Robert Fisk



Profile:
Full name: Robert Fisk

Area of interest: Foreign affairs, politics (esp. Middle East affairs)

Journals/Organisation: The Independent

Email: [mailto:r.fisk@independent.co.uk r.fisk@independent.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk

Blog:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/therobertfisk | Facebook



Biography:
About:

Education: Lancaster University: BA in English Literature; Trinity College, Dublin: PhD in Political Science (title of his doctoral thesis was "A condition of limited warfare: Eire’s neutrality and the relationship between Dublin, Belfast and London, 1939–1945)

Career: Newcastle Evening Chronicle; Sunday Express: worked on the diary column; The Times: Belfast correspondent, 1972/75, correspondent in Portugal (covering the aftermath of the 1974 revolution), Middle East correspondent, 1976/1988); The Independent: Middle East correspondent, 1989-


 * see career (Wikipedia)

Current position/role: Middle East correspondent (based in Beirut)


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles/Main role: Author

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * Robert Fisk on Shakespeare and war The Independent, 30th March 2007
 * BBC News: Viewpoint: UK war reporter Robert Fisk 3rd December 2005 (interview)

Broadcast media:

Video:
 * YouTube
 * Alternative Radio: Archived Programs

Controversy/Criticism:
 * The curious case of the forged biography The Independent, 1st February 2008

Awards/Honours: see awards (Wikipedia)

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:

 * The Point of No Return: The Strike which Broke the British in Ulster (1975) OCLC 1925410
 * In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939-1945 (1983) OCLC 9282893
 * Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (1990) OCLC 22764853
 * The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East (2005) OCLC 60401821
 * The Age of the Warrior: selected essays (2008) OCLC 183146519

Latest work: Independent eBook - Robert Fisk on Algeria: Two decades of reportage on a tragic conflict the West can no longer afford to ignore - by one of the world’s great foreign correspondents. February 2013. Available for £1.99: Kobo, iBooks and Kindle

Speaking/Appearances: ZNet collection of global speaking engagements
 * RSA lecture 'The Age of the Warrior' (MP3 archive)

Debate: 

The Independent:
Column name: Mondays: The Long View

Remit/Info: Comment and reportage of Foreign affairs, politics (esp. Middle East affairs)

Section:

Role: Foreign correspondent

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:r.fisk@independent.co.uk r.fisk@independent.co.uk]

Website: Independent.co / Robert Fisk

Commissioning editor:

