This isn’t final by any stretch, but it’s looking like I’ll be going back to Guantanamo Bay for two weeks toward the end of the month to observe and report on proceedings in two military commissions. Lots of things need to be worked out, so I don’t want to make any commitments I can’t fulfill, [...]

My friend, neighbor and one-time guestblogger M. LeBlanc has written one of the only essays you’ll ever have to read about women and male indie rock hegemony. If you believe in anything beyond troll-guy reality this essay is for you for you for you. I want to highlight one point she makes. [J]ust because music [...]

Seriously. Stop embarrassing the rest of us with this pathetic campaign of yours. I know you understand the discrepancy between your mode of presumed Shetl leadership and the sentiments of the generation that comes after you, so I imagine you will bleat your way, ever more loudly, into irrelevance. Meanwhile, I’ll be drinking with your [...]

al-Shabab got it for cheap, according to a deserter: So when a recruiter from Al Shabab (whose name means “the youth” in Arabic) gave him $400 and the promise of a regular salary, Dahir joined willingly. He knew that even if he didn’t survive the war, his family would have a better chance to ward [...]

Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander is testifying this morning to become the first commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, whose logo will come with a double-embossed glossy die-cut cover and a free trading card, at least for the first printing. His testimony so far about this brand-new-and-no-one-really-kn0ws-what-it-will-be command indicates, thus far, that it will be [...]

This New York Times piece reminds us of a 2006 quote from Condoleezza Rice, if you remember her: Three years ago, Condoleezza Rice, then secretary of state, declared during a speech in Jerusalem that a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians was a “strategic interest” of the United States. In comments that drew little notice [...]

But oh God, this Dana Milbank column on Attorney General Holder’s testimony yesterday. Eric Holder is a Guantanamo Bay prisoner. Stop right there. I have personally seen Guantanamo detainees. (“Prisoners” have been convicted of something.) I’ve seen them strapped to the flatbeds of small vehicles just to be driven a few yards. I’ve seen the [...]

I strongly recommend reading two beautiful pieces of journalism by Alissa Rubin (f/CJ Chivers) and Greg Jaffe about the U.S. withdrawal from the Korengal Valley. I’m not in the mood to extrapolate for policy implications at the moment, and I’m working on getting back out to eastern Afghanistan this summer (not that I’m going to [...]

This is the soundtrack to my life. Starting with His Hero Is Gone, plus Infest, Drive Like Jehu — yo, Project X, Refused, Bad Brains… If you’re a late-20s/early-30s hardcore kid, this is most definitely what you listened to and, more importantly, what you lived by. (Maybe a bit heavy on British early punk and [...]

Via Jeff Stein, I’m surprised to find a Facebook write-up by a Kabul-based think tank describing a recent talk from Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, Gen. McChrystal’s intelligence chief in Afghanistan. In January, Flynn caustically described U.S. intelligence collection in Afghanistan as being unduly enemy-centric, leaving U.S. forces largely ignorant of the areas in which they [...]