Lee Smith
American Greatness
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Lee:
Tying Hillary's Emails to the Russian 'Collusion' Probe
The 568-page report released Thursday by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz may help explain why the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the probe of the Donald Trump campaign team’s possible ties to Russia appear to bleed into → Read More
Amid Dissent at State, Obama Stays the Bloody Course on Syria
Last week, an internal State Department memo criticizing the administration's Syria policy was leaked to the press. Fifty-one American officials variously involved with Middle East policy signed a letter calling for military action against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. A judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, reads the document, to undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed… → Read More
Sanctioned Terrorist Addresses National Press Club Audience Via Skype
Thursday morning Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's political and media adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban, spoke via Skype to an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Her webcast speech was part of an event hosted by an organization called the Global Alliance for Terminating al Qaeda/ISIS. United We Stand the event was called, united to defeat the Islamic State. According to GAFTA's… → Read More
Zone Defense
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the document that shaped the modern Middle East. Known officially as the Asia Minor Agreement, it was authored by the British diplomat Mark Sykes and his French counterpart François Georges-Picot. They were charged with the task of mapping out new zones of influence in parts of the Ottoman Empire, should the Triple Entente,… → Read More
Cotton Puts His Foot Down on Iran Deal
Yesterday Sen. Tom Cotton moved to block confirmation of an Obama nominee for an important post at the Department of Treasury. Adam Szubin was nominated last year to fill the position of Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes, and when the Democratic Senator from Ohio Sherrod Brown pressed for a vote yesterday, the Republican from Arkansas spoke out. Cotton believes that the White… → Read More
No Laughing In Baseball!
They're not saying Gooooose—they're booing. Yes, baseball fans are booing Hall of Fame reliever Rich Goose Gossage for his crazy broadside on sports talk radio last week against the game he loves. He ripped ballplayers and management in what can only be considered a rearguard action in baseball's culture wars pitting the new wave guys like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado against the old school… → Read More
Assad Has Used Chemical Weapons, Even After the 'Ceasefire' Has Begun
Israel's defense minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons against civilians since the U.S.-Russia sponsored cessation of hostilities began. The Syrians used military grade chemical weapons and lately have been using materials, chlorine, against civilians, including in these very days, after the supposed ceasefire, dropping barrels of chlorine on… → Read More
Fascist Down
Lebanese media reports that the man who hit the late Christopher Hitchens in an altercation in Beirut in 2009 has been killed in Syria, fighting alongside forces allied with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Adonis Nasr, an information officer with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), often boasted of slapping Hitchens, after the British-American author defaced a placard commemorating an… → Read More
The Boys (and Girls) in the Bubble
Istanbul The Kebab and Camel might be the most important English-language website covering Turkey. It's run by two Turkish journalists, Beybin Somuk and Enes Calli, and an American academic, Adam McConnel, who teaches Turkish history and U.S.-Turkish relations at Sabanci University in Istanbul. The site is a like a critical aggregator that collects many of the recent English-language stories on… → Read More
Midnight in the Orient Bar with Ataturk
Istanbul Traffic on the Bosphorus goes one way and then the other. One day it leads from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and from there through the Dardanelles, to the Aegean and then the Mediterranean. On alternate days, the other way. Often it seems Turkish history goes like that. For instance, consider Dolmabache Palace, on the European side of the Bosphorus. It was home to six sultans… → Read More
Mike Piazza--and Me
Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. With his first time on the ballot, Griffey made history, named on 437 of 440 ballots (99.3%)—which has baseball left fans wondering how three journalists whose expertise is clearly European Handball got into the Baseball Writers' Association of America. It was Piazza's fourth try at the Hall and he was elected by 83% of… → Read More
Permanent Revolution
The attacks on Saudi Arabia’s two diplomatic missions in Iran—which came in response to Riyadh's execution of a Saudi Shiite cleric—are perhaps best understood as yet another skirmish in the Islamic Republic's long war against the regional order and the international order, both underwritten by the United States. In other words, the mullahs' revolution marches on. The 1979 takeover of the… → Read More
Obama Sides With Iran--Again
On Monday, thousands of Iraqi Shiites took to the streets of Baghdad to protest Saudi Arabia's execution of Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr. We demand that the government close the Saudi embassy, kick out the ambassador and boycott all Saudi products, said one protestor, a sentiment echoed by many. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad reopened just last month, 25 years after Riyadh broke off relations with… → Read More
French Ambassador Rationalizes Iranian Belligerency
Saturday the French ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud downplayed the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic facilities in Iran. Following the execution of controversial Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Iranian mobs surely backed by the clerical regime set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the kingdom's consulate in Iran's second-largest city, Mashad. In response to the… → Read More
Five Words? Next Year Will Be Worse
It was a great year for the Obama administration’s foreign policy . . . says the Obama administration. The State Department even created a new hashtag to celebrate the White House's annus mirabilis—#2015in5Words. Protecting Arctic Climate and Communities and Protecting Health of Our Ocean are among two of the administration's big wins. A few of the claims are of course questionable, like… → Read More
A Visit to the 'Place With No Noise'
Ourzazate Moroccan Hollywood is about a 20-minute plane ride from Marrakesh southeast further into the interior of the country, and flying in I could see why it's preferable to go by air. The desert sands make it a trying drive, though of course the landscape is also why so many studios choose to shoot here in Ourzazate—which in Berber language means place with no noise. Still, the group I'm… → Read More
Ted Cruz's Muddled Foreign Policy
Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a foreign policy speech that was meant to carve out a position between the interventionist and isolationist wings of the Republican party. Instead, the candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States showed that his ship of state would tack erratically in foreign waters between the policy of the current White House and incoherence. Of… → Read More
Moroccans Ignore Trump and Worry About Their Own Problems
Marrakesh It's been just a few days since Donald Trump said he'd close America's doors to Muslims, and here in Marrakesh so far not a single Moroccan has raised the issue with me. Most Moroccans realize it's an internal American issue right now, says a Moroccan friend at a café. If Trump was president, then it's a different matter. When Bush decided to invade Iraq, we had plenty of protests.… → Read More
Bill Murray in Morocco
Marrakesh The Marrakesh international Film Festival paid tribute to Bill Murray on its opening night Friday. As he was making his way to the theater, an interviewer stopped him on the red carpet and asked how he'd pay homage to Bill Murray. He replied, I'd say I always love you best when you're most engaged with the world. Then Murray wandered off the red carpet and started engaging with the… → Read More
Christie Debates Cruz on Real Threat Facing America
In his interview with the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, New Jersey governor Chris Christie explains that the Obama administration has got it wrong. Iran is a greater threat than ISIS. If you're prioritizing the threats, which a president has to do, then I think that Iran is a greater threat than ISIS, said Christie. I believe Iran is moving toward obtaining a nuclear weapon. I have no proof at… → Read More