A Turkish military incursion against Qaedist rebels in Syria comes amid claims that al-Qaeda affiliates have seized the country's oilfields and are planning attacks on the West.
World War 4 Report offers its annual annotated assessment of Obama's moves in dismantling, continuing or escalating the apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism.
Republicans are scrambling after a New York Times story dismissed a Qaeda link in the 2012 Benghazi attack—but the question of what constitutes "al-Qaeda" is inherently political.
The Washington Post runs an in-depth report exposing CIA oversight of the Colombian government's campaign of targeted assassinations of guerilla leaders.
In addition to the naval face-off over a global oil outlet, the Persian Gulf has seen escalating militarization by international forces in the guise of narcotics enforcement.
Ex-CIA director Michael Hayden says Bashar Assad is the best option for stability in Syria—while the White House now considers arming jihadist rebels.
Obama's UN speech pledged: "We will ensure the free flow of energy" from the Middle East. Yet intervention risks a conflagration that could threaten imperial control of the oil reserves.
The popular meme "I didn't join the army to fight for al-Qaeda in Syria" is a betrayal of Syria's secular civil resistance—which continues even now to exist and struggle for freedom.
The fearful synergy of regional sectarian war and Great Power rivalries holds the menace of the looming Syria intervention setting off a new global conflagration.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon insisted that US drone strikes must operate within international law, and make “every effort to avoid mistakes and civilian casualties.”
The closing of the US embassy in Yemen has coinicided with drone strikes and clashes in Marib province, and a gun-battle between rival factions in the capital Sanaa.
The Taliban have opened a "political office" in Qatar preparatory to talks with Kabul and the US—after years of propaganda about the US defending women's rights in Afghanistan.