Day published: various

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2017

 * Syrians living under Isis accepted the jurisdiction of Islamist courts - does that make them collaborators? - Exclusive: Documents recovered from a 'Sharia' court in the town of Deir Hafar show even minor disputes were brought before religious judges - 4th July
 * The destruction of the al-Nuri mosque in Mosul is another example of the 'culturecide' we've become so used to - While lives are lost every day, it is destruction of cities and monuments that drives home the vicious nature of conflict throughout history - 29th June
 * By demanding the end of Al Jazeera, Saudi Arabia is trying to turn Qatar into a vassal state - If Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman can rush into a hopeless war with the Houthis of Yemen, why shouldn’t he threaten the body politic of Qatar? - 27th June
 * The US seems keener to strike at Syria's Assad than it does to destroy Isis - It is instructive that the West now expresses more outrage at the use of gas – it blames the Assad regime for this, of course – than at the continued cruelty of Isis - 21st June
 * It's not the first time the Tories have been forced into bed with the DUP – the pair's long alliance is troubling - British readers will find that their passport declares them to be citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland are half in and half out of the mother country - 15th June
 * This is the real story behind the economic crisis unfolding in Qatar - Only Shakespeare’s plays could come close to describing such treachery – the comedies, of course - 8th June
 * This is what Theresa May refused to tell you in her schoolyard sermon on terror - The Prime Minister is going to have her 'embarrassing conversations' with Britain’s Muslims, who have no power to switch off the evil ideology which Wahhabism represents. She does have that power – but she won’t use it - 5th June
 * In the age of Islamic literalism we should remember the Egyptian scholar who fought back - Listening to Abu Zeid’s words today, they might have been used to condemn Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Isis pronouncements – or indeed the army of Saudi Arabian imams who preach the Salafist-Wahhabi cause so beloved of Isis - 30th May
 * We must look to the past, not Isis, for the true meaning of Islam - Emir Abdelkader was a Muslim, Sufi, sheikh, humanist, protector of his people against Western barbarism, protector of Christians against Muslim barbarism, so noble that Abe Lincoln sent him a pair of Colt pistols - 25th May
 * Donald Trump is trying to stick to the script – but he's about to really mess up in the Middle East - There he was talking of the 'ultimate deal' between Israel and the Palestinians – as if peace was just a commodity to be bought or sold - 23rd May
 * Donald Trump’s speech to the Muslim world was filled with hypocrisy and condescension - Despite claiming he wouldn’t give a lecture, the President did just that, displaying a blatant anti-Iran bias intended to appease the nation with whom he’d just signed a multi-billion dollar arms deal at the expense of the truth - 21st May
 * Rouhani’s victory is good news for Iran, but bad news for Trump and his Sunni allies - The Saudis will be appalled that a (comparatively) reasonable Iranian has won a (comparatively) free election that almost none of the 50 dictators gathering to meet Trump in Riyadh would ever dare to hold - 21st May
 * Can Syria ever be repaired when its long civil war finally comes to an end? - Syria’s conflict will end with many more casualties and many more missing than the Lebanese civil war. Vast areas of towns and cities are razed to the ground - 11th May
 * Donald Trump hasn’t quite thought through his first foreign trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican - Jerusalem will be a great gig because Trump will be able to ask Netanyahu for help against Isis without – presumably – realising that Israel bombs only the Syrian army and the Shia Hezbollah in Syria but has never – ever – bombed Isis in Syria - 6th May
 * Sisi apparently believes that the Pope's visit to Cairo will prove Egypt is safe for Christians – Isis has other ideas - Sisi reportedly thinks this is a great opportunity to boost 'religious tourism', while the Pope plans to visit a recently destroyed church and say that it's time for 'dialogue'. Somehow it doesn't seem like 'dialogue' is what Isis wants - 29th April
 * Christians are under attack in the Middle East – and not even a visit from the Pope can convince them to stay - In the British mandate of Palestine, the Christian population was 9.6 per cent of the population. By 1999, it was 2.9 per cent. Meanwhile, 35 per cent of the Christians of the West Bank and Gaza left between 1967 and 1999 - 28th April
 * Will Donald Trump have the guts to call the Armenian genocide what it was? - There were thousands of eyewitness testimonies to these atrocities, including the burning of babies by Turkish gendarmes. And Trump, as we all know, cares very much about 'beautiful babies' - 25th April
 * Donald Trump's first 100 days: The madder he gets, the more seriously the world takes him - Now the ‘flexible’ and ‘pragmatic’ US President is sending a naval battle group to threaten North Korea - 22nd April
 * It is not just Bashar al-Assad who is 'responsible' for the rise of Isis - When Amnesty revealed hanging in Assad’s prisons, we must remember that a few years earlier Bush and Blair were dispatching civilians to be tortured there too - 21st April
 * If Trump cares so much about Syrian babies, why is he not condemning the rebels who slaughtered children? - Dozens of children were killed in Syria this weekend but where is the US president’s lament on how ‘beautiful’ they are, let alone action? Where are the denunciations by the EU and the UK? The West must react with equal outrage when it is Shias that are the victims of terrorism. Or do we just not care? - 18th April
 * Lebanon’s efficient security services are stepping up their watch over Islamist supporters in Beirut and beyond - The so-called ‘tourist’ police appear in their uniforms during the day and then the same officers, in civilian clothes, can be spotted at night in the downtown cinema complex in central Beirut. And as far as the Ein el-Helweh camp is concerned, where many Islamist supporters live, Lebanon is keeping a close eye - 14th April
 * Donald Trump, who doesn't read books, is ignorant of history – and so is his pet chump Sean Spicer - The White House press spokesperson apparently could not grasp that Hitler used a chemical weapon called Zyklon B, with which the Nazis gassed up to a million of the six million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust - 12th April
 * Isis has finally reached central Egypt – but that's not even al-Sisi's biggest problem - By declaring emergency laws, the President is proving to the world that private investment in his country cannot increase. Who wants to invest in a nation whose capital is 'invested' by Isis? - 11th April
 * The US air strikes say more about the Vladimir Putin-Donald Trump relationship than the Middle East - The pictures out of the town of Khan Sheikhun are terrifying, but Trump and his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have the thorny problem of working out how to deal with Russia - 8th April
 * Can reconciliation ever heal a country with conflict wounds as deep as Syria? - The Syrian army’s local base in Aleppo is now a joint Syrian-Russian military headquarters, festooned with Syrian and Russian flags, its soldiery mixing together, Russian personnel sharing their own intelligence with the Syrians - 30th March
 * It is President Erdogan's Turkey, not humane Germany, that is guilty of 'Nazi practices' - While Merkel’s Germany has constantly expressed its remorse for the Jewish Holocaust, Erdogan will not even admit to the Armenian Holocaust – and Turks who have mentioned this terrible precedent in genocide have been threatened with imprisonment - 22nd March
 * Martin McGuinness dies: The 'super-terrorist who became a super-statesman – like so many others - Former Sinn Fein leader followed along the familiar trail of so many enemies of Britain’s weary colonial history - 21st March
 * On the 40th anniversary of Kamal Jumblatt's death, is trouble brewing again in Lebanon? - In a land where retired murderers still abound, commemorating the dead of a civil war has countless problems - 19th March
 * Marine Le Pen has arrived in Lebanon to find out that the Christians she thought were her allies aren’t on her side at all - The National Front leader thought that Lebanon, burdened with a million Syrian refugees, should send them home as soon as the war is over. She clearly did not know that tens of thousands of Lebanese are actually related to Syrians - 23rd February
 * How will we get over the Trump addiction? - The media circus that is the current administration will come to an end soon, and politics will go back to normal. But what will we do for entertainment? - 19th February
 * There's a reason why not a single Arab dictator has called out Donald Trump so far - If the President toured these Arab dictatorships, he’d feel very much at home. Great security, fantastic police, lots of torture, alternative facts, extremely dodgy elections and massive economic projects which damage the environment but prove absolutely useless - 14th February
 * Despite appearances, Israel is in for a rough ride under Trump - They might get the US embassy moved to Jerusalem – but they might also be very worried that Steve Bannon is going to provoke a war with Iran. What did the US government mean, when it said Iran was ‘on notice’ after its recent missile test. Was that a warning of dislike – or war? - 8th February
 * What the history of Greece can tell us about the fight against Isis - Modern Greece and its crises were shaped by the legacy of a violent conflict in the post-war years – an atrocity long forgotten as the fight to stabilise the Middle East distracts our leaders - 2nd February
 * Donald Trump's arbitrary, cruel ban on refugees from Muslim countries sets a chilling precedent - This self-serving move may only be the beginning from the new President. If he can stop refugees from coming in, who's to say he won't also kick them out – or worse? - 29th January
 * This is the one thing that Donald Trump, Syria's Bashar Assad and President al-Sisi in Egypt have in common - Crowds matter. When the Egyptian army staged their coup, Sisi’s friend Blair did actually say that they had done so at 'the will of the people' - 26th January
 * Donald Trump's presidency-by-tweet will be bad for Muslims, but great for Isis - Compared to the platitudinous, snide, divisive, war-mongering rant the world received from Trump, George W Bush was a visionary - 30th January
 * A Trump presidency could have been avoided if Clinton had only listened to American Arabs - Clinton’s supporters in Michigan knew they had a problem when Bernie Sanders pulled off the electoral primary and beat her by 17,000 votes in March 2016. More important still, Bernie won the Arab-American majority districts by two-to-one - 19th January
 * The Paris peace conference was beyond useless – everyone knows a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine is impossible now - Anyone who’s visited the West Bank these past few years, looked at the Jewish colonies built on stolen Arab land, witnessed the occupation and the filth of Gaza and observed its brutal Hamas militia leaders – and realised that Netanyahu will soon be the most left-wing member of his increasingly racist government – knows very well that the 'two state solution' vanished long ago - 15th January
 * I just met a journalist in Berlin who I used to work alongside in Iraq. He reminded me what it means to report on atrocities - In Iraq 11 years ago, Justin Huggler broke the story in The Independent of a 19-year old Iraqi civilian driven to his death in the Tigris River by five American soldiers. The semi-autobiographical book he wrote about a hero reporter in Iraq is an absolute cracker - 5th January
 * This is the reason why we don't dwell on Turkish deaths in the West - If a democratically-elected dictator wants to act as a conduit in a neighbour’s civil war, what does he expect but massacres in his own major cities? - 3rd January



