7/30/2013
Ehiztari
Normally during their second term U.S.
presidents reveal their true ambitions. Without the pressure of having to win a
re-election at the end of the term, they have their hands free to implement all
those unpopular policies that in their first term would have been suicidal but that
are the ones that forge a presidential legacy.
For Obama, it was going to be hard
to accomplish more than in the first four years. Obamacare and the closing
chapter of Osama Bin Laden were a hard act to follow. All this, however, has
gone out of the window. His legacy might be rather murky in the end.
Picture: Obama's twitter
The revelation of secrets...
7/24/2013
Ehiztari
Who said that Iraq was
pacified? This week, a massive jailbreak in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison has freed
more
than 500 prisoners, many of them from Al Qaeda in Iraq. The word massive falls
short to describe an operation that dwarfs others attempted by Al Qaeda in
Afghanistan or Iraq.
The confusion in the
Iraqi government has been massive too. They knew that something was coming to get
them. Every year during the Ramadan month, terrorist attacks increase. That
reminds me of the modus operandi of ETA, which used to carry out attacks on
weekends and holidays.
Returning to the
subject, I was saying that the Iraqi government suspected...
7/14/2013
Ehiztari
The borders of the
Middle East and the Sahara have always been an excellent breeding ground for
smuggling. Dozens of times, crossing from one country to another, I have seen myself
how cigarettes, alcohol or even toilet paper was carried mixed among the luggage
of tourists and backpackers.
Conflicts in the
region have made these borders even more porous. Many people are benefiting
from the lack of control on either side of the border to increase smuggling of
all kinds of goods, objects or even people.
In the Sahara, the
growing influence of al-Qaeda (notable for using the drug trade to finance
itself) has increased smuggling in places...
7/09/2013
Ehiztari
With the perspective
that gives time, many Westerners who at first supported the Arab revolutions look now in fear the apparent result of this spring:
an Islamist summer. It worries them so much that many celebrated the coup against Morsi in Egypt -despite being, all in all, a coup.
All the countries
involved in the Arab Spring, from Morocco to Syria, have seen raise their Islamic base. In Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood
ruled the country until a coup ousted Mursi two weeks ago. Islamist militias in Syria such as al-Nusra are gaining influence. In Morocco and Tunisia two Islamic parties
took power in the last elections. Hamas, in turn, governs...
7/07/2013
Ehiztari
The world woke up back
on a late April Tuesday morning to the horrific images of a cargo airliner
crashing in
Afghanistan. The huge fireball left by the plane when crashing was a clear picture
of the tragedy.
The aircraft was a
Boeing 747-400 carrying only cargo on board. This load was mostly military
equipment, vehicles and other supplies. It seems there wasn’t any attack and
for now, the most plausible theory is that it was an accident.
The load probably wasn’t
well secured and went loose during takeoff towards the tail. This in turn would
have altered the center of gravity of the aircraft, making it stall and fall.
It is certainly...
Are you afraid? Well, this works in that way. First you do what scares you and it's later when you get the courage
7/30/2013
Ehiztari
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