In the Depth of the Abyss
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Why Concessions Should Not Be Made to Terrorist Kidnappers
European Journal of Political Economy 44 (2016) 41–52 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect European Journal of Political Economy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejpe Why concessions should not be made to terrorist kidnappers Patrick T. Brandt, Justin George, Todd Sandler ⁎ School of Economic, Political & Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA article info abstract Article history: This paper examines the dynamic implications of making concessions to terrorist kidnappers. Received 21 December 2015 We apply a Bayesian Poisson changepoint model to kidnapping incidents associated with Received in revised form 23 May 2016 three cohorts of countries that differ in their frequency of granting concessions. Depending Accepted 24 May 2016 on the cohort of countries during 2001–2013, terrorist negotiation successes encouraged 64% Available online 26 May 2016 to 87% more kidnappings. Our findings also hold for 1978–2013, during which these negotia- tion successes encouraged 26% to 57% more kidnappings. Deterrent aspects of terrorist casual- Keywords: ties are also quantified; the dominance of religious fundamentalist terrorists meant that such Kidnappings casualties generally did not curb kidnappings. Changepoints © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY- Game theory Concessions NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Violent ends Dynamic analysis “…we know that hostage takers looking for ransoms distinguish between those governments that pay ransoms and those that do not, and make a point of not taking hostages from those countries that do not pay.” David S. Cohen, US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, 2012 speech to ChathamHouse [Callimachi (2014a)] 1. -
Freelance Journalist Invoice Washington Dc
Freelance Journalist Invoice Washington Dc Calfless and unbreathing Alasdair palsies her witenagemot beefburgers photosensitizes and droops longways. Zymotic and russety Herby manipulates almost theocratically, though Christ scats his mammet unknitted. Looted and emarginate Malcolm never outguess his geebung! What happened to understand what to freelance journalist, where she clerked for Exempts licensed pharmacists from the ABC test. English and psychology from Fairfield University in Connecticut. Doing yet she needed to out put Sherriff on my footing are the year ends. International in five native Toronto and later worked as a reporter and editor for UPI in Washington and Hong Kong; as a bureau chief in Manila and Nairobi; and as editor for Europe, Africa and the morning East based in London. This file is where big. This template for public service, from oil drilling in freelance journalist invoice washington dc public; and skilled trade on the invoice template yours, you may work? Vox free by all. He says its like some who attend are not there yet make a point, they are there a cause mayhem. President of Serbia and convicted war criminal, Slobodan Milosevic. Generate a template for target time. Endangered Species on and wildlife protections. As a freelance commercial writer, proofreader and editor, i practice your job easier freelance writing the company and eight more successful. Your visitors cannot display this state until the add a Google Maps API Key. Some cargo is easier to work than others. Verification is people working. The international radio news service period the BBC. Evan Sernoffsky is a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle specializing in criminal intelligence, crime and breaking news. -
Senate the Senate Met at 9:30 A.M
E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 113 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 160 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2014 No. 121 Senate The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The BRING JOBS HOME ACT called to order by the President pro clerk will report the motion. Mr. REID. Mr. President, Henry tempore (Mr. LEAHY). The assistant legislative clerk read Wadsworth Longfellow wisely noted: as follows: ‘‘It takes less time to do a thing right PRAYER Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 488, S. than it does to explain why you did it The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- 2648, a bill making emergency supplemental wrong.’’ fered the following prayer: appropriations for the fiscal year ending In about 1 hour, Senators will be on Let us pray. September 30, 2014, and for other purposes. the floor and have an opportunity to Wondrous God, angels bow before SCHEDULE follow what Longfellow said; that is, to You, heaven and Earth adore You. Mr. REID. Following my remarks do the right thing. We have a bill that As the days pass swiftly, we pause to and those of the Republican leader, protects American jobs. The Bring Jobs thank You for surrounding us with the there will be 1 hour for debate equally Home Act tackles the growing problem shield of Your favor. Your anger is only divided prior to a cloture vote on S. of American jobs being shipped over- for a moment, but Your favor is for a 2569, the Bring Jobs Home Act. -