Articles: 2016

 * We are not living in a 'post-truth' world, we are living the lies of others - Nigel Farage is not a Nazi and nor is Donald Trump. But what is terrifying – and deeply akin to fascism – is our ability to ‘think’ our way from truth into lies - 30th December
 * Isis is using terror to eliminate multicultural countries like Germany – and the far-right is helping them - The intention of Isis' terror attacks is to provoke European states to ‘persecute’ Muslims within their frontiers in acts of reprisal for the mass killing of Western Europeans - 22nd December
 * It was bizarre to watch Samantha Power at the UN conveniently forget to mention all the massacres done in America's name - When Samantha talked about 'barbarism against civilians' in Aleppo, I remembered climbing over the dead Palestinian civilians massacred at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut in 1982, slaughtered by Israel’s Lebanese militia friends while the Israeli army – Washington’s most powerful ally in the Middle East – watched - 15th December
 * There is more than one truth to tell in the awful story of Aleppo - Our political masters are in league with the Syrian rebels, and for the same reason as the rebels kidnap their victims – money - 14th December
 * There’s one key difference between the Second World War and the Syrian conflict – the rebels of Aleppo are no heroes - We refer to them as ‘rebels’ – as if they were the Maquis fighting in the French resistance or Partisans freeing Yugoslavia from the Nazis or, indeed, the insurgents of Warsaw struggling for freedom from the German SS. Which they clearly are not - 9th December
 * Does Aleppo prove that we westerners should keep the world’s antiquities? - If the Aleppo room was still in Aleppo, and not a museum in Berlin, it might well have been destroyed, burned in the indulgence of fire which consumed much of the old city two years ago when even the great mosque and minaret of the Omayad crashed to the ground - 2nd December
 * America once turned its back on Anne Frank, just as Donald Trump rejects Muslim refugees today - Anne’s father Otto sought visas to the United States and the door was slammed in their face. I do wonder what the Trump administration would have done - 24th November
 * It's not Donald Trump who matters now in the Middle East – it's Putin - It is easy to say that the Arabs are appalled that an Islamophobe has won the White House. But did they think Obama or any of his predecessors – Democrat or Republican – had any special concern for Islam? Of course not - 11th November
 * The Middle East will present Donald Trump with a terrifying choice – and he won't be able to handle it - What does Trump actually do when these lands present a “threat” to the West? Dust off his anti-Muslim hatreds? Call up his mate Vladimir? Ask for an atlas? - 10th November
 * A view of the Syrian war from the Golan Heights - One Syrian lieutenant described to me how he directed his artillery fire onto an Israeli jeep in the Jabhat al-Nusra occupied town of Al-Hamidiya inside Syria and destroyed it. The jeep might have been a gift or borrowed from Israel - 5th November
 * The poppy has become a symbol of racism – I have never worn one, and now I never will - The Entente Cordiale which sent my father to France is now trash beneath the high heels of Theresa May, yet this wretched woman dares to wear a poppy - 4th November
 * The strange case of the Scottish ambulance found among the rubble of eastern Aleppo - Was it sent in by NGOS from Britain? Was it brought in by one of those selfless men who tried to help the people of Syria and who then fell into the fatal hands of Isis murderers? - 30th October
 * Massacre of innocents: As Syria and Russia bombard eastern Aleppo children are also dying in the west of the city - As the world rightly decries the savagery committed in eastern Aleppo, in the west of the city there is also suffering as 'rebel' shells rain down - 30th October
 * Lebanon is a sectarian nation, yet it has avoided civil war while the Middle East burns – here's why - Reconstructed after the civil war, the army is the only totally non-sectarian force in the country. It’s also the only institution that still works. Without it, conflict may yet have reignited - 21st October
 * Saudi Arabia cannot go on throwing every decent person who speaks out on human rights into jail - If the King really wants his country to be a ‘pioneering global model of excellence on all fronts’ then what is he doing shutting Saudis who want basic freedoms and rights in the clink? - 19th October
 * When Mosul falls, Isis will flee to the safety of Syria. But what then? - The entire Isis caliphate army could be directed against the Assad government and its allies – a scenario which might cause some satisfaction in Washington - 17th October
 * A quarter century after I was arrested by Turkish police, things have only got worse for Kurdistan - When I was hauled into the local police station 25 years ago, a lonely copper stood outside. Today the place is ringed by barbed wire, armed guards and iron anti-rocket screens - 13th October
 * This is what it feels like to be an ordinary Kurd caught in the tragedy of Turkey’s turmoil - This man’s story, told with the usual anonymity for this tragic place, must melt a heart of stone and so I tell it in his own words - 13th October
 * Why did President Erdogan restart the battle with the Kurdish PKK? The answer lies in the tale of the failed coup - The democratic Kurdish parties are dwarfed by this battle, which consumed the centre of Diyabarkir last winter and early spring, and then Cizre – and then Nusaybin - 12th October
 * On either side of the Turkish-Syrian border, you encounter a past and a present which puts Britain to shame - When a Syrian peasant woman approaches our table in a small Ottoman restaurant, the locals step forward to give her coins. It puts to shame the liars of the Brexit campaign and their hatred of the foreigners who supposedly threaten little England - 9th October
 * Walking the streets of Istanbul, Erdogan's crackdown lingers heavy in the air - Erdogan has extended Turkey’s state of emergency by 90 days and the Turkish lira has fallen – I guess that’s what 'normalisation process' means - 6th October
 * An apology from Francois Hollande won't absolve France of its responsibility for Arab Harkis - Now France has marched down the road of absolution for its collaboration with the Nazis, it’s time to close the Algerian chapter. But there's a problem – its modern army of Egyptian workers - 30th September
 * Shimon Peres was no peacemaker. I’ll never forget the sight of pouring blood and burning bodies at Qana - Peres said the massacre came as a ‘bitter surprise’. It was a lie: the UN had repeatedly told Israel the camp was packed with refugees - 28th September
 * Watching Trump and Clinton debate Isis from my home in the Middle East was as predictable as it was absurd - 'We have to knock the hell out of Isis – and we have to do it fast,' Trump told the world. Well, sure, but haven’t we all been knocking the hell out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, even Lebanon, and achieving the constant rebirth of ever more vicious warriors, of which Isis may soon generate another, even worse progeny? - 27th September
 * For the first time, Saudi Arabia is being attacked by both Sunni and Shia leaders - What, the Saudis must be asking themselves, has happened to the fawning leaders who would normally grovel to the Kingdom? - 23rd September
 * They called the War on Terror a new world war – and then forgot all about it - Just as the Great War led to the Second, so the world war against al-Qaeda led, via Iraq, to the war against the apocalyptic Isis - 15th September
 * Saudi Arabia cannot pay its workers or bills – yet continues to fund a war in Yemen - In Saudi Arabia itself, the government seems unable to cope with the crisis. The 'Arab News' says that 31,000 Saudi and other foreign workers have lodged complaints with the government’s labour ministry over unpaid wages. On one occasion, the Indian consulate and expatriates brought food to the workers so that their people should not starve - 9th September
 * Alan Kurdi symbolised an army of dead children. We ignore them at our peril - One year on, has the world learned the lesson of the three-year-old boy washed up on a Turkish beach? - 2nd September
 * The predictions have come to pass: Turkey is now in Syria and this is what it means for the Middle East - The Turks don’t want a Kurdish mini-state on their frontier any more than the Syrians want to lose territory to the Kurds - 25th August
 * Turkey's hit list of enemies is growing as Erdogan prepares to buddy up with Putin in Syria - Could it be that the Sultan is thinking of renewing his old friendship with the Lion of Damascus? Be sure that he is - 22nd August
 * The Shiites are winning in the Middle East – and it's all thanks to Russia - Just as Erdogan has become pals with Putin, the Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers have been embracing in Ankara with many a promise that their own talks will produce new alliances - 18th August
 * Erdogan’s mass prisoner release will make way for new inmates – but they could languish for years without trial - When the Turkish army staged a coup in 1980, the country’s prison capacity had to be raised from 55,000 to 80,000 to make way for detainees. There is no reason to suppose that the next lot of inmates will fare any better - 17th August
