Last night, Turkey’s staunchly secular Constitutional Court decided against throwing out the ruling, moderately Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). The decision, which cut Prime Minister Erdogan’s party’s public financing in half and warned it to abide by Turkey’s strictly secular constitution, averted a potential political crisis.
Is Osama bin Laden still relevant? Or rather, is the threat more from a reconstituted, centralized Al Qaeda, or from more local groups radicalized by preachers or outside forces? (See the recent arguments between Marc Sageman and Bruce Hoffman).
After watching the video interview I did with Palestinian Initiative leader and former Palestinian Authority presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti on Obama’s “World Without Walls” speech, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote me a note. He said: steve — that discussion with [Barghouti] is humiliating for any decent American who values human rights….
“Hi, I’m Mike Bloomberg” said Mike Bloomberg as I stood next to him and another chap at the Lincoln Center’s “Mostly Mozart” fundraising benefit last night. The Mozart performance was accompanied by some ‘melancholy Mahler’, and the evening was terrific.
I just read what I think is the single worst op-ed I have ever read in my life — not at all because I disagree with the substance (which I do) but because it is convoluted beyond anything I’ve seen in policy commentary before.
Almost a year ago, my colleague Steve Clemons wrote a controversial piece titled “Why Bush Won’t Attack Iran” citing the internal political and bureaucratic constraints that held at bay a deliberate attack on Iranian nuclear facilities (but not an “accidental” provocation and ramp-up of tensions).
(Matthew Levitt is a Senior fellow and Director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy). Gregory offers a thoughtful analysis and has bravely baited the rest of us to respond, so I’ll take the bait.
(Greg Djerejian is a financial services professional and publishes the popular blog The Belgravia Dispatch) Before we fall into a consensus that terrorism remains at (or very near) the top of the heap, permit me to play contrarian among these terrorism experts.
On Wednesday at 4:15 pm EST until about 5:30 pm, I will be chairing a meeting at the New America Foundation featuring former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and former AT&T Broadband CEO and Obama economic advisor Leo Hindery.
(Paul Cruickshank is a Fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security). I agree with Matt Levitt and others that tackling the threat of Al Qaeda terrorism should remain a top-tier national security priority.
