The Case for U.S. Action in Libya

By Ryan Mauro

Muammar Qaddafi’s goal is obvious: If he goes down, he wants to bring Libya with him. He wants the day he falls to be remembered as a day of bloodshed, not of joy. His fighter jets are firing on protesters and a new report says he has ordered the destruction of his country’s oil facilities, which would eliminate 75 to 90 percent of the next government's revenue and make the world feel his pain as oil prices skyrocket. It is time for the U.S. to step in.

President Obama finally made a statement yesterday about the uprising in Libya, saying the violence is “outrageous and unacceptable” and that the government had a “strong responsibility to refrain from violence.” As for a response, no specifics were offered beyond: “We are reviewing a variety of options with our international partners..."

President Obama should have called for Qaddafi’s resignation days ago. If Hosni Mubarak qualified as a leader unworthy of office, then Qaddafi surely does as well. Yet, in the speech, Qaddafi’s name was not even mentioned. The Obama administration has made improving the image of the U.S. a top objective of its foreign policy but its failure to decisively side with the people dying for the rights we cherish is tarnishing it. It is time to unequivocally stand in favor of the Libyan revolution. [more...]

NOTE: Ryan is available for updates on the uprisings throughout the Middle East, which he's following very closely. Watch Ryan on Fox & Friends.

Africa’s Ceausescu

By Stephen Brown

After losing control of two-thirds of his country to anti-government protesters and suffering condemnation worldwide for bloody human rights abuses, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is still refusing to go quietly into the night. As Libya descended into violence and chaos, in a rambling 73-minute television broadcast a defiant Gaddafi called himself a “Bedouin warrior’ and said he would stay and “fight until the last drop of my blood” and die as “a martyr.” [more...]

Stephen Brown is the Contributing Editor of Frontpagemag.com. He has a graduate degree in Eastern European history and his main areas of expertise are international affairs and Islamic terrorism.

National Security Updates

By Ryan Mauro

Yemen on the Edge

The unrest in Tunisia and Egypt has spread to Yemen, threatening the stability of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an enemy of Iran and Al-Qaeda. The protestors are demanding his immediate resignation but even if his rule lasts, the instability could allow Iran and Al-Qaeda to carve out enclaves in the Gulf country. [more...]

Will the Muslim Brotherhood Rule Egypt?

Everyone is trying to figure out what the new Egypt will look like, with some polls painting a nightmare scenario and another one causing cheers. The dizzying contradictions in the polls capture the complexities of Egyptian opinion and can guide a strategy to limit the Muslim Brotherhood’s inevitably large gains. [more...]

The Case for Firing James Clapper

The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, is being widely criticized for his inaccurate comments about the Muslim Brotherhood but there’s a larger point being missed. He was trying to portray the Brotherhood as a moderate group and downplay its sinister motives. This severely flawed view, when combined with how he was embarrassingly unaware of major terrorist arrests in London, makes a strong case for his departure. [more...]

NOTE: Ryan is available for updates on the uprisings throughout the Middle East, which he's following very closely. Watch Ryan on Fox & Friends.

Iran Ups its Anti-Israeli Ante

By Stephen Brown

Iran’s latest ploy to challenge Israel may contain a more sinister element than that of supplying arms to Hezbollah. Since Hosni Mubarak stepped down last Friday, protesters have reappeared on the streets of Tehran in numbers not seen since the Green Movement in 2009. The unrest continued on Wednesday, as pro- and anti-government demonstrators clashed at the funeral for one of the protesters killed two days ago. But there were two things about this latest round of disturbances that have unsettled the Iranian leadership. According to columnist Pepe Escobar, the first is that the demonstrators were demanding the resignation of Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini and not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The most popular chant, Escobar writes, was: “Mubarak, Ben Ali [of Tunisia]! Now it is Seyed Ali [Khameniei’s] turn!” [more...]

Stephen Brown is the Contributing Editor of Frontpagemag.com. He has a graduate degree in Eastern European history and his main areas of expertise are international affairs and Islamic terrorism.

Who Will Shape Obama's Policy on Egypt?

By Ryan Mauro

The U.S. is almost certain to face an Egyptian government under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood sometime this year. The Brotherhood and its apologists have long tried to influence the White House and will try to convince the media and the Obama administration that the Islamist group is moderate. And if the administration’s relationship with the Brotherhood’s allies is any indication, they’ll succeed. [more...] See Ryan on Fox & Friends.

Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood Romance

By Jamie Glazov

In the summer of 2009, when the world witnessed brave Iranians taking to the streets in an effort to overthrow the Islamofascist regime that was terrorizing them, the president of the United States merely shrugged his shoulders and shuffled his feet. Encouraging words somehow failed him. But today, as the world watches the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 occur right before its eyes, Obama suddenly sees it fit to stretch out a hand of solidarity to the Muslim Brotherhood - giving the Islamist group a green light to share power in a post-Mubarak Egyptian government. In other words, instead of taking a concrete stand against a jihadist entity, a U.S. president has given it his own personal blessing and stamp of approval. It’s the Jimmy Carter-1979 shah betrayal all over again - and with horrific deadly consequences once again on the horizon. [more...]

The Obama Administration’s Invitation To The Muslim Brotherhood

By Joseph Klein

Rich Lowry’s column in the New York Post yesterday entitled “Hope & Fear in the ‘Arab Spring’” should be required reading at the White House. Lowry reminded us that, while "every revolution against autocracy is initially stirring," they don’t always end up as well as the American Revolution. He cited the promising beginnings of the French, Russian and Iranian revolutions that were a mere prelude to catastrophe, making the years 1789, 1917 and 1979 synonymous with the onset of tyranny and bloodshed. [more...]

National Security Updates

By Ryan Mauro

Brushfire in the Middle East

The revolution that swept Tunisia’s dictator away and sparked the uprising in Egypt is spreading to the rest of the region. Over the next two weeks, protesters are planning major demonstrations on specific dates with the belief that they can also bring down their leaders. [more...]

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mask: Mohammed El-Baradei

Get ready for it: If former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohammed El-Baradei becomes the next leader of Egypt, he will be the face proclaiming the victory of secular democracy. Don’t fall for it. El-Baradei is nothing but a mask for the Muslim Brotherhood, a group slick enough to know it’s better to have a prettier face than its own. [more...]

Obama to Muslim Brotherhood: Hello, Come Right In!

The Obama Administration says it would approve of the inclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood in the next Egyptian government if it explicitly rejects violence and endorses democracy - which, by the standards of the Brotherhood and its naïve apologists, the group already has. [more...]