If the current trajectory of Syrian street protests continue at their current, bloody pace, last Friday (July 22) may be remembered as the epic day Syria's Assad dictatorial dynasty began a fateful, accelerating process of unraveling.

Finally, after over four months of country-wide protests, every major Syrian...

Now that we know who "allegedly" did the actual killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who then ordered the hit job? Was it Hezbollah -- the Iranian-backed terrorist organization's whose chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah despised Hariri and his Sunni compatriots? Syria's President Bashar al Assad, or one of his...

"Never take America for granted!" Words my American parents drilled into me during my formative years growing up in the Middle East. Is it possible to become more patriotic when the United States is far over the horizon? Perhaps.

Just to make sure I never forgot its words I...

Normally, we Americans don't have good cause to go out of our way to hoist a mug to toast someone else's independence day. But how about stretching our 4th of July fireworks fuse a bit by adding a belated congrats to our "true north" (a phrase from "O Canada") Canadian...

Since its air war began in March against Col. Muammar Gaddafi, NATO has flown over 12,000 missions over Libya including 4,000 strike sorties by attack helicopters, missile firing drones, and jet fighters -- most of which have targeted Gaddafi's military redoubts in Tripoli, which have been obliterated and...

It is the tale of two Arabian cities. As the crow flies, Morocco's capital Rabat and Syria's capital Damascus are about 2,500 miles from each other. But judging by the context and content of the respective national addresses delivered within hours of each other this weekend, Morocco's King Mohammed and...

Is Syria headed for all out civil war? Hard to tell, but there are ominous signs that a tipping point is not too far away.

The total media blockade imposed by the 41-year old Assad family dynasty has made it virtually impossible to get a clear picture what is...

Today was the 10th week of successive Friday "Days of Rage" in Syria since a mid-March popular revolt began against the Assad family dynasty. Yesterday, Secretary of State Clinton declared that the legitimacy of Syria's Bashar al-Assad "has nearly run out."

Hmmm. I'm having a hard time...

The president set out yesterday to valiantly reset U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East by embracing the Arab Spring, establishing a new blueprint for America's goals in the region. As a highly anticipated and long-overdue addendum to his 2009 address in Cairo, the speech was intended to regain lost...

The 83-year-old Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is giving itself a 21st Century facelift just in time for the upcoming September parliamentary elections.

Last week, the Brotherhood's old guard Supreme Shura Council announced it had established an "independent" political party to serve as a political party front for the...

Americans and our allies have great reason to rejoice that bin Laden deservedly died as a reviled fugitive at the hands of his victims' long arm of justice. President Obama's national security team deserves the highest of praise and gratitude from a thankful world, as does the president for his...

Syria is moving into the ultimate showdown over the fate of the Assad dynasty. President Assad ordered his troops to open fire after today's prayers and they killed another 75 Syrians seeking reform. That brings the total of protesters killed in 3 weeks to over 500.

According to pre-historic Aloui belief (a minority Shiite sect) people at first were stars in the world of light, but fell from celestial orbit through disobedience. Faithful Alouis believe they must be transformed seven times before returning to take their place among the stars.

By my count, Syria's minority...

Memo to President Obama: Before your administration finally untangles itself from the Gordian knot of its contradictory Libya policy, I am rooting for the French Foreign Legion to be on the outskirts of Tripoli laying siege to Gaddafi and Sons, Inc. with France's adventurous President Nicolas Sarkozy earning the credit.

With last night's urgent passage of a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the imposition of a "no fly zone" over Libya AND collateral authority to take "all necessary measures" to implement it (no "boots on the ground") the hard part begins, because Gaddafi is no pushover when it...

How cheered Libya's reeling opposition must feel now that they know that the White House is dispatching Secretary of State Clinton to meet with them during her trip to Tunisia and Egypt to have a post-revolutionary exchange of views.

As they lose ground and are surely being overrun, the...

Libya is awash in so-called "rebels" -- the conventional moniker granted by the international media covering the conflict to anyone battling to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The press is full of headlines like "the rebels are fighting,"... "the rebels are running Benghazi,"... "the rebels are asking for foreign military intervention..."....

There are not enough pejoratives to describe the many sadistic sides of Moammar Gadhafi (however you may choose to spell his name). He is a ruthless, unstable revolutionary dictator who has imported mercenaries from Chad, Sudan, and other Sub-Saharan dictator-led countries to massacre his own people as protests erupt across...

I recommend to Americans the saga of Wael Ghonim -- the young Egyptian Google executive whose kidnapping by Egypt's dreaded secret police and subsequent emotional public testimonial ushered in a new dawn in Tahrir Square this week.

His honor and honesty stands in stark contrast to the callow smear...

Just what role will Egypt's wily, ever-evolving Muslim Brotherhood play in a post-Mubarak era? Is it really the sinister, underground, subversive political force that could potentially hijack the Egyptian peoples' revolution? Or is it an anachronistic, outdated Islamist dinosaur of another bygone era -- so pre-Twitter and 20th century?