Middle East Times

"In a more competitive market where products are increasing in quality," said Gray, who now works at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think ...

According to blogger and foreign policy expert Steve Clemons, he has regularly "opposed false trade-offs between embracing Eastern European nations (and even helping to create new ones) and Russia's serious national priorities." LINK

Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation and author of several books on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, spoke with The Atlantic magazine about the possibility of a terrorist attack to correspond with the U.S. presidential election.

Though he ruled out a major attack on U.S. soil or associated targets, Coll said the potential exists for al-Qaida media releases and attacks in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

There is plenty of skepticism, much of it well founded, about the prospects for the Middle East peace conference planned for Annapolis, MD at the end of this month, as well as a host of question marks. Even the date of the summit and when invitations will be sent out are unclear at the time of writing. Many fear the meeting will be underprepared, and that failure will launch another round of violence.

Participants at the 2007 DACOR conference on the Middle East recently heatedly debated the "frying pan of Iraq, the fire of the Israel and Palestinian conflict."

The Iraq panel discussed the increasing fragmentation within the Arab country, agreeing that tribal affinities would color the future Iraqi economic and geopolitical landscape. ...

Meanwhile, early prognoses on the proposed Annapolis Middle East peace conference ruled the discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict panel.