Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin
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Pundicity: Informed Opinion and Review
 

Latest Articles

Setting traitor Manning free is a betrayal by Obama

January 19, 2017  •  New York Post

As the clock winds down on his presidency, President Obama has commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of leaking hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic and military documents to WikiLeaks.

Manning told Adrian Lamo, an ex-hacker and confidant, that she hoped her leak would spark "worldwide discussion, debates and reforms."

"If not," she added, "then we're doomed as a species."

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What Kerry got wrong in his Israel speech

December 28, 2016  •  Washington Examiner

Secretary of State John Kerry laid out his vision of a Middle East peace deal on Wednesday. Rather than achieve peace between Israel and Palestinians, however, Kerry will be remembered for catalyzing terrorism and setting back the cause of peace for decades, if not permanently. The problems are not only ego and pique, the twisted personal motivations of Kerry and President Obama, but also the false conventional wisdom upon which Kerry and his aides operate.

Here is what they get wrong:

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Why Should We Trust Erdogan's Spies?

December 9, 2016  •  Newsweek

At the heart of controversy over intelligence embraced in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq were 16 words inserted into President George W. Bush's 2002 State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Specifically, British intelligence had reported upon alleged Iraqi inquiries in Niger which, even if true, ultimately went nowhere. Too many U.S. authorities relied on the veracity of intelligence supplied by British colleagues or, in the case of "Curveball," German intelligence.

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Erdogan Makes a Bid for the Military

November 30, 2016  •  Newsweek

Much of the reason why so many diplomats and analysts got the trajectory of Turkey so wrong for so long is that they focused on the cosmetic over the substantive.

They focused upon the debate about headscarves in schools and universities, but ignored changes to the makeup of the executive board of the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund, even though it was the latter which allowed Prime Minister (and now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan to target his opponents' financial holdings and business interests.

Many analysts—whether out of laziness or ideological antipathy toward those raising alarms—also dismissed concerns that Erdogan had a transformative religious agenda.

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Will Erdogan Bring Assassinations Here?

November 29, 2016  •  Newsweek

Turkey has never been known for its respect for human rights, but one of the most troubling aspects of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule has been Turkey's increasing aggressiveness toward dissidents and political opponents, not only within Turkey's borders but also abroad.

There was, of course, the 2013 assassination of three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) activists on French soil, the responsibility for which appears to lie with Turkey's intelligence service.

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Books by Michael Rubin

Cover of Dancing with the Devil Cover of Eternal Iran Cover of Into the Shadows

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