Over the past 24 hours, I’ve become fascinated with Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent for The Independent, a British newspaper. Fisk has been stationed in Beirut for over 20 years, and probably understands the dynamic of the Middle East as well as any Westerner. The Independent Web site provides a convenient search that returns all of Fisk’s recent articles. I recommend just going through the list and reading them.
Salon has hired a Central Asia correspondent. I have high hopes. Here’s her first dispatch.
The Bush administration seems to really be backing away from invading Afghanistan. In a joint press conference with King Abdullah of Jordan, President Bush just said (and I quote) “there may or may not be a conventional component [of the war on terror].” I’m pleased to see the President entertaining the possibility that we may not go to war with Afghanistan at all. We may need to take military action against Afghanistan, but we shouldn’t see it as inevitable.
The Washington Post has obtained what seem to be the instructions given to each of the hijackers involved in the 9/11 attack. Their story provides excerpts of the instructions and the opinions of various Islamic scholars to the contents of the instructions, which are largely spiritual in nature.
Someone instant messaged people on staff at Odigo warning them of an attack of some kind two hours before terrorists attacked the World Trade Center.
What’s really going on in Saudi Arabia? People are quick to denouce the evils of the Taliban (and rightly so), but somehow the Saudi Arabian government gets a free pass from the U.S. media, despite the fact that the country is an absolute monarchy with no constitution and an appalling human rights record. Should we be surprised that several of the hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis?