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On documenting conflict: In Syria, freelance journalist Andrea Glioti faced challenges covering the conflict, including interrogations and being smuggled across the border. On the other side of the world, photographer Louie Palu documents the Mexican drug war, noting that “I feel that organized crime groups pose a greater risk to each one of us on a daily basis than terrorists or the Taliban.”
BuzzFeed quotes a Syrian activist worried that “if we keep going down this line, I think this will be known in history as the Islamic revolution in Syria.” Though it is difficult to see how the increasing sectarianism of the drawn-out Syrian war could have been avoided, the activist regrets the influx of Islamist fighters into the opposition: “We were thinking, OK, the regime’s going to fall, and we can solve this later. We just need to get rid of Assad. This was a big mistake.”
Private donors’ funds add wild card to war in Syria as social media-savvy fundraisers in Kuwait fund rebels who in turn thank donators with YouTube videos, including one showing what I believe to be two SA-7 anti-air missile tubes.
More on the rebel shadow state: Islamic militia expels criminals from Aleppo.
The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide warns that “if we don’t act now and decisively I will not exclude the possibility of a genocide occurring in the Central African Republic.” Peter Dörrie has more.
Hitmen kill Haqqani network leading member Nasiruddin Haqqani in Pakistan (via Christoph).
The signing of a deal between the DR Congo government and defeated group M23 has been delayed; Jason Stearns has more on why a deal is important.
From Time, photos of the dismantling of the American presence in Afghanistan. This week President Obama reminded on Veterans Day that “the transition to Afghan-led security will be nearly complete” by this time next year.
After Westgate, assessing a terrorist group’s “strength,” “weakness,” and strategy (via Daniel Solomon). Kenyan officials have said that one Westgate Mall attacker once lived in a refugee camp in Kenya (via J. Dana Stuster).
A review of The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass, which details the White House’s involvement in the 1971 war between Pakistan and what became Bangladesh.
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