As a casual Penn State football fan, I balked at the firing of coach Joe Paterno last fall. I told myself that it was only fair to give him the benefit of the doubt. But when the Freeh report unequivocally implicated Paterno and his cohorts in covering up...

Everybody's stance on Syria is rather wobbly these days, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's recent editorial explaining his government's policy should raise a few eyebrows.

According to Lavrov the objective of a majority of countries (at least rhetorically) is to encourage "the aspirations of the Arab peoples...

For those risking their lives in Syria, six months of peaceful resistance appears to be producing little more than death, frustration, and stalemate. As the temptation to change tactics rises, the Syrian revolution comes closer to a crossroads.

Activists will have to decide if it is in their best...

The big news out of Syria last week was Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf 's announcement that he is quitting his business deals and becoming a philanthropist. Although Makhlouf is President al-Assad's cousin, he claims that no one in the regime forced him to step aside.

Makhlouf owns...

Witnessing the uprisings in the Middle East reminded me of the need to hold all governments accountable, and listening to the commencement speech at Middlebury College last month reinforced the importance of serving a cause greater than oneself. In America, one logical way to achieve these ends would...

Today I am fasting. This simple act is my way of calling attention to those being unjustly detained around the world.

A detainee can be anyone from an Al-Qaeda hostage to an innocent inmate sitting on death row in America. The five cases I highlight (in no particular order)...

Syrians on the ground have little contact with the outside world, and verifiable facts are virtually nonexistent. Consequently, journalists are turning to a small group of experts outside Syria for information.

As the polarization of these commentators increases, so does the risk of producing one-sided stories, or...

I recently spent two weeks detained by Syrian authorities in a secret police prison, accused of being a CIA agent or journalist. In fact I was merely an American student learning Arabic at the University of Damascus. Although this ordeal was life-changing, at least I was released, unlike many innocent...