February 2, 2013 The Mideast is stumbling into one of its most dangerous crisis in decades.  I’m just back from the region – and as an old Mideast hand,  I am very worried. This region is always tense, but right now a series of separate conflicts are rapidly beginning to […]


January 25, 2013 PARIS – The bloody attack on an Algerian gas installation and France’s invasion of Mali are the result of troubles that have been brewing for years – we simply have not been paying attention. Jihadist guerilla leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, headlined as a new Great Islamic Satan by […]


January 18, 2013   PARIS – Confused over the surging violence in Mali and now Algeria? Trying to find Mali on the map? War, as the great Roman historian Tacitus wrote, teaches geography. This week’s new lesson is West and North Africa, not so long ago colonial possessions of France. […]