Given the mysteries of the Benghazi attacks on the US consulate (not an embassy, and not an entity that was guarded by Marines, apparently), I’m going to step lightly before attributing any Middle East incident to anything else in a direct through-line. But we do know that riots/protests/attacks are proliferating. Today they have spread to [...]

A suicide bomb killed the Syrian defense minister and President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law today, among other top officials, in the most direct and effective attack on the Syrian regime since the beginning of the uprising and civil war. Reports said the officials had been killed by a bodyguard in a suicide bombing in the capital [...]

The world has been generally deadlocked over Syria. The UN Security Council cannot muster any kind of veto-proof majority for any action, nobody wants to engage in an intervention, and meanwhile the situation in the country has devolved into civil war. So we can view this as a potential step forward, albeit with one excruciating [...]

In a report required by the War Powers Resolution, President Obama for the first time acknowledged that the US has taken “direct action” in Somalia and Yemen to attack remnants of Al Qaeda, spreading the battlefield authorized by the AUMF passed shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001. In the letter, the President updates [...]

Over two dozen antiwar members of the House have asked the Administration for the legal justification for the Predator drone program, in particular the “signature” strikes which do not target an individual but a general set of suspected terrorist activities abroad. These signature strikes count all adult males operating in the area of the strike [...]

A strange executive order by the White House would seemingly apply to anyone, including US citizens, who in the executive’s view “threatens the peace, security, or stability of Yemen.” The order would seek to freeze the assets of individuals engaged in this behavior. Here’s an excerpt from the EO: All property and interests in property [...]

It is not going to be fun watching Kofi Annan get increasingly exasperated over the next week. Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, delivered a cease-fire agreement in the Syrian uprising, to which the Assad regime signed off. However, ever since the signing, the violence has continued, including today, with renewed assaults by military forces on [...]

In Yemen, new President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was sworn in over the weekend, replacing the 33-year rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh unexpectedly showed up at the swearing-in. But there are now promising reports that, instead of staying in Yemen to head a political party, Saleh will seek exile in Ethiopia: Aides to Ali Abdullah [...]

The one-candidate Presidential election in Yemen happened today. You’ll never guess who won! Yemenis voted Tuesday to instate their U.S.-backed vice president as the new head of state tasked with steering the country out of a crisis created by an anti-government uprising that has raged for a year. The vote can hardly be called an [...]

An unusual election will take place tomorrow in Yemen. After 33 years of having Ali Abdullah Saleh in power, a new President will be selected. However, we already know the name of that President, because there is only one candidate on the ballot. The election, in which Saleh’s deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is the only [...]

It’s a sad commentary on our media that the President had to answer questions yesterday about drones for the first time, and the questions didn’t come at a White House press briefing or major print interview, but in a virtual YouTube town hall with members of the public. FDL’s Kevin Gosztola covered this at The [...]