Reporting ISIS
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series #D-101, July 2016 The Pen and the Sword: Reporting ISIS By Paul Wood Joan Shorenstein Fellow, Fall 2015 BBC Middle East Correspondent Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. May 2013: The kidnapping started slowly. 1 At first, it did not feel like a kidnapping at all. Daniel Rye delivered himself to the hostage-takers quite willingly. He was 24 years old, a freelance photographer from Denmark, and he had gone to the small town of Azaz in northern Syria. His translator, a local woman, said they should get permission to work. So on the morning of his second day in Azaz, only his second ever in Syria, they went to see one of the town’s rebel groups. He knocked at the metal gate to a compound. It was opened by a boy of 11 or 12 with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder. “We’ve come to see the emir,” said his translator, using the word – “prince” – that Islamist groups have for their commanders. The boy nodded at them to wait. Daniel was tall, with crew-cut blonde hair. His translator, a woman in her 20s with a hijab, looked small next to him. The emir came with some of his men. He spoke to Daniel and the translator, watched by the boy with the Kalashnikov. The emir looked through the pictures on Daniel’s camera, squinting. There were images of children playing on the burnt-out carcass of a tank. It was half buried under rubble from a collapsed mosque, huge square blocks of stone like a giant child’s toy. -
Syria 2014 Human Rights Report
SYRIA 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The authoritarian regime of President Bashar Asad has ruled the Syrian Arab Republic since 2000. The regime routinely violated the human rights of its citizens as the country witnessed major political conflict. The regime’s widespread use of deadly military force to quell peaceful civil protests calling for reform and democracy precipitated a civil war in 2012, leading to armed groups taking control of major parts of the country. In government-controlled areas, Asad makes key decisions with counsel from a small number of military and security advisors, ministers, and senior members of the ruling Baath (Arab Socialist Renaissance) Party. The constitution mandates the primacy of Baath Party leaders in state institutions and society. Asad and Baath party leaders dominated all three branches of government. In June, for the first time in decades, the Baath Party permitted multi-candidate presidential elections (in contrast to single-candidate referendums administered in previous elections), but the campaign and election were neither free nor fair by international standards. The election resulted in a third seven-year term for Asad. The geographically limited 2012 parliamentary elections, won by the Baath Party, were also neither free nor fair, and several opposition groups boycotted them. The government maintained effective control over its uniformed military, police, and state security forces but did not consistently maintain effective control over paramilitary, nonuniformed proregime militias such as the National Defense Forces, the “Bustan Charitable Association,” or “shabiha,” which often acted autonomously without oversight or direction from the government. The civil war continued during the year. -
Volume X, Issue 1 February 2016 PERSPECTIVES on TERRORISM Volume 10, Issue 1
ISSN 2334-3745 Volume X, Issue 1 February 2016 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 10, Issue 1 Table of Contents Welcome from the Editor 1 I. Articles Who are the Bangladeshi ‘Islamist Militants’? 2 by Ali Riaz Why is Contemporary Religious Terrorism Predominantly Linked to Islam? Four Possible Psychosocial Factors 19 by Joshua D. Wright How Dangerous Are Domestic Terror Plotters with Foreign Fighter Experience? The Case of Homegrown Jihadis in the US 32 by Christopher J. Wright The Nature of Nigeria’s Boko Haram War, 2010-2015: A Strategic Analysis 41 by James Adewunmi Falode II. Interview In Conversation with Morten Storm: A Double Agent’s Journey into the Global Jihad 53 Interviewed by Stefano Bonino III. Research Note If Publicity is the Oxygen of Terrorism – Why Do Terrorists Kill Journalists? 65 by François Lopez IV. Resources Counting Lives Lost – Monitoring Camera-Recorded Extrajudicial Executions by the “Islamic State” 78 by Judith Tinnes Bibliography: Northern Ireland Conflict (The Troubles) 83 Compiled and selected by Judith Tinnes V. Book Reviews Michael Morell. The Great War of our Time. The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism, from Al Qa’ida to ISIS. New York: Twelve, 2015; 362 pp.; US $ 28.00. ISBN 978-1-4555-8566-3. 111 Reviewed by Brian Glyn Williams ISSN 2334-3745 i February 2016 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 10, Issue 1 Counterterrorism Bookshelf: Twenty New Publications on Israeli & Palestinian Issues 114 Reviewed by Joshua Sinai VI. Notes from the Editor TRI Award for Best PhD Thesis 2015: Deadline of 31 March 2016 for Submissions Approaching 126 About Perspectives on Terrorism 127 ISSN 2334-3745 ii February 2016 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 10, Issue 1 Welcome from the Editor Dear Reader, We are pleased to announce the release of Volume X, Issue 1 (February 2016) of Perspectives on Terrorism at www.terrorismanalysts.com. -
