Author: Rachel Marsden

PARIS — The Internet went crazy last week over what was described in hyperventilating tweets as NATO’s plan to kill hackers. “NATO-Commissioned Report Says Killing Hackers Is Basically OK,” blared one tech blog headline, nicely reinforcing the paranoia. That makes it sound as if the governments of NATO countries are looking for any excuse to […]

PARIS — The European Union’s $13 billion bailout plan for Cyprus has nothing to do with socialism but rather with much greater stakes. This is the EU attempting to outmaneuver an uncharacteristically flat-footed Vladimir Putin and Russia in a key battleground, over long-festering issues: transparency, corruption, and support of Syria and Iran. This is also […]

PARIS — A chess piece has fallen in Latin America. The road to prosperity and peace for the citizens of many countries — probably even yours — runs through the recent death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and a counterintuitive deal between two nations. Depending on whom you speak to, Chavez was either a jerk […]

PARIS — Is there anything people can possibly do these days to disgust or unnerve themselves? Or is the only barrier to bad behavior massive societal shunning, the likes of which isn’t noticed by those who are too engrossed with themselves to pay attention? I’m asking this because it seemed that everywhere I looked recently, […]

PARIS — When Ben Affleck’s “Argo” — a film based on the true-life, CIA-assisted Canadian operation to rescue American diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 — won the Oscar for Best Picture, all I could think about was how badly Iran blew a prime opportunity to keep quiet for once. Iranian Culture Minister […]

PARIS — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced last week that the Pentagon has created a new military award for keyboard cyber-warriors and drone joystick jockeys. The Distinguished Warfare Medal will recognize those whose ability to incinerate a designated target from the comfort of an office chair wasn’t prohibitively affected by a jumpy trigger finger […]

PARIS — A leaked U.S. Department of Justice white paper supporting the killing of terrorists overseas who happen to hold American citizenship is causing mass hyperventilation across America. Although average Americans needn’t fear the possibility of being picked off by a drone one night while scarfing down macaroni and cheese and watching the game, there […]

PARIS — The anti-war types are unhappy with France’s foray into Mali to help that country’s troops eradicate balkanizing terrorism at the request of the Malian government. If even the French aren’t “allowed” to go to war — and under a Socialist president, no less — then who can? It would indeed be nice if […]

PARIS — A bipartisan group of senators has just lit a soggy fuse under the immigration debate. The statement of principles tabled by four senators from each party is such an impotent byproduct of compromise that calling it bipartisan is redundant. This manifesto of mediocrity fails to address the biggest immigration problems facing America — […]

PARIS — The realities highlighted by the Oscar-nominated film “Zero Dark Thirty,” which detailed the operation that ended with the killing of Osama bin Laden, don’t begin and end with the debate over what some call “torture” as a means of obtaining intelligence. That’s just the only issue from the film that politicians and the […]

Socialist French President Francois Hollande is in the pilot’s seat in the world’s latest military incursion. We’re not used to seeing the French lead the way into battle, but it’s becoming increasingly frequent. Some 63 percent of the French support Hollande’s decision to take military action in Mali, according to a poll conducted by the […]

It’s very likely that kids will find this column to be, like, totally stupid, and will conclude that they can write one sooooo much better. They will declare this on their Twitter feed, sandwiched between the hundreds of photos of themselves making that pursed-lips “duck face,” then wait for the “friends” they’ve never met in […]

Predicting events can be a dangerous game. That’s because some people simply project wishful thinking, allowing their personal biases to obscure reality. We see it repeatedly during election season. The key to making accurate predictions is absolute objectivity: observing patterns in a detached manner, drawing inferences and applying them to new developments in order to […]

PARIS — Is “killed by a drone strike” the new “alive and well”? If you pay close enough attention, it makes you wonder what’s really going on. Here’s how this charade usually goes: One or more major news organizations runs a story about some Middle Eastern terrorist being killed in a drone strike, usually in […]

Wasn’t the U.S. defense budget supposed to be in for some belt-tightening by now? Whereas President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, waged war the old-fashioned way, with troops and tanks, Obama has been busy outsourcing the dirty work of protecting and furthering America’s interests to CIA drones, private contractors, local mobs with ties to […]