 * Isis has not radicalised young Muslims, it has infantilised them – and that is why it is so powerful and dangerous - Isis has broken down the precious wall which separates childhood from adulthood, innocence from guilt. This, far more than mass murder, is its final dark achievement - 11th August
 * Erdogan’s meeting with Putin will tell us what the future holds for Syria - Not long ago, it was Hillary Clinton who wanted to press the “reset” button with Putin. Now it’s Erdogan – with, one suspects, a lot more effect - 9th August
 * It's sad but true that in colonial times, our government was better at responding to human rights abuses abroad than it is now - Those we trust to represent us will not take up the battle against injustice these days because they are now too involved in the infliction of this injustice, albeit by proxy - 6th August
 * No, Aleppo is not the new Srebrenica – the west won’t go to war over Syria - There are no ‘good guys’ among the Syrian warlords yet, despite all the evidence, we want to find them. It's time to stop lying to the people of the Middle East - 4th August
 * Don't be fooled by reports that al-Qaeda and Nusra have split for the good of the suffering Syrian people - Turn it into a respectable army of 'moderates', give it a spanking new name, and then the Americans and Russians will stop bombing the daylights out of it and Qatar’s loyal militia will destroy the Assad regime and… Well, if that happened, Qatar would control the future of Syria - 30th July
 * Qatar exerts huge control over British business, but it could be heading for an ‘Arab autumn’ - Investments by Qatar’s state-owned companies in Britain are the largest in western Europe: Shell, Barclays, the Shard, Harrods, Canary Wharf and 30 per cent shares in the London Stock Exchange will surely guarantee a lowering of the UK flag to half-mast when Hamad and Tamim die - 29th July
 * Qatar exerts huge control over British business, but it could be heading for an ‘Arab autumn’ - Investments by Qatar’s state-owned companies in Britain are the largest in western Europe: Shell, Barclays, the Shard, Harrods, Canary Wharf and 30 per cent shares in the London Stock Exchange will surely guarantee a lowering of the UK flag to half-mast when Hamad and Tamim die - 29th July
 * To understand the Islamist beheading of a French priest, we must remember what happened 20 years earlier - It is true that we found only their heads,” the Archbishop of Algiers said quietly to me on a hot afternoon, the sound of police sirens echoing over the city, as he spoke of monks being slaughtered. “Three of their heads were hanging from a tree near a petrol station" - 27th July
 * It is 10 years since UN peacekeepers were killed in southern Lebanon – and it could happen again now - The Israelis have never revealed their secret. Nor has the present Canadian Government, under the more politically neutral Justin Trudeau, restored the Canadian investigation report to its website - 26th July
 * We love to talk of terror – but after the Munich shooting, this hypocritical catch-all term has finally caught us out - How come a Muslim can be a terrorist in Europe but a mere ‘attacker’ in south-west Asia? - 24th July
 * Erdogan has military troubles of his own, but he still defends the Ottoman army over the Armenian genocide - A new book exposes the slaughter of more than a million Armenian Christians a century ago. It’s quite a volume for the Turkish president to dip into, once he’s finished purging his broken country - 21st July
 * Turkey's coup may have failed – but history shows that it won't be long before another one succeeds - Too late did Erdogan realise the cost of the role he had chosen for his country – when you can no longer trust your army, there are serious issues that need to be addressed - 16th July
 * Hollande's promise to respond militarily to the Nice attack just continues the West's vicious circle of terror and war - At some point, we in the West are going to have to learn that if we intervene militarily in Mali or Iraq or Libya or Syria or interfere in Turkey, or Egypt, or the Gulf, or the Maghreb – then we will not be safe 'at home' - 15th July
 * Whether Isis jihadis or government soldiers, speak to fighters in Syria and you will discover infinite sadness - In a military prison in Damascus, a 34-year old Muslim who wanted to be an Islamist fighter breaks down in tears as he tells us how he lied to his wife. Another man tells me his life is so framed by war that his biggest fear is peace - 12th July
 * After receiving a gun for my birthday, I reconsidered my relationship with firearms - In an age when guns and bombs are used to kill the innocent in Paris, Belgium, London and Dallas as well as Baghdad, Aleppo and Kabul – indeed, in Birstall – even an old blunderbuss must acquire a disturbing symbolism - 11th July
 * I’m already tired of the ‘lessons’ of Chilcot. What can we learn from a report that ignores Iraqis? - If Blair and Bush were sincere about the dangers of weapons of mass destruction, they would have invaded North Korea - 30th June
 * I’m already tired of the ‘lessons’ of Chilcot. What can we learn from a report that ignores Iraqis? - If Blair and Bush were sincere about the dangers of weapons of mass destruction, they would have invaded North Korea - 7th July
 * I read the Chilcot report as I travelled across Syria this week and saw for myself what Blair's actions caused - What’s the difference between Iraqi WMDs that don’t exist, 45-minute warnings that are falsities, 70,000 non-existent Syrian “moderates” and a fictitious NHS windfall of millions if Britain left the EU? - 6th July
 * Welcome to Dera'a, Syria's 'graveyard of terrorists' - The city in southern Syria, once the centre of fierce fighting in the country’s civil war, is now triumphantly claimed to be back in government control. But, as Robert Fisk reports, the city’s war-weary occupants are not counting on peace just yet - 6th July
 * In the fight against Isis, there's hope in the history of Islam - There used to be a genuine if imperfect mosaic of tolerance in the Islamic world, according to Islamic scholar Tarif Khalidi - 30th June
 * Brexit is a 'heartbreaking wake-up call' – and other meaningless political clichés used this week - David Dimbleby announced portentously 12 hours after the ballot that ‘a new day has dawned’. Well of course it bloody well had - 29th June
 * My father fought in WW1, and my mother learned Esperanto – this is what they would have thought of Brexit - My father would have said “Britain, right or wrong”; but Bill, who was also an accountant, knew what “wrong” was, and he and Peggy would have voted Remain - 28th June
 * What does the Middle East think of Brexit? A lot more than you'd assume - One Saudi businessman noted that the kingdom’s imports would be cheaper; so would purchases in London’s property market, the super-wealthy Arab bolt-hole for immensely rich Gulfies - 26th June
 * The relationship between Israel and Lebanon is deteriorating again - and it's civilians who will suffer - “Above and below live civilians whom we have nothing against – a kind of human shield,” Eshel threatened. “And that is where the war will be. That is where we will have to fight in order to stop it and win. Whoever stays in these bases [sic] will simply be hit…”   - 23rd June
 * My conversation with the son of Soghomon Tehlirian, the man who assassinated the organiser of the Armenian genocide - ‘He was not what an assassin should be. He first told me the story of how he killed Mehmet Talaat Pasha when I was 10’ - 21st June
 * Why our nuclear deal with Iran is turning to dust - Many of Europe’s largest banks won’t do business with Iran for fear of breaching other US sanctions, which have nothing to do with the nuclear agreement – but a lot to do with US agencies and prosecutors - 16th June
 * The UN has failed to protect Syrians from war and hunger. Now it’s telling them to stop smoking - Your home may be in flames, your family enslaved, your torturers itching to pull out your fingernails – but above all you've got to ignore the ciggy packet in your pocket - 14th June
 * The untold story of the deaths at Hajj - Iranian diplomat Ghadanfar Rokonabadi disappeared after being - 13th June caught up in the mass panic on last year’s Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca
 * Palestinian killers wanted to provoke Israel’s new Defence Minister into fulfilling his blood thirsty threats - Avigdor Lieberman’s political promises of beheading, a fourth Gaza war and a third Lebanon war – there have in fact been five Israeli-Lebanese wars, but no matter – bode a very unhappy future for both Israel and its Arab neighbours - 10th June
 * How do we separate the truth from the lies when reporting war crimes? - Each false atrocity bleeds into the body of evidence of other, real crimes, contaminating the truth for decades to come - 9th June
 * If a US court acknowledges the Armenian genocide, the Government must follow suit - There is no arcane historical legal argument but an embarrassing political case, in which three named Armenians – who are full US citizens – will assert their rights to land under the Incirlik Nato base in Turkey - 8th June
 * After the Chilcot report, we'll hear the New Testament – the gospel according to Saint Tony - It may not be a written text, more a collection of stories handed down by apostles, generation after generation, only later formed into a codex - 2nd June
