quoted by Anthony Kimery, Homeland Security Today:

The positions regarding how to describe terrorists - Muslim terrorists in particular - by both the Bush and now the Obama administration, "are evidence to strategic mistakes being made now by the administration at the heart of US defense and national security," Walid Phares told HSToday.us.

Director of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Walid is an Islamic scholar and author of, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West, and The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy. Phares said in a lengthy interview that "as we read [Brennan's speech], we realize that the administration is going backward in understanding the threat and explaining it to the public.

What are the strategic reasons behind Western reluctance to support Iran's opposition? One theory is that there are immense oil interests in partnership with the region's jihadist regimes, obstructing the advance of democracy in the region.

The reluctance by the Obama administration and other European governments to extend their hand of support to Iran's civil society during the June uprising can be explained through the pressures applied by interest groups, including oil-producing regimes, not to "meddle" in Iran's affairs and let go of the democratic movement.

Professor Walid Phares, Senior Fellow at FDD participated in a panel on France 24 TV Arabic on the US-Russian relations at the first anniversary of the Georgia Russia summer war of 2008. Professor Phares said Washington is not encouraging Georgia to wage operations against South Ossetia and Abkhazia and Russia must stabilize the situation in the Caucuses as it is facing terrorism in other parts." Phares reminded his colleagues that many regimes and radical forces wish to see the Cold War coming back because it will serve their purpose to see other powers weakened. "Today's Russia must remember that it is the heir of a revolution against the Soviet regime not a continuation of it. When Yestsine stood on the tank to face off with the Soviet state, the US, NATO and most free naitons stood with him and with the Russian people." Other participants in the panel were advocating the idea that Russia must go back to the cold war times and confront the US.

Watch part 1 here and part 2 here.

Secretary Clinton's visit to Africa.

Watch the interview here.

Richard Holbrooke's mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Watch the interview here.

The watering down of terminology used in war against terrorism.

Listen to the interview here.

The Nigerian Taliban and U.S. homeland security.

Listen to the interview here.

The renewal of violence in the northern provinces of Nigeria brings this oil producing country to the brink of "Talibanization," threatening not only the precarious ethnic and religious makeup of the most populous African state but also the entire region, from Chad to Senegal.

How to understand homegrown terrorism. 

Watch the interview here.