I take perverse pleasure (note to self: discuss with analyst!) in parting company with my libertarian/lefty buddies on the issue of the FBI’s demand that Apple assist in accessing an iPhone phone of the San Bernardino shooter. The shadow of the People’s Republic of China—and the demands it plans to impose on US vendors of... Read More

There have been some darkly amusing moments as the media in United States and France have pushed back against the PRC's efforts to shoulder its way into the privileged ranks of civilized nations that have innocently suffered terrorist attacks. More problematic is the unspoken corollary: that the PRC doesn't get the Empire State Building and... Read More

Yesterday I wrote a post, The Bloody Key to the San Bernardino Massacre: Radicalisation at the Lal Masjid Mosque in Pakistan, based upon unconfirmed news reports that President Obama had notified Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif that a photograph showing Tashfeen Malik, the female shooter at San Bernardino, with fire-eating Pakistani cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz had... Read More

[Update: according to the LA Times, Malik attended Bahauddin Zakariya University in the city of Multan in southern Punjab to study pharmacology from 2007 to 2012. So she wasn't at the Lal Masjid madrassa. Unclear how photo of her with Maulana Abdul Aziz came about.] With the as yet not officially confirmed report that a... Read More