A brief discussion of the history of political terrorism and the problem of definition to be followed by an attempt to put terrorism into a relevant context of contemporary politics and a review of some of the characteristics of contemporary terrorism with respect to politics, insurgencies, religion, and suicide.

Ambassador Edward Marks retired from the State Department in 1995, after a forty year career involving services in nine countries, the United Nations in New York, and Washington, DC.  Recalled to active duty in June 2002, he served as the State Department counter-terrorism advisor at the US Pacific Command in Honolulu until mid-September 2005.

Since retirement, Ambassador Marks has engaged in various activities and is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at George Mason University, a Senior Associate of The International Center for Terrorism Studies of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and a Senior Fellow at the Joint Forces Staff College.  In addition, he is a Trustee of the Command and General Staff College Foundation and a Director of the DACOR (Diplomatic and Consular officers, Retired). He has been a consultant to the United Nations, the Project on National Security Reform, has served on various editorial boards and is the author of numerous articles and publications.

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Ambassador Marks graduated from the University of Michigan (B.A.), the University of Oklahoma (M.A.), and the National War College.  He is married to Aida Marks née Nercess of Tehran, Iran.  He served in the United States Army 1956-58, and resides in Washington, DC.

Moderator :

Prof. Yonah Alexander is a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and Director of its International Center for Terrorism Studies as well as a member of the Board of Regents. Concurrently, he is Co-Director of the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies. Both are consortia of universities and think tanks throughout the world. Since 2009, Prof. Alexander also provides academic support to NATO’s Centre of Excellence-Defence against Terrorism in Ankara, Turkey.  In addition, he is the former Director of Terrorism Studies at the George Washington University and the State University of New York, totaling 35 years of service. Educated at Columbia University (Ph.D.), the University of Chicago (M.A.), and Roosevelt University of Chicago (B.A.), Professor Alexander taught at George Washington University, American University, the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, Tel Aviv University, The City University of New York, and The State University of New York.

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Tuesday, December 15^th

Distant as they are from each other, the peoples of the Middle East and China have interacted since well before Islam. In 650 C.E., the then Caliph sent one of the Prophet Mohammed’s companions as an emissary to the newly established Tang Dynasty. That date marks the beginning of Islam in China. Muslims have ever since played a prominent role in Chinese society. As the example of the great Ming, Muslim Admiral Zheng He attests, some of them have also been active in sustaining Chinese contact with Arabs, Persians, Turks, and other Muslim peoples. This cross-cultural liaison was, of course, interrupted by the reorientation of international relations imposed by Western colonialism. The post-colonial era in the Middle East and the return of China to wealth and power are fostering its resumption.

The Prophet Mohammed advised Muslims to “seek knowledge even unto China,” but it would be fair to say that Islam is far more familiar to Chinese than Chinese culture is to Arabs, Berbers, Kurds, Persians, Somalis, and Turks. Official statistics count about 25 million active Muslims in China. Much evidence suggests that the number of Chinese who consider themselves Muslim is well over 100 million. Meanwhile, some of the several hundred thousand Chinese now working in the Arab world will take Middle Eastern versions of Islam home with them. They have converted. There are already 3,500 Koranic schools, nine Islamic universities, and at least 28,000 mosques in today’s China. There will now be more, with additional schools of thought associated with them.

After thirty years of service as a member of the United States Foreign Service, Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. succeeded Senator George McGovern as President of the Middle East Policy Council in December 1997. He served in that role until February 2009, when he resigned to accept an insistently reiterated request that he return to government to chair the U.S. National Intelligence Council. Following the leak of his appointment and a campaign of public vilification by rightwing elements of the American Israel Lobby, he withdrew his acceptance of the job. He said that he judged that the task of restoring credibility to the analytical product of the US intelligence community could not be accomplished in the face of continuing unscrupulous, politically motivated, personal attacks on him.

Chas Freeman was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs 1993-94, earning the highest public service awards of the Department of Defense for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm) 1989-92. He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs 1986-89, during the historic U.S. mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola.

Chas. Freeman served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok (1984-1986) and Beijing (1981-1984). He was Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State 1979-1981. He was the principal American interpreter during President Nixon's path-breaking visit to China in 1972. In addition to his Middle Eastern, African, East Asian and European diplomatic experience, he served in India 1966-68.