Anyone who has seen the latest James Bond film, “Skyfall,” would be hard-pressed to find any traditional espionage tradecraft. More actual spying would have meant less of Daniel Craig running around in a too-tight suit chasing bad guys. When the villain — in this case a cyberterrorist played masterfully by Javier Bardem — is able […]

PARIS — A colleague mentioned earlier this week how thankful he is that he can tell anyone who deserves it to go take a flying leap. (Actually, his precise words are unprintable, but you get the idea.) At first glance, such uninhibited opinion-sharing might seem rude and unacceptable, but upon further reflection, it becomes clear […]

PARIS — French public reaction to American CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus’ suicide-bombing of his own career demonstrates a lack of understanding of the perceived offense in favor of a blind defense of libertinism. It was learned last week that Petraeus had an extramarital affair with his biographer, reserve Army officer Paula Broadwell (who, like […]

PARIS — Regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election next week, one thing seems certain: Americans are about to learn the same hard lessons recently visited upon the French and the British. That is, whoever ends up being elected head of any given political system will be required to work within the confines of […]

PARIS — There’s a good chance that American voters will screw up the presidential election. “How could you say such a thing when in a democracy the people are, by definition, correct?” you ask. Because there’s no such thing as collective intelligence, that’s why. Sure, there are individuals within a given society who happen to […]

The people of France have spoken on the subject of the U.S. presidential election. Naturally, you couldn’t care less about what anyone else (let alone the French) thinks about you or your electoral choices, right? The French aren’t particularly interested in appearing too keen on America, either. A Harris Interactive poll found that 66 percent […]

PARIS — America has collective attention deficit disorder, and in one way it’s a bigger threat than terrorism, cybersecurity dangers and the never-ending Middle East drama: Those other problems at least have the potential to be solved. We witnessed this phenomenon last week during the first presidential debate. Washington pundits and policy wonks tried to […]

PARIS — Mitt Romney’s biggest problem in this race isn’t that he’s wealthy — it’s that he lacks the sort of passion that can only be forged by trial and tribulation. It’s one thing to articulate the principles of free-market capitalism and limited government as the solution to the country’s current woes, but they have […]

While news in America continues to be dominated by the usual election-cycle fare of gimmicky talking points, gratuitous finger-pointing and constant bickering over which presidential candidate is best qualified to steer the country into the iceberg, some other countries around the world, such as Great Britain, are thinking ahead to identify possible lifeboats and passing […]

The CIA claims that it never saw the storm coming, but Canadian intelligence sure did. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird landed in Vladivostok, Russia, earlier this month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and had barely stepped off the plane when he announced that Canada would be pulling its diplomats out of Iran and […]

It would seem that we’re now at the stage of global economic lunacy where the worldwide socialist slide is so far gone that the president of Russia is lecturing the world, and particularly Europe, about the risks of socialism. Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vladivostok, Russia, Vladimir Putin promoted the merits of […]

By now, it should be pretty clear to anyone with even the faintest pulse that regardless of who ends up winning any future elections, they aren’t going to change your personal economic reality quickly enough to suit your liking. And that’s only if they even manage to find the courage to sufficiently cut through all […]

This week’s Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., is a political autobahn. Depending on how Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan play it, they’ll either gain some unfettered mileage in advancing their agenda with the voting public, or slam into a pole in a single-car crash. Nothing stands in their way except themselves. Not even the liberal […]

If Justin Bieber or the Rolling Stones suddenly decided to stage an impromptu concert in a public place somewhere in America without a permit, would the authorities ignore it and shrug it off? Doubtful. Even buskers performing in the New York City subway system can’t play without formal authorization from the city. What about taking […]

A recent intelligence leak confirms something that regular readers of this column already know: that the Obama administration has officially authorized covert support of local “rebel” groups, through government agencies like the CIA, with the goal of destabilizing and subverting the Bashar al-Assad regime. The interesting consequence is that al-Qaeda is among the groups President […]