Return to Raqqa
RETURN TO RAQQA 80' - 2020 MEDIAWAN RIGHTS Produced by Minimal Films [email protected] RETURN TO RAQQA 0 2 SYNOPSIS “Return to Raqqa” chronicles what was perhaps the most famous kidnapping event in history , when 19 journalists were taken captive by the Islamic State, as told by one of its protagonists: Spanish reporter Marc Marginedas, who was also the first captive to be released. MARC MARGINEDAS Marc Marginedas is a journalist who was a correspondent for El Periódico de Catalunya for two decades. His activity as a war correspondent led him to cover the civil war in Algeria, the second Chechen war, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the civil war in Syria, among others. On 1 September 2013, Marginedas entered Syria accompanied by a group of opposition figures from the Free Syrian Army. It was his third visit to the country as a correspondent since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. His main goal during this latest trip was to provide information on the preparations for a possible international military intervention that seemed very close. Three days later, on 4 September 2013, Marginedas was abducted near the city of Hama by ISIS jihadists. His captivity lasted almost six months, during which he shared a cell with some twenty journalists and aid workers from various countries. Two of these were James Foley and Steven Sotloff, colleagues who unfortunately did not share his fate. Marginedas was released in March 2014 and has not returned to Syrian territory since then. But he now feels the need to undertake this physical, cathartic journey to the house near Raqqa where he underwent the harshest experience of his life, an experience that he has practically chosen to forget over the past few years. -
Senate FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016
E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 114 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 162 WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016 No. 178 House of Representatives The House was not in session today. Its next meeting will be held on Monday, December 12, 2016, at 3 p.m. Senate FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016 The Senate met at 10 a.m. and was lic for which it stands, one nation under God, overwhelmingly rejected that ap- called to order by the President pro indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. proach. tempore (Mr. HATCH). f The funding in this CR is critical to our Nation’s defense. It supports over- f RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY seas operations, the fight against ISIL, PRAYER LEADER and our forces in Afghanistan. It pro- The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. vides resources to begin implementing fered the following prayer: CAPITO). The majority leader is recog- the medical innovation bill we passed Let us pray. nized. earlier this week and to start bringing relief to victims of severe flooding Great and eternal God, we refuse to f forget Your generous blessings that across our country, and of course it in- bring joy to our lives. You satisfy us REMEMBERING JOHN GLENN cludes provisions that will guarantee that retired coal miners in Kentucky— with good things in every season. We Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, particularly thank You for the laud- we were saddened yesterday to learn of in Kentucky—and other States will not able life of former Senator John Glenn. -
7 Years Gone: Austin Tice Still in Syria and More Press Freedom News in This Issue of Pressing
7 Years Gone: Austin Tice Still in Syria And more press freedom news in this issue of Pressing. Aug 13 Public post I’m Scott Nover. Welcome back to Pressing, a newsletter about press freedom. If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so here and receive this letter in your inbox every Tuesday morning. This is the tenth issue of Pressing and we’ve got a lot of news from the U.S. and around the world. Please keep the feedback coming and send thoughts, suggestions, and tips my way at [email protected]. Let’s jump in. The Wrong Kind of Anniversaries Dates and anniversaries are important to families who’ve endured the worst kind of waiting. For the family of Austin Tice, the journalist who went missing in Syria in 2012, there are two important dates and anniversaries this week. First a birthday: Sunday was Austin’s 38th birthday. Parents Marc and Debra haven’t celebrated a birthday with their son since he turned 31. Since then, he’s been held captive and they’ve had access to limited information from the U.S. government, which has attempted to bring Austin home. And it’ll be seven years tomorrow: He went missing on August 14, 2012. Austin, a Marine veteran who was attending Georgetown University at the time of his capture, went to Syria to document the war as a freelance reporter and photographer. He worked for the Washington Post and the McClatchy newspaper chain among other outlets. Marc and Debra wrote an op-ed that’s been published in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Tennessean, the Bergen Record, the Miami Herald, the Butler Eagle, the Arizona Daily Star, the Pensacola News Journal, CNN, and surely others that I have missed. -
