Prof. Daniel Pipes
(Director, Middle East Forum, USA)

Copyright: http://www.danielpipes.org/12298/dictators-elected-islamists

Who is worse, President Mohamed Morsi, the elected Islamist seeking to apply Islamic law in Egypt, or President Husni Mubarak, the former dictator ousted for trying to start a dynasty? More broadly will a liberal, democratic order more likely emerge under Islamist ideologues who prevail through the ballot box or from greedy dictators with no particular agenda beyond their own survival and power?  Read more

Daniel Little
(RIEAS Senior Advisor)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Security prognostication can be a tricky undertaking.  That is why a clear distinction must be made between what is accepted as fact and the inference of where future possibilities lie.  Such is the case for Mediterranean piracy.  As opposed to piracy anywhere else, the Mediterranean deserves future consideration for a myriad of reasons.  As isolated issues, the Eurozone, fledgling ‘Arab Spring’ governments, illicit trafficking and terror have select, dedicated audiences that sift, analyze and construe significance specifically tailored to their sponsors.  Having stated this up front it is entirely plausible that as a whole, Mediterranean piracy could eventually surpass similar events occurring around the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the Strait of Malacca.  As a result, the prognostication I intend to explain is how and why a sophisticated matrix of large-scale theft and extortion might have an added dimension of graphic attacks on Mediterranean vessels. ... Read more   

Daniela Spînu
(PhD Candidate, University of Bucharest, Romania)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr
 

Introduction

Radical Islam has gained more and more adherents among muslim migrants of the second and third generation. Individuals, who no longer identify with any nation state, are prisoners between two cultures and, while living in western European society, studying in European universities, getting married and having children, they resort to radical action. In the knowledge society, intelligence communities must connect to complex situations, difficult to prevent, citizens of European countries turning into executives of terrorist attacks on European soil... Read more
 

Jean Labrique and Dr. Bruce D. Tefft,
(Secretary General and Vice-President to Western Defense Studies Institute (WDSI)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

From the very beginning of his presidency, Barack Hussein Obama, has constantly proved his preferences for the Islamic World.  Every decision with an Islamic element to it has always been in favor of Muslims at the expense of traditional America policies and allies.

Bowing in front of the King of Saudi’s House, his speech in Cairo, and many other occasions are proofs of this observation.

Obama’s early withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq will leave the 2 countries to the machinations of radical rogue state Iran and a resurgent Taliban/al-Qaeda.  Obama has already abandoned Lebanon to the Iranian terrorist front organization Hizballah and is in the process of forcing Israeli submission to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian Liberation Organization and HAMAS.

Ioannis Chapsos
(Commander, Hellenic Navy (PhD Cand), Hellenic Supreme Joint War College Instructor, Global Security specialist)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr 
                                                   
While the UN resolution 1973 called on member states and regional organizations to “… take all necessary measures... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya …”, the civilians in the East coast, the Horn of Africa, are experiencing the absolute “human insecurity”. The citizens of the failed state of Somalia, amidst the decade long civil war, have to cope with terrorist groups, organised crime networks, piracy, poverty and complete absence of human rights. More recently a famine stemming from a prolonged draught, cause the death of hundreds of people in a daily basis. Yet, the international community remains in apathy and the famous “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine can not be implemented, since it refers only to the protection of “… populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity…” .....  Read more

Anita Rai
(Author, Jihad and Terrorism)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Osama bin Laden is dead. Islamist terrorism, is nonetheless alive and kicking.

US Navy Seals sealed his fate and buried him at sea. The fight against terrorism is however, far from over. This century is going to be shaped by how we fare in this war and how heavy the cost will be in terms of invaluable lives, both military service members and civilians. Muslim supremacists have thrust this war upon the free world and in order to survive we have to fight back. Human hearts should welcome the news of Osama’s elimination. Somehow the concept and clear identification, of good and evil and a clear difference between the two are lost upon many people.

Mr. Salman Taseer, governor of Pakistan's Punjab province and a senior politician of Pakistan People's Party, was assassinated by a guard of the elite Punjab Police Unit responsible for his protection. It is most unfortunate and sad that Taseer had to pay the ultimate price for announcing that he was going to request the President of Pakistan to use his prerogative and save Asia Bibi, an impoverished Christian woman, sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam. After having sieved Taseer with 26 bullets, the cold-blooded killer Malik Mumtaz Husain Qadri said that he has killed Taseer because the latter wanted to bring about reformation in the Blasphemy Law, which he deemed a dark law.

Nico Prucha
(Affiliated Researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP), Ph.D. Candidate, University of Vienna).

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Published in form of a video and a transcript by the “nukhbat al-i’lam al-jihadi” media group on the mainstream jihad forums in September 2008. Read more

Nico Prucha
(Affiliated Researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP),
Ph.D. Candidate University of Vienna)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr
 
Responding to critical questions on the al-Hebah Forum in 2007, the leading chief ideologue of AQIM, Abu 'l-Hassan Rashid, provides a chilly look on the jihadists practical understanding and definition of deploying suicide-bombers and the potential of killing innocent Muslim bystanders during such operations. Read more

Jean-Pierre Filiu
(Professor at Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and was visiting professor at Georgetown University (Washington, DC). The French History convention awarded in 2008 its main prize to his “Apocalypse in Islam”, that will soon be published in English by the University of California Press. His last book, “The Nine lives of Al-Qaida” was presented in Athens on May 19, 2010, at the French institute).

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Shahar Or
(Security Analyst and Founder of Custom Made Solutions Ltd)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr 

It has become increasingly evident that global jihad networks are using South Africa as a base for recruitment operatives, and financing and planning terror activity. Read more.

Charles Rault
(RIEAS Senior Advisor & Director, International Security Research and Intelligence Agency , ISRIA, based in France)

Copyright: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (USA)

In the last five years, a number of terrorist attacks have occurred in Western Europe. Read more

Thalia Tzannetti                                                                  
(RIEAS Senior Analyst)                                                       

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

More than 5 years after the Madrid attacks and 4 years after the London attacks, the phenomenon of violent radicalisation among Muslims, especially in countries of the so-called West, persists internationally and has been contaminating countries who were until recently perceiving themselves as immune to this kind of violence. So far Greece seems to be exempt from violent acts committed on religious grounds. With important differences and even more similarities to European countries known to be affected by radicalism, is Greece likely to maintain its apparent immunity? Is radicalisation among Muslims a phenomenon calling for policy responses and preventive initiatives or is it yet one more demonstration of Greece’s proclaimed ‘specificity’?

Ioannis Michaletos
(RIEAS Senior Analyst)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Contemporary Europe steadily enters a historical course of Islamization, a trend of macro-historical proportions and of vital social, political and economic significance. The Islam is the unifying factor of more than a billion people, characterized by high birth rates, great devotion to their religious norms and canons, but also knowledgeable and experienced throughout of centuries in the realm of international politics.

Wednesday's arrests were a deeply disturbing reminder that Britain remains the prime target of Islamist terrorists in the West.Despite a change of prime minister and a new US president, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre's long-standing prediction that an attack in Britain is "highly likely" seems spot on.Eleven of those detained this week were from Pakistan and were granted entry on student visas. That these visas might be used by terrorists is no surprise. Warnings have existed since 2005 that terrorists regard our campuses as safe havens. Many "students" never turn up to be taught. Read more.