Archive for May, 2008

Boston Globe Op-edding

Posted: May 29, 2008 in Boston Globe
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Am finally getting around to posting some old op-eds i wrote – here is one i wrote for the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/) a while back about not this but the previous Italian election. Not that anything has really changed. sorry this is old, but i had vowed to make this a repository for all my writing. Had a great picture near it on the page….

The Boston Globe


April 14, 2006 Friday
THIRD EDITION


Keeping US, Italy link afloat

FEW AMERICANS will have noticed this week that they have lost another reflexive European ally. Those few who have noted center-left leader Romano Prodi’s extremely narrow and still contested victory in Italy will fear that we are about to watch as the election result in Italy, like Spain before it, equates to a chilling in a previously solid bilateral trans-Atlantic relationship.


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London’s 7/7 Conspiracy Trial Offers Inside Views of Terrorists’ Lives

Posted: May 14, 2008 in Terrorism Monitor
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My latest for the Jamestown Foundation on the three on trial for conspiring with the 7/7 bombers. Interesting and slightly creepy trial that has gotten remarkably little broad coverage – of course the day after this was published someone else did something about it (i will reserve comment).

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Bswords%5D=8fd5893941d69d0be3f378576261ae3e&tx_ttnews%5Bany_of_the_words%5D=pantucci&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4921&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=4a079fd8da

London’s 7/7 Conspiracy Trial Offers Inside View of Terrorists’ Lives

Terrorism Focus Volume: 5 Issue: 19

May 14, 2008 01:25 AM Age: 198 days
Category: Terrorism Focus, Europe
By: Raffaello Pantucci

Like any major terrorist event, the July 7, 2005 (7/7) bombings of London’s public transportation system that killed 52 commuters and four suicide bombers had the immediate result of generating a number of wide-ranging and speculative conspiracy theories. One of the early unanswered questions concerned the fact that the four bombers left behind at least one viable explosive device in their car at Luton train station, raising the question of whether there was a “fifth bomber” (Guardian, May 19, 2007). Numerous other leads and stories have led to all manner of speculation, but thus far only one very concrete element of conspiracy has shown up in the British legal system, in the form of the ongoing trial against Mohammed Shakil, 31; Sadeer Saleem, 27; and Waheed Ali, 24; all originally of Beeston in West Yorkshire, the hometown of the 7/7 team (Telegraph, April 6, 2007; BBC, April 10).

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What Does the EU Want from Russia?

Posted: May 1, 2008 in EU Observer
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This is a very good question i feel, and one that Alexandros and myself have decided to attempt to answer. Not entirely successfully i feel, and anyway the issue still is for those Russkies to decide what game they are playing. But if the EU were to start figuring stuff out, we would be in a good spot. For those who don’t know the EU Observer, it is a respectable website that has remarkable penetration into the Brussels community.

http://euobserver.com/9/26073

[Comment] What does Europe want from Russia?

30.04.2008 – 17:48 CET | By Alexandros Petersen and Raffaello Pantucci

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT – In the aftermath of the divisive NATO summit in Bucharest, there is a growing sense in the European policy community that for the continent to effectively deal with its biggest neighbour, everyone needs to sing from the same song sheet. However, there is little clarity about the words of the song – we know we should be unified on the subject, but we do not seem to know what to do.
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