 * President Erdogan knows that visa-free travel for Turkey could solve his 'Kurdish problem' - Europe’s growing Kurdish diaspora would be vastly increased if the crushed and war-suffering masses of Diyarbakir could find their way to Germany, Denmark and Sweden - 31st May
 * The US is dropping calls for Assad to go because the Syrian regime is a better bet than Isis - In Syria and Lebanon there are no plans for a future, but the Syrian army is going to have a role in any New Syria - 27th May
 * Justin Trudeau is a champion for women – but he can’t protect his wife from the anger of Conservative Canada - The Canadian Prime Minister must have known that his own spouse would have to stay silent if she was to avoid the clucking tongues of the most boring capital city in the world - 18th May
 * How the life of Hezbollah’s Mustafa Badreddine tells the political history of the Middle East - After Badreddine’s killing, we may never know if the 2005 death of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri marked the start of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to destroy Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian regime - 16th May
 * Europe has a troublingly short memory over Serbia’s Aleksander Vucic - The Serbian Prime Ministser is saying all the right things to ease his country into the EU. But Vucic, who attended the Srebrenica memorial service last year, once said, “for every Serb killed, we will kill 100 Muslims” - 15th May
 * The EU refugee rescue mission is a triumph of humanitarianism – not that you’ll hear about it - If Operation Sophia was designed to ‘tackle the root causes’ of the refugee crisis, we need to talk about justice, dignity and freedom for the people of the Middle East - 13th May
 * Europe’s Catholic leaders are undoing the good work of Pope Francis over the migrant crisis - Cardinal Dominik Jaruslav Duka, the Archbishop of Prague, demeans Muslims and claims the Pope’s efforts are ‘just a gesture’ - 12th May
 * After splitting with Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra is being presented to the West as a moderate force. It’s nothing of the sort - The jihadist force's reputation is being cleaned up, to suggest it is deserving of CIA support - 10th May
 * Saudi efforts to 'modernise' its economy away from oil are just PR tactics - and the West is lapping them up - For years, oil analysts have suggested that Saudi reserves are nothing like the kingdom claims them to be - 28th April
 * When we mourn the passing of Prince but not 500 migrants, we have to ask: have we lost all sense of perspective? - Could not one of those dead children among the five hundred souls on the sinking Mediterranean boat become a ‘superstar’? - 24th April
 * Finally, Israel and Palestine is a US election issue. The ‘last taboo’ is not broken, but it’s splintering - An America which can stomach the anger of its Arab allies is in no mood to suffer the humiliations of Israel either - 22nd April
 * Obama knows 9/11 was linked to Saudi Arabia – its massive oil reserves are behind his official visit - Saudi Arabia's million barrel a day output, plus its strategic location in the Middle East, means the West must pay obeisance to the regional head-choppers - 20th April
 * Murdered Italian student Giulio Regeni paid the ultimate price for his investigation into Al-Sisi’s Egypt - The Cambridge student had spotted that trade unionism is the greatest threat to dictatorship - 16th April
 * The 'one for one' refugee policy means we're picking and choosing among desperate people - As the journalist Wolfgang Bauer reminds us, the Syrian people witness the horrors of the Paris and Brussels attacks every single day - 7th April
 * Guantanamo is being emptied - but its legacy of making the guilty innocent and the innocent guilty will continue - Almost half the remaining inmates are Yemeni, but I have to say that I don’t remember many Yemenis in Osama bin Laden’s camps – and I met the man twice in Afghanistan - 1st April
 * Why is David Cameron so silent on the recapture of Palmyra from the clutches of Isis? - In the end, it was the Syrian army - and its Hizballah chums from Lebanon, and the Iranians, and the Russians - who drove the Isis murderers out of Palmyra - 28th March
 * It's time that the US faced up to the 'G word' and finally recognised the Armenian geoncide - It’s not difficult to accuse the bad guys of genocide – Colin Powell had no problem over Darfur in 2004. We should stand up to the real bullies - 26th March 2016
 * With an identity caught between China and the West, Hong Kong is not at ease with itself - or its future - Is the future freedom of Hong Kong perhaps really in the hands of folk like HSBC and Citibank and the other 68 world banks whose offices are here? - 21st March
 * World War II: How to write the story of the century - When she called the British embassy in Warsaw, a diplomat refused to believe her story - 20th March
 * How the West got it wrong as the Syrian civil war developed - Five years ago, we were high on Arab revolutions, and journalists were growing used to 'liberating' Arab capitals - 15th March
 * The West's desire to ‘liberate’ the Middle East remains as flawed as ever - As Stalingrad-size casualties mount in civil war Syria today, it's worth remembering how the French and British thought they could create a 'modern' Syria in 1941 - 7th March
 * Why Saudi Arabia has turned on Lebanon with a vengeance - After pouring billions into rebuilding the country following successive Israeli invasions and air raids, the Saudis find that they cannot prevent the Shia from expressing their fury at Riyadh - 3rd March
 * State-of-the-art technology gives Assad’s army the edge in Syria - The regime has lost over 60,000 men since the war began, but new Russian equipment is helping turn the tide - 27th February
 * Syria civil war: The untold story of the siege of two small Shia villages - and how the world turned a blind eye - Villages that remained loyal to the Syrian regime have paid a steep price - 27th February
 * The story of a teacher evicted from Raqqa illustrates so much about the conflict in Syria - Can Syria be put back together again? Soon life after Isis will have to be contemplated here - 22nd February
 * On the road to Aleppo – where people have abandoned all - You will learn a lot about Syria's tragedy driving between Damascus and the ancient city – and you must drive fast - 21st February
 * Syrian soldiers on the Latakia Front finally taste the fruits of victory – but they know Isis is not dead - Can Syria be put back together again? Its army is in the habit of talking again about a future state with all its borders intact - 18th February
 * Road back to Damascus: it remains a war zone but some are returning - In this subtle war, men of the Free Syrian Army are being allowed to rejoin the ranks of the government army they deserted on their return to the shattered neighbourhood of al-Qadam - 18th February
 * Isis and the Taliban are brutally carving up modern Afghanistan - I have long nursed the suspicion that Taliban units, Isis and government militias are not fighting about religion or government at all, more about mafia power - 15th February
 * A plan must be made for ‘life after Isis’ in the Middle East - In the Second World War, Allied leaders planned for the post-war world –  a ‘United Nations’ – years before the conflict ended. We must do the same for the Middle East - 8th February
 * After entering Aleppo with Russia's help, the Syrian army may set its sights on Raqqa - The tables have turned and now it is the rebels who find themselves surrounded, along with the tens of thousands of civilians in their sector of the city - 5th February
 * Netanyahu thinks mild Ban Ki-moon incites terror - Doesn’t Netanyahu realise how enraged Europeans are at his government’s treatment of the Palestinians? - 1st February
 * Pakistan university assault: A warning for Turkey as Islamists turn on their old allies in Peshawar - Both countries are waging a war on terrorism, but their enemies appear to have several faces - 21st January
 * Ireland's Easter Rising and how history is being twisted in celebrating the struggle for independence - Ireland has begun centenary celebrations, starting with the Easter Rising of 1916 and ending with the consolidation of the 'free state' in 1923 - 18th January
 * Restoring Beirut’s Pink House is a cheering idea amid destruction - As a strange development in an age when developers have probably destroyed as many old Beirut houses as the civil war did - 17th January
 * ‘Regrettable’ is as far as our criticism of Saudi Arabia is allowed to go - We have condemned them in the lightest terms. The implication is that the good old Saudis have simply let us down – fallen from their previously high moral principles - 11th January
 * The death of an Irish general during the Christmas period recalls an earlier bloody episode in the Middle East - General O’Callaghan knew that peace is a much harder struggle than war - 5th January
 * No state has the moral authority or will to attack this butchery - We have to remember that on the UN Council we can find such vigorous defenders of human rights as China and Russia - 5th January
 * Saudi executions were worthy of Isis – so what now for the West? - The executions were certainly an unprecedented Saudi way of welcoming in the New Year – if not quite as publicly spectacular as the firework display in Dubai which went ahead alongside the burning of one of the emirate’s finest hotels - 3rd January



