Christopher Allbritton

The Daily Beast • 20th May 2015

ISIS Guide A Mix of Travel and Terror

A British jihadist who fled the United Kingdom has penned a jaunty travel guide to the so-called Islamic State, in a bid to “provide an alternative narrative to life under the Caliphate,” he writes, the latest bit of propaganda from the terror groups that mixes horror with holiday tips.

The English-language e-book—titled “A Brief Guide to the Islamic State” (2015) and dated May 16—gushes over the food, weather, and people of the Caliphate in phrasings that could have come straight out of a loca

The Daily Beast • 17th December 2014

Pakistan’s Dance With Terrorists Just Backfired and Killed 132 Children

Today’s horrific attack in Peshawar on a military school, in which scores of children were killed by the Pakistani Taliban, should put Pakistan’s security choices over the last few decades in a stark light. And while the immediate reaction from the Pakistani military will no doubt be swift and terrible, Pakistan needs to think long and hard about what kind of country it wants to be when the initial retaliation is over.

Will it be one that continues to treat extremist groups as assets to use aga

The Daily Beast • 24th August 2014

Spirit Tripping With Colombian Shamans

As I gazed into the little white plastic cup of dark chocolate-colored, viscous liquid, I felt the familiar grip of terror in my gut. This was yagé, also known as ayahuasca, the Amazonian root used in shamanistic ceremonies and brought to the world’s attention by that great drug hound, William Burroughs, in his book with Allen Ginsburg, “The Yage Letters.”

As the Cofán shaman blew strongly over the cup, I took those few seconds to contemplate how I had managed to find myself here. In June 2013,

Reuters • 16th February 2012

Fool's Gold? Pakistan mine rift exposes investor risk

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan’s Reko Diq, an untapped copper and gold mine of fabulous potential, was meant to be the biggest foreign investment in the country’s mining sector, but it’s beginning to look more like fool’s gold to the companies involved.

Set in one of the bleakest places on earth, a Baluchistan desert at the foot of an extinct volcano, Reko Diq was expected to yield revenues of at least $60 billion over the 56-year life of the mine.

Tethyan Copper Company (TCC), a joint venture

Reuters • 27th December 2011

Newsmaker: Pakistan's Imran Khan - playboy cricketer to PM?

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Former cricketer Imran Khan reckons he could end militancy and corruption in 90 days if elected prime minister in a show of confidence which has helped make him Pakistan’s most popular politician.

He drew at least 100,000 people to the streets of Karachi on Sunday in a massive rally that increases pressure on the government and cements his standing as the new political force.

After 15 years as an aside to Pakistan politics, he is riding a wave of dissatisfaction with the

Reuters • 2nd May 2011

Analysis: In Pakistan, embarrassed silence on killing

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan faced enormous embarrassment on Monday after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces, raising questions over whether its military and intelligence were too incompetent to catch him themselves or knew all along where he was hiding.

San Francisco Chronicle • 24th March 2007

Silent war against terror waged in dangerous waters

2007-03-24 04:00:00 PDT Aboard the Bremen, Gulf of Aden -- The seizure of 15 British navy personnel Friday was a stark reminder of the unheralded conflict being fought by the United States and its allies on the high seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, patrols of the volatile waterways in the Middle East and East Africa were stepped up. Their targets are human trafficking, drug and oil smuggling, piracy, weapons-running and possible inf

TIME.com • 24th July 2006

Hizballah Nation

Nervously eyeing the skies for Israeli warplanes, Hussein Naboulsi, a spokesman for Hizballah, took quick strides as he accompanied foreign journalists through the bombed-out neighborhoods of Beirut's southern suburbs. "Listen to me!" he shouted. "We have to move very fast!" He paused amid the devastation to point out the pulverized office blocks in the Harat Hreik district where Hizballah's headquarters had stood only a week earlier. "Now I have no place to work," said Naboulsi, the son of a pr

TIME.com • 20th March 2006

Why Iraq's Police Are a Menace

The bodies began to show up early last week. On Monday, 34 corpses were found. In the darkness of Tuesday morning, 15 more men, between the ages of 22 and 40 were found in the back of a pickup truck in the al-Khadra district of western Baghdad. They had been hanged. By daybreak, 40 more bodies were found around the city, most bearing signs of torture before the men were killed execution-style. The most gruesome discovery was an 18-by-24-foot mass grave in the Shi'ite slum of Kamaliyah in east Ba

TIME.com • 8th November 2005

Making Tribal War Work for the U.S. in Iraq

Operation Steel Curtain opened up Saturday morning as two Marine battalions made a stealthy entrance into the outskirts of Huseybah, a smugglers' haven near the Syrian border that U.S. officials believe is the latest stronghold for insurgents loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Echo, Fox and Golf companies, from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines took the southern slice of the city, which runs almost two miles west to east, while units from the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines moved into the northern half. Embedd