Ambassador Freeman earned a certificate in Latin American studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, certificates in both the national and Taiwan dialects of Chinese from the former Foreign Service Institute field school in Taiwan, a BA magna cum laude from Yale University and a JD from the Harvard Law School. He is the recipient of numerous high honors and awards. He is the author, inter alia, of The Diplomat's Dictionary and Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy both published by the United States Institute of Peace.

In April 2009, Ambassador Freeman resumed his present position as Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm that for nearly forty years has specialized in arranging international private-sector joint ventures, acquisitions, and other business operations for its American and foreign clients. Until February 2009, in addition to his role as president of the Middle East Policy Council, he also served as Co-Chair of the United States-China Policy Foundation, as Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States, and as a member of the boards of the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Washington World Affairs Council, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. He is currently a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of several corporate, university, and non-profit advisory boards.

Moderator :

Ambassador M. Osman Siddique served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Fiji Islands with concurrent accreditations to the Kingdom of Tonga, the Republic of Nauru, and the Government of Tuvalu from 1999-2001. Prior to his appointment as the United States Ambassador, he was the Chairman/CEO of a major US Corporation, an entrepreneur and a community leader. Ambassador M. Osman Siddique combines an outstanding professional background with a powerful understanding of both domestic and foreign policy issues. Privileged to be the first American Muslim and the first American of South Asian descent to serve as the United States Ambassador, M. Osman Siddique has exhibited outstanding leadership abilities. As demonstrated in his distinguished business and diplomatic career, Ambassador Siddique is in a unique position to bridge the cross-cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, necessary in dealing with the important issues which the US faces with many Asian and Islamic nations. The current geopolitical reality lends credence to his ability to resolve problems emanating from concerns that border on the fringes of misperception, mistrust and miscommunication.

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HE. Abdoulaye Diop was appointed by President Amadou Toumani Toure as Ambassador to the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Urugay and Peru on May 2003. Ambassador Diop is in charge of managing and monitoring the cooperation between Mali and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well. This is Ambassador Diop’s first ambassadorial appointment. However, his entire career has been in diplomatic and foreign relations workings.Indeed, Ambassador Diop served as the diplomatic adviser at the President’s office. In this capacity, he played an active role, working closely with the President, at a period of time when Mali assumed the chairmanship of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and the WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union) (2000-2001) at the same time, which boosted the sub-regional integration process. He also monitored the initiatives taken for the creation of the African Union in which Mali played a very active role.

Moderator :

Mr. Tariq Shafi, CPA, has over twenty-five years of accounting and tax experience in the Washington metro area and London, England. He was a tax and accounting manager for six years at a prestigious firm in Old Town Alexandria before venturing out on his own in 1995. Since then, his practice has grown steadily as word has spread about his firm's high reputation for quality service at a reasonable cost. Mr. Shafi and his staff believe strongly that building ties with the community involve giving their time and effort to worthwhile causes and they are active participants in local charitable and educational institutions.

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The Rumi Forum presented " Iraq, A Personal View" with Ambassador David Newton, Adjunct Scholar at the Middle East Institute

What are Iraq's vital realities and what can we see about its dangerous and uncertain present and future?. Some personal observations based on living in Iraq from 1984 to 1988 and directing Radio Free Iraq from 1998 to 2004.

Ambassador David Newton is currently an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute. He returned to the United States at the end of 2004 after having served for six years in Prague as the first director of Radio Free Iraq. Shortly before that appointment he had retired from a thirty-six year Foreign Service career (living twenty-two years in the Arab world), having served as ambassador to Yemen (1994-97) and as the first ambassador to Iraq (1984-88) following the resumption of diplomatic relations. Other Foreign Service tours included deputy chief of mission in Yemen and Syria, political counselor in Saudi Arabia, and Department of State assignments as director for Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, as Near East division chief in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and as economic officer for the Arabian Peninsula. In 1993 he headed an inter-agency delegation to Jordan to deal with the effects of the Iraq sanctions. From 1990 to 1993 Ambassador Newton was international affairs advisor and chairman of the national security policy department at the National War College, also doing extensive public speaking and working during Desert Shield/Desert Storm with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency on Iraq, for which he was commended by President George H.W. Bush and JCS Chairman General Powell. In February 1998, immediately after Foreign Service retirement, he was appointed a special envoy for public diplomacy, traveling to twelve Arab countries to explain U.S. policy on Iraq to the media and the public.

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The Rumi Forum presented "

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