A Theory of ISIS
A Theory of ISIS A Theory of ISIS Political Violence and the Transformation of the Global Order Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou First published 2018 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou 2018 The right of Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 9911 9 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 9909 6 Paperback ISBN 978 1 7868 0169 2 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7868 0171 5 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7868 0170 8 EPUB eBook This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America Contents List of Figures vii List of Tables viii List of Abbreviations ix Acknowledgements x Introduction: The Islamic State and Political Violence in the Early Twenty-First Century 1 Misunderstanding IS 6 Genealogies of New Violence 22 Theorising IS 28 1. Al Qaeda’s Matrix 31 Unleashing Transnational Violence 32 Revenge of the ‘Agitated Muslims’ 49 The McDonaldisation of Terrorism 57 2. Apocalypse Iraq 65 Colonialism Redesigned 66 Monstering in American Iraq 74 ‘I will see you in New York’ 83 3. -
Syria's Socially Mediated Civil
[PEACEW RKS [ BLOGS AND BULLETS III SYRIA’S SOCIALLY MEDIATED CIVIL WAR Marc Lynch Deen Freelon Sean Aday ABOUT THE REPORT In this report from the USIP PeaceTech Initiative, a team of scholars from George Washington University and American University analyze the role of social media in Syria’s civil war. The report focuses primarily on group dynamics, activist organizations’ use of online media, and the relationship between new and traditional media. It draws on a public conference held in Washington, D.C., in September 2012 with Syrian activists, Western journal- ists, and policy analysts, as well as on a private workshop held in April 2013 at Stanford University with academic researchers and leading research scientists from top technology firms. It presents novel empirical research on Twitter conversations about Syria that demonstrates important new findings about differences across Arabic and English users, and about the emergence of distinct, insular clusters of discourse. This report is part of the ongoing Blogs and Bullets project led by USIP’s PeaceTech Initiative, in partnership with George Wash- ington University’s Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication. It builds on two other reports, published in 2010 and 2012: “Blogs and Bullets: New Media in Contentious Politics” and “Blogs and Bullets II: New Media and Conflict After the Arab Spring.” ABOUT THE AUTHORS Marc Lynch is a professor of political science and interna- tional affairs at George Washington University and direc- tor of the Institute for Middle East Studies. Deen Freelon is an assistant professor of communication at American University. Sean Aday is an associate professor of media and public affairs and international affairs at George Washington University and director of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication. -
Soleimani Is Dead: the Road Ahead for Iranian- Backed Militias in Iraq
OBJECTIVE · RELEVANT · RIGOROUS | JANUARY 2020 · VOLUME 13, ISSUE 1 FEATURE ARTICLE FEATURE ARTICLE Soleimani Is Dead: The Lessons from the Islamic Road Ahead for Iranian- State's 'Milestone' Texts Backed Militias in Iraq and Speeches Haroro J. Ingram, Craig Whiteside, Michael Knights and Charlie Winter FEATURE ARTICLES Editor in Chief 1 Soleimani Is Dead: The Road Ahead for Iranian-Backed Militias in Iraq Michael Knights Paul Cruickshank 11 Lessons from the Islamic State's 'Milestone' Texts and Speeches Managing Editor Haroro J. Ingram, Craig Whiteside, and Charlie Winter Kristina Hummel INTERVIEW EDITORIAL BOARD Colonel Suzanne Nielsen, Ph.D. 22 A View from the CT Foxhole: Rob Saale, Former Director, U.S. Hostage Department Head Recovery Fusion Cell Seth Loertscher Dept. of Social Sciences (West Point) Brian Dodwell ANALYSIS Director, CTC 28 After Soleimani: What's Next for Iran's Quds Force? Don Rassler Ariane M. Tabatabai Director of Strategic Initiatives, CTC 34 Piety Is in the Eye of the Bureaucrat: The Islamic State's Strategy of Civilian Control CONTACT Gina Vale Combating Terrorism Center U.S. Military Academy The January 3, 2020, U.S. drone strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary 607 Cullum Road, Lincoln Hall Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Kata’ib Hez- West Point, NY 10996 bollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad International Airport Phone: (845) 938-8495 will likely have consequences that reverberate across the region and beyond for years. In our first feature article, Michael Knights focuses