Matthew's Notebook

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Global power runs through New Jersey
The suburbs of New York City play an underrated role in international politics, as the cases of Bob Menéndez and Nikki Haley show.
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Matthew Petti
U.S. helps Bahrain spy on social media — and proudly
Bahraini police, who have a reputation for torturing critics, are getting American training to fight "disinformation" and "terrorism" online.
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Matthew Petti
Closure for 9/11 was stolen from Americans
9/11 was a real national trauma. The War on Terror prevented Americans from feeling like justice could ever be served.
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Matthew Petti
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Muslim-American conservatives and the Palestinian question
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The death and birth of the Iranian opposition
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The U.S. isn't behind everything, but it isn't innocent either
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Hello to my newest readers...
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Iranian Opposition TV Goes After BBC Over Criticism of Saudi Ties
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Syria's "oil region" mutinies against the Kurds
Deir al-Zor is in the throes of a clan war that could drag in the United States, Russia, and Iran.
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Matthew Petti
The Coming Republican Showdown over Israel
The “America First” camp is coming closer to butting heads with the party’s pro-Israel consensus.
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Matthew Petti
Why do Iranians think Lebanese are stealing their money? American disinformation
The idea that Arabs are living it up on the Iranian dime is a case of viral disinformation — which Washington encourages and no one will call out.
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Matthew Petti
The U.S. isn't behind everything, but it isn't innocent either
The Imran Khan leaks and recent debates over Turkey in Syria reveal how U.S. power influences events indirectly.
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Matthew Petti
SpongeBob, the bikini, Godzilla, and thermonuclear genocide
The nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll left a very big crater — both physically and culturally.
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Matthew Petti
"Oppenheimer" made history exciting
Nolan did a good job turning bureaucratic drama and World War II intrigue into a blockbuster story. The history was accurate — with some exceptions.
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Matthew Petti
An Islamist immigrant explains polygamy to Americans, 1971
Ebrahim Yazdi wrote a very earnest letter to immigration officials laying out his beliefs on Islamic marriage.
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Matthew Petti
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Jordan's two-thousand year Forever War frontier
Azraq has been a front line since at least the Roman era: between empires, and against the limits of nature itself.
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Matthew Petti
How the search for a downed submarine changed American journalism
The Glomar Explorer, built by the CIA to find the Soviet submarine K-129, gave birth to the "neither confirm nor deny" doctrine.
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Matthew Petti
Matthew's Notebook
Matthew's Notebook
Observations on history, society, and the media from an American in the Middle East.
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