Articles: 2015

 * You won't hear it, but news from Afghanistan is bad - Isis men are now fighting in their thousands in the country we arrived to “liberate” 14 years ago, quite apart from tens of thousands of Taliban “pushing” in to their “heartland” around Sangin - 28th December
 * Why is Indonesia not in the Saudi-led Sunni coalition against terror? - Surely Indonesia, with a Sunni population of 200 million, would have an interest in joining - 16th December
 * Is there really any difference between a terrorist and an ordinary criminal? - ‘Criminals’ are our chaps, while ‘terrorists’ are dark-skinned Muslims - 13th December
 * The needless interrogation of a Belgian academic is exactly what Isis wants from us - Watching our Parliament’s grotesque debate on Syrian airstrikes last week (which had more to do with the destruction of Corbyn than the destruction of Isis), I do wonder what the future holds for Britain - 7th December
 * Saudi Arabia’s unity summit will only highlight Arab disunity - Sixty-five opposition figures are supposed to achieve Arab unity in time for international talks - 5th December
 * Is David Cameron planning to include al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusra in his group of '70,000 moderates?' - If he was, Nusra men are likely to prove very expensive 'ground troops' for the RAF and its two Tornados if they bomb Syria - 2nd December
 * David Cameron, there aren't 70,000 moderate fighters in Syria - and whoever heard of a moderate with a Kalashnikov, anyway? - The Blairite Labour MPs are going to vote with Dave because they loathe Corbyn more than Isis - 30th November
 * Woah there, David Cameron! Haste and rhetoric is no recipe for peace - Reactions to Paris and Mali have been militaristic rhetoricbrought about by ignorance and refusal to understand the injustices of the Middle East - 23rd November
 * Robert Fisk: 'We remain blindfolded about Isis' says the man who should know - Brian Keenan was held by Shia Muslims loyal to Hezbollah in Lebanon - 16th November
 * Hezbollah threatens ‘long war’ as Beirut reels from deadly bomb attack - The black Isis flag can be seen in Tripoli and Sidon, but the attack on its old antagonists suggests it is under pressure - 15th November
 * You cannot honour the dead without honouring the bodies themselves - While we come together to remember fallen soldiers, the remains of orphaned survivors of the Armenian genocide are about to make way for a luxury hotel - 10th November
 * Shaker Aamer is returning to a very different UK - one that can be its own prison for Muslims - Getting to know the country and the world he has returned to will be harder still. So much has come to pass - 2nd November
 * Everyone wrote off the Syrian army. Take another look now - All this is only the beginning of Mr Putin’s adventure in the Middle East - 19th October
 * The West rightly condemns Isis vandalism of ancient sites – but not when the Saudis do it - Saudi Arabia's grotesque destruction of Muslim history is directly linked to Isis’s own purgation of the past - 11th October
 * Canada elections: Anti-Muslim prejudice is a nasty theme of campaigning as the liberal nation's democracy loses its way - Something has gone profoundly wrong with the country Winston Churchill once called 'the linchpin of the English-speaking peoples,' - 10th October
 * Syria’s ‘moderates’ have disappeared... and there are no good guys - Western confusion reigns while the Russians go for the jugular - 4th October
 * What’s Russia up to in Syria? I would wager they're after something big – retaking Palmyra - Recapturing the ancient city it would be an epic symbol of new ambitions - 27th September
 * Canada is forgetting its history of refugees - Harper’s been talking oddly of ‘old-stock Canadians’ – effectively excluding hundreds of thousands - 23rd September
 * David Cameron's flying visit to Lebanon was nothing more than an exercise in being seen - The Lebanese are all too familiar with PR excursions such as this - 15th September
 * Hungary must look to its own history for migrant guidance - Once, the country was quite happy to send those it disliked to Germany... - 7th September
 * Refugee crisis: David Cameron lowered the flag for the dead king of Saudi Arabia - will he do the same honour for little Aylan Kurdi? - In the darker and ever growing chasm between the people of Europe and their cringingly ambitious and immoral leaders there is a far more serious challenge for the future - 4th September
 * Why is Interpol doing the work of Arab despots? - World View: The latest victim is the head of an Algerian NGO highlighting human rights violations in the Middle East - 28th August
 * Isis blinds journalists with its barbarity, but we must continue to report - All sides of the story must be heard - 24th August
 * Isis executes Palmyra antiquities chief: Defender of ancient city's past was killed for protecting its future - After a month, the militants realised that Khaled al-Asaad knew nothing – or would say nothing – and so they decapitated the old man and strung his torso to a Roman pillar - 20th August
 * Isis is using 'dreamology' to justify its nightmarish vision for the world - If you want to comprehend what motivates Isis, looking to the dream world isn't as crazy as it sounds - 17th August
 * Abdullah al-Senussi execution: This perversion of justice suits Western security services just fine - The secret agreements between our intelligence and Gaddafi’s torturers will now remain safe for good - 4th August
 * Turkey-Kurdish conflict: Every regional power has betrayed the Kurds so Turkish bombing is no surprise - You would have thought that, by now, the Kurds might have learnt their lesson - 28th July
 * The West likes to think that 'civilisation' will defeat Isis, but history suggests otherwise - We cling to our belief that barbarism will never outlast the power of the righteous - 26th July
 * David Cameron extremism speech: The PM's Churchillian posturing over Syria is misguided - Our eight Tornado fighters won’t make the slightest bit of difference to the tragedy - 21st July
 * What a choice for Egypt – a megalomaniac president or the madness of Isis - Egypt is following the path of so many other countries that are being torn apart. If you torture your people enough, Isis will germinate in their wounds - 20th July
 * Iran nuclear deal: America has taken Iran's side – to the fury of Israel and Saudi Arabia - Obama hailed a 'more hopeful world... an opportunity to move in another direction' - 15th July
 * First rule of refugees – don’t be a Muslim if you want help - We now treat each refugee on the grounds of their race, religion or purpose of flight. We do not treat them as human beings - 13th July
 * Tunisia hotel attack: Backdrop to this slaughter is a history of violence against Muslims - It didn’t create these Islamists - but it helped lay the foundation for their cults of death - 28th June
 * Israeli disinformation sullies a rare moment of wartime compassion - For years, the Israelis have used this wartime operation to justify their mass killing of civilians - 28th June
 * Could the European Union end up going the way of Arab unity? - It’s clear that many are tiring of the Greek crisis - 22nd June
