Fire Science
Liquid evidence, on the other hand, usually is put into unbreakable, airtight, sealed containers. The same is true for solid forms of evidence that may contain volatile evidence, such as charred remnants of a fire…
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Two American security contractors detained in Venezuela / botched Macuto Bay raid / Operation Gideon (Operación Gedeón)
On May 3, 2020, the Defense Minister of Venezuela Nestor Reverol “announced and denounced” that in the early Sunday morning hours, a group of mercenaries coming from Colombia were detected attempting an armed maritime invasion–using…
Qays and Yaman tribes
[Arab geneologists] offer[] a scheme of the subdivision of patriarchal tribes by which all Arabs who possess a nisba or gentile name can trace back their genealogy to one of two ultimate stocks, the Yemenite…
Early COVID19 cases
1-Jan-2020: First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States | NEJM Original Article from The New England Journal of Medicine — First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States 13-Jan-2020: WHO…
History of Jihad and Jihadism
The most cogent source I have found on the genealogy of jihadism as a form of political resistance–starting with Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones in 1964–is Fawaz A. Gergez, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (2005)….
Detainees Still at Guantanamo as of 2/23/2020
This page is not as comprehensive as the New York Times’ “Guantanamo Docket.” Also very comprehensive are the WikiLeaks “Gitmo Files” disclosures. Total Current and Former Detainees: 771First detainees arrived 1/11/2002.1NY Times 2002 Timeline –…
Sykes–Picot Agreement
The 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement was a secret agreement between the British and French governments regarding the division of the Ottoman Empire’s territory if the Ottoman Empire were defeated by the Allies in World War I….
Battle of Siffin
The chronology and exact course of events are somewhat vague, but generally tradition puts Mu‘awiya’s decision to come out openly against ‘Ali only after the battle of the Camel. At first, we are told, he…
Battle of the Camel
In 656, finally a group of Muslims disaffected by Uthman’s rule conspired against the caliph and murdered him. By communal consensus, Ali succeeded Abu Bakr and became the Fourth Rightly Guided Caliph (Khulafa al-Rashidun). Two…
Battle of Karbala
A key event in the Shia-Sunni schism is the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD (61 years post-Hijra). The historical context of the Battle is the power struggle that emerged upon the death of Muhammad….