BY JENNIFER KELTZ In September, a drone attack crippled vital chokepoints in Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure. This attack, which the United States and Saudi Arabia blamed on Iran, is not an isolated incident: it occurred amidst rising tensions in a…
Month: February 2020
I AM BRAINWASHED (OR NOT): A MONOLOGUE
BY MINQI SONG Nov 15, 2019. I woke up at 6 a.m, and checked my phone as usual. The first message was from Julie, sent ten minutes earlier. Julie is a core leader of Education Without Barriers (EWB), an education…
Diana, Palestine’s Fiercest Makeup Artist
BY KATIE BARNUM Diana remembers the drive from Ramallah to Nablus vividly. It was her first return home after deciding to remove her hijab—a decision she had made nearly six months previously, over her family’s objection. Her palms were furiously…
New York City’s Generation 9/11: Growing up Muslim and American
BY SARAH SAKHA My father goes by “Fred”; his real name is Farzad, which sounds distinctly non-white and Muslim. My mother goes by “Sarah”; her name is Soheila. They named me Sarah, so I would blend into my predominantly white,…
A Well-Intentioned Visa Program that Allows so Few to Immigrate
BY BASBIBI KAKAR Letting down their best allies Behind the Special Immigrant Visa program lies a powerful story of loyalty, risk and promises betrayed, for the tens of thousands of people who risked their lives to help the United States…
The World’s Deadliest Ocean Crossing
BY SEAN HANSEN Forty-two miles off the Libyan coastline, the Ocean Viking races towards a sinking ship full of refugees. Acting on information reported to the Libyan Coast Guard, the ship’s crew prepares for a rescue effort in the bleak…
Taif Jany Brings Reality to U.S. Immigration Policy
BY MARJORIE TOLSDORF “On November 9, 2006, my father left for work in Al Hillah, a city below Baghdad, but never returned,” said Taif Jany. “He was kidnapped on his way home while in a car with two of his…
UN Insider Fights for Peacekeeping Reform
BY CAROLINE KORNDORFFER In 1993, a truck with a few American soldiers and a United Nations political official aboard was headed back to Mogadishu after visiting a remote post. Along the side of the road, the soldiers saw a woman…
A Career in Counterterrorism
BY JACK STONE TRUITT Throughout his 26 year career in counterterrorism at the FBI, John Anticev experienced some of the most significant failures and successes in American counterintelligence. He saw Islamic terrorism shift from a back-burner issue to the bureau’s…
Coming to Terms with the Taliban
BY SEAN STEINBERG The Bush administration launched the “Global War on Terror” in the aftermath of 9/11 as an unambiguous moral crusade framed with damning, unequivocal rhetoric. Yet today, the United States is negotiating with the Taliban — the very…