 * Al-Nusra is pitching for US backing. But can there be a ‘moderate’ Islamist terror group? - Al-Nusra’s PR campaign kicked off on al-Jazeera, which just happens to be funded by Qatar - 8th June
 * There’s method in the madness of Isis’s cultural vandalism - The more antiquities appear to be threatened, the more the mafias can charge for their booty - 1st June
 * Blundering Tony Blair quits as Middle East peace envoy – only Israel will miss him - For Arabs – and for Britons who lost their loved ones in his shambolic war in Iraq – Blair’s appointment was an insult - 28th May
 * Suddenly it looks like we could have done with Osama bin Laden staying alive - Who’s left if we want to negotiate with Isis? - 24th May
 * Canada’s support of Israel is dangerous - Canadians are told that their government will show “zero tolerance” towards groups advocating a boycott of Israel - 18th May
 * Al Jazeera plays a dangerous game in Egypt - Mohamed Fahmy’s theme at his press conference will be that “journalism is not political activism” - 11th May
 * Who is bombing whom in the Middle East? - It amazes me that all these warriors of the air don’t regularly crash into each other - 4th May
 * On an Istanbul street, have I just witnessed a positive step in history? - The people of Turkey are leading the way over the Armenian genocide. We wait to see if their government will follow - 26th April
 * Armenian genocide: To continue to deny the truth of this mass human cruelty is close to a criminal lie - I dug the bones and skulls of massacred Armenians out of the Syrian desert with my own hands in 1992 - 19th April
 * Ten years later, and we still don’t know who assassinated Lebanon's leader - So why is the court tasked with the inquiry going after a journalist? - 13th April
 * The Christian tragedy in the Middle East did not begin with Isis - A hundred years on from the Armenian genocide, and a Christian minority is again suffering - 6th April
 * Iran nuclear deal: A powerful Tehran turned into America’s policeman in the Gulf? It could happen - This week’s Lausanne deal could trigger a political earthquake - 4th April
 * Yemen crisis: What will Saudi Arabia do when – not if – things go wrong in their war with the Shia Houthi rebels? - They might ask the Pakistanis to send part of their vast army into the cauldron - but that would not be adding oil to the fire. It would be adding fire to the oil - 1st April
 * If Stephen Harper is serious about criminalising 'barbaric cultural practices', then he should arrest himself for even suggesting it - And while he's at it, he can lock up all the other Western leaders who have savaged the Muslim world too - 23rd March
 * Tunisia shooting: When Isis attacks a museum to destroy the 'culture of its disbelievers', what treasure of the Western world is now safe? - There have been attacks like this before, but this time it's not just peoples' lives in danger - 22nd March
 * Tunisia shooting: When Isis attacks a museum to destroy the ‘culture of its disbelievers’, what treasure of the Western world is now safe? - There have been attacks like this before, but this time it's not just peoples' lives in danger - 20th March
 * The superpowers are battling to be the biggest hypocrite - The 125,000 civilian casualties of the two Chechen wars elicited far less passion in the West than the fatalities in Syria - 16th March
 * Being coy doesn’t change the reality of modern Pakistan — a a corrupt, politically savage and physically broken society - Pakistan wilfully became an Islamic Republic and allowed religious bigotry to overwhelm its population - 9th March
 * The difference between America and Israel? There isn't one - Netanyahu knows he can get away with anything in America – with the same confidence that he can support his army when they slaughter hundreds of children in Gaza - 2nd March
 * Shah Suleyman: The truly Byzantine origins of Turkey's operation to rescue a long-dead body from the 'Islamic Caliphate' - The 13th-century fall of an obscure king into the river Euphrates, the pride of the Ottoman empire..... - 24th February
 * Talking offers hope of a peaceful solution. But we’re not allowed to do it - The very precautions aid agencies now take have made them objects of suspicion - 16th February
 * The curious tale of the Swedish Soviet spy and the sheltering Druze - ‘We’ll never forget your support for the cause of the Soviet people and our common struggle against imperialism’ - 9th February
 * Muath al-Kasaesbeh video: Genghis Khan-style cruelty of Isis shows Jordan and Japan what the militants think of them - The tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims who had demanded the pilot be freed now know what their fellow Muslims in Syria and Iraq had in mind for him - 8th February
 * Ukip couldn't better what Winston Churchill had to say about Muslims - Churchill published some views so dark about Muslims that he deleted them from future editions – but I kept hold of them - 3rd February
 * MI5’s radar should look for the word ‘injustice’ if it wants to protect us - The atrocities which we allow to be perpetrated would drive any Islamist young man or woman to violence - 26th January
 * King Abdullah's friends in the West stayed loyal, but revolution is on the horizon in Saudi Arabia - How long can our Western leaders go on stroking and purring and fawning over – and arming – these Croesus-like autocrats? - 24th January
 * An old hand is at work in Yemen’s bloody civil war - Yemen is not Syria. But America’s skewed comprehension of the Middle East has now produced a remarkably similar scenario - 22nd January
 * The Gallipoli centenary is a shameful attempt to hide the Armenian Holocaust - As world leaders plan to commemorate the First World War battle for Gallipoli, another horrific anniversary risks being overlooked - 20th January
 * With so many people tweeting before they think, the telegraph can teach us some valuable lessons - A telegraph cable transmitted information at only eight words a minute, which helped avoid the sort of mindless communication we see so much today - 19th January
 * Alawite history reveals the complexities of Syria that West does not understand - The maps long favoured in the West partition off Arab countries into ethnic divisions, but all these make clear is our own ignorance - 17th January
 * Saudi Arabia's history of hypocrisy we choose to ignore - On Thursday, a Saudi blogger will receive his second flogging for 'insulting Islam'. Robert Fisk looks at a barbaric regime with a brutal record''] -
 * The only point of 'terror lists' is to get those named a palace invitation - The Cordoba Foundation has now found itself on the 'list' alongside al-Qaeda and Isis - 12th January
 * Charlie Hebdo: Even before I knew their names, I had a feeling the murderers might be Algerian - Algeria is the post-colonial wound that still bleeds in France - 10th January
 * A new frontier in Syria's civil war, but what does future hold for refugees in Lebanon? - With Beirut restricting its borders, can the million-plus displaced people already there have any real hope of returning home? - 8th January
 * When will Palestinians learn? Turning to international law isn't the answer — just ask America and Israel - If Palestine's request is 'entirely counterproductive', what does that make Israel's slaughtering of civilians last summer? - 5th January



