Free Republic

This isn’t one war, but two. There is a regional chessboard, on which Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other Gulf states all play. Iran’s proxies, its drones and ballistic missiles, its nuclear ambitions, its funding of Hezbollah and the Houthis. All of that belongs primarily to this smaller game. Israel has always understood this board. So have the Saudis. So has everyone in the neighbourhood. But there is a second chessboard, vastly larger, on which the United States and China are the primary players. On this board, the central question of the next 30 years is being worked...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The terrorist network Al-Qaida will likely leverage its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the American homeland. The declassified key findings, to be released publicly on Tuesday, were obtained in advance by The Associated Press. The report lays out a range of dangers—from al-Qaida to Lebanese Hezbollah to non-Muslim radical groups—that pose a "persistent and evolving threat" to the country over the next three years. As expected, however, the findings focus most of their attention on the gravest terror problem: Osama...

Friday, July 13, 2007 Washington, D.C. -- This week in Islamabad, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered commandos to assault the Red Mosque after a six-day siege against well-armed Taliban-supporting militants. Less than 24 hours later, Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's apparent successor to the command of al Qaeda, issued his third "Jihadist Exhortation" of the month -- a new record. Meanwhile, here in Washington, more Republicans joined the "get out of Iraq" chorus as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described his "gut feeling" that a major terrorist event against us is in the offing. The next day President Bush christened...