Catherine Shakdam

Catherine is a political analyst ​and reporter ​for MintPress focusing on​ the Middle East and the rise of ​radical movements. The Associate Director of the Beirut Center for Middle Eastern Studies, she has contributed her analyses to the Middle East Monitor, Foreign Policy Association, Your Middle East, IslamistGate, Majalla, ABNA, Open Democracy, International Policy Digest, Eurasia Review and many more.

(AUDIO) Yemeni Activist Discusses US-Led Drone Strikes And The Covert War On Terror In Yemen

Baraa Shiban, a Yemeni activist shares with MintPress his insights on drones, counter-terrorism and America’s covert war on terror in the most impoverished and politically unstable country in the Arabian Peninsula.

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam
Mideast Yemen

People gather near a car struck by an American drone in the Sawmaa area of al-Bayda province, Yemen, Saturday, April 19, 2014.  Photo: Nasir al-Sanna'a/AP LONDON --- Baraa Shiban is a Yemeni activist and investigative journalist for Reprieve, a U.K.-based nonprofit which works to shine light on human rights abuses within

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Israeli Journalist Lia Tarachansky On Israel, Palestine And The Realities Of War

MintPress sits down with an Israeli journalist and documentary filmmaker to hear her insights not just into Israel and Palestine, but the broader impacts of war on a region and the people who call it home.

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam
Israel

LONDON --- Lia Tarachansky is a filmmaker and Israel/Palestine correspondent for The Real News Network (TRNN). Based in Jaffa, Israel, she produces short, documentary-style reports exploring the context behind the news. But instead of adhering to the standard narrative that usually frames Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Tarachansky

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Looking At Yemen Five Months After Obama Hailed US Intervention A Success

As Yemen further devolves and disintegrates under poverty, political instability, civil unrest and militant aggression, Washington’s going to need to review and reshape its counterterrorism approach if it’s to gain any foothold in Yemen’s fast-moving political sands.

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam
Yemen

A Houthi Shiite rebel holds his weapon while standing guard near a protest site during a demonstration n in Sanaa, Yemen. LONDON --- What a difference a few months can make! President Obama’s September assertions that Yemen is testimony to America’s success in curtailing Islamic radicalism in the Middle East have been robbed of their

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ANALYSIS: Who Are The “Moderates” Washington’s Supporting In Syria?

The U.S. is sending hundreds of million of dollars to them, and U.S. allies are rallying in support of them, but who, exactly, are Syria’s so-called “moderates” and how much longer can they avoid being sucked into the radical extremism taking hold of the Middle East?

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam
Free Syrian Army fighters take cover from incoming Syrian Army fire in the Izaa district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012. (AP/Manu Brabo)

FSA fighters take cover from incoming Syrian Army fire in the Izaa district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012.  Photo: Manu Brabo/AP President George W. Bush declared his “war on terror” in shortly after 9/11, using an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people to call on the world to either side with America or

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European Anti-Semitism Gives Way To Islamophobia Following Charlie Hebdo Attack

France’s 6.5 million Muslims — just 10 percent of the population — are being forced to shoulder the blame for the attacks carried out by four extremists. Yet experts warn that calls for vengeance and generalizations fan the flames of radicalism without solving the problem.

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam
RIGHT WING STORY STOCKHOLM

Bo Vilbrand, spokesman for "Danish Defense League," poses for a photo with some of the group's members in Copenhagen. The group and its larger English forebear represent a new crop of right-wing radicals who don't fit the mold of the boot-stomping, Jew-hating neo-Nazis. This movement claims its fight is against Islam, and uses crusader symbols

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Tracking Pakistan’s History Of Supporting Terror, With And Without American Help

By funding al-Qaida in the 1980s as a means of rebuffing Soviet Russia’s growing influence in Asia, the U.S. helped establish Islamic radicalism in Pakistan and Afghanistan — defeating Iran’s hegemonic ambitions while also throwing Pakistan off its political balance.

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam
Pakistan

Pakistani police officers stand guard outside a court, as they bring Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, center, the main suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, leaving after his court appearance in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec 30, 2014. Photo: Anjum Naveed/AP LONDON --- Since U.S. President George W. Bush declared in his Sept. 20, 2001

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Azerbaijan And Armenia: A Brewing Proxy War?

Dwarfed by its regional neighbors, Azerbaijan remains an important cog in the Eurasian machine. Home to rich energy resources and situated at an important geostrategic crossroads, it’s clear that the tiny Eurasian state is becoming a geopolitical faultline.

Catherine Shakdam
By Catherine Shakdam

From left, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, President of Iran Hassan Ruhani, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev and Russian President Vladimir Putin press a symbolic button to release some young belugas (white sturgeons) to the Volga river, during the Caspian Summit in Astrakhan,

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