Articles: 2014

 * A timely reminder of the bloody anniversary we all forgot - Did you know that it will soon be the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War? - 30th December
 * Peshawar school attack: Massacre of the innocents in Pakistan born of ambivalence towards Taliban - Army and security police have wavered between backing and attacking the group - 17th December
 * CIA 'torture report': Once again language is distorted in order to hide US state wrongdoing - Perhaps Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told his torturers he could fly through the air - 15th December
 * CIA torture report: These depravities are not going to infuriate the Muslim world – they've been enraged about them for years - It's the Western response that the torturers really fear, which is why the CIA has been so intent on misleading us - 12th December
 * Isn’t it important to realise who our enemies really are? - Children are so often the forgotten victims of conflict – regardless of the perpetrators - 7th December
 * Do you know the difference between a Holocaust and a holocaust? The Armenians do - Despite what some sub-editors might think, the genocide of 1.5m Armenian Christians in 1915 was not a holocaust - 1st December
 * Iran is shifting from pariah to possible future policeman of the Gulf - Iran’s crisis – our crisis with Iran, if you like – is about that great and historic nation’s future geo-strategic role in the Middle East and Southeast Asia - 23rd November
 * Isis in Syria: The militia that has transcended tribal divisions to fight Islamic State - Syria’s army cannot hold all the ground it takes from Isis or other Islamist groups. Hence the existence of the NDF. - 16th November
 * The 200,000 Syrian child refugees forced into slave labour in Lebanon - While the world obsesses over the atrocities committed by Isis, the plight of those forced to flee the country has been largely forgotten. Robert Fisk takes a heartbreaking tour of the Sedyanel 7 camp - 28th October
 * With US-led strikes on Isis intensifying, it’s a good time to be a shareholder in the merchants of death - Last month American warships fired $65.8m worth of Tomahawk missiles within just 24 hours of each other - 20th October
 * Propaganda war of Islamic extremists is being waged on Facebook and internet message boards, not mosques - Isis has turned the internet into the most effective propaganda tool ever - 14th October
 