Sublime
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Among Syria’s opposition leaders, the collapse, in their view, of Western resolve after the Ghouta attack was a tougher psychological blow than the chemical attacks themselves, Moustafa said. Some rebel groups that had previously aligned themselves with the moderate Free Syrian Army simply gave up and joined the Islamists, who at least paid better
... See moreJoby Warrick • Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS


But as its detractors fear and they themselves understand, the New Right might be more akin to al-Qaeda in its structure. Killing Osama bin Laden was symbolically important, and it prevented him from further plotting mass murder. Al-Qaeda is by all accounts a shadow of its former self. Yet terrorist attacks continue unabated, and instead of
... See moreMichael Malice • The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics
Chechnya won the first war but the region was left poverty stricken, cut out of international trade, and became a hub for organized crime. This left an opening for Wahhabi extremists from abroad to move in to the area and rally support for their beliefs by providing jobs to those who joined their movement. When the Second Chechen War began, in
... See moreSusan Clare Zalkind • The Waltham Murders: One Woman’s Pursuit to Expose the Truth Behind a Murder and a National Tragedy
The attack at Ypres was overseen by the father of this new method of war, the Jewish chemist Fritz Haber.
Benjamin Labatut • When We Cease to Understand the World


Now Syrians were learning just how cynical Assad’s goodwill gesture had been. Among the inmates discharged over the spring and summer were a number of radical Islamists who belonged to known terrorist organizations. Some were jihadists who had been picked up while attempting to cross into Iraq to join the insurgency there. Others were suspected
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