terrorism, […] More
Threat Assessment #Fail: Al-Qaida Quietly Growing, By Design
The annual accounting to Congress of global threats to the United States made it sound like al-Qaida’s separate branches were managing to thrive independently of […] More
Dark Money: How Militants Exploit Hawala to Fund Terror
Bottom Line: For terrorists, moving money covertly through hawala networks to circumvent institutionalized banking systems remains one of their leading methods of avoiding detection. The […] More
First Assad, Then the World: Al Qaida’s Strategy in Syria
Bottom Line: While ISIS’s territory has dwindled, al Qaida has managed to build a strong following in Syria, and may use the civil-war-torn country as […] More
Putting the Squeeze on Iran via Hezbollah
From selling drugs to profiting from a pig farm, Lebanese Hezbollah’s hypocrisy knows no bounds – a political party with a military army that does […] More
ISIS Festers and Grows in Lawless Libya
Bottom Line: ISIS maintains a strong presence in Libya and remains a potent regional threat, despite domestic and international efforts to oust the group from […] More
Diminished at Home, Durable Boko Haram May Go Global
Bottom Line: Terrorist group Boko Haram has lost most of the territory it claimed as a “caliphate” within Nigeria back in 2015. But the group […] More
Rosenblum: Report on Immigrant Terrorism Twists Data
Cipher Brief expert and former DHS official Todd Rosenblum says the Trump administration used incomplete and cherry-picked statistics in a new report that says three […] More
Getting the Most Out of Pakistan
The Trump administration’s decision to suspend security assistance to the Pakistani military pending “decisive action” against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network represents an […] More
‘Persistent, Expanding and Worrisome’: ISIS Rebounds in Afghanistan
Bottom Line: With the original ISIS core nearly expelled from its so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq, other ISIS branches are growing in influence and […] More
Self Driving Cars ‘Game Changing’ for FBI…& ISIS
Autonomous vehicles such as those being tested by Google or Tesla will be one of the most important and disruptive technologies for the future of […] More
Terrorist Networks Eye Bitcoin as Cryptocurrency’s Price Rises
Signs are increasing that jihadist groups are looking to capitalize on the rising value of bitcoin, as massive price increases for the cryptocurrency in recent […] More
UAE’s Share of the Task Fighting al Qaeda in Yemen
The U.S. and its Gulf allies have clawed back Yemeni territory from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has exploited the Yemeni conflict […] More
How Egypt’s Policies Are Driving Support for ISIS in the Sinai
The Friday prayer massacre of more than 300 worshipers at a Sinai was a departure for the local Islamic State affiliate in scale, but not […] More
U.S. Follows Forever War to Niger
Niger gained the attention of the American public when four U.S. troops were killed there in an ambush on Oct.4, highlighting the expansion of U.S. […] More
Egypt Struggles to Suppress ISIS in the Sinai
Friday’s deadly terrorist attack at the Al-Rawda mosque in the north of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula demonstrates that the so-called Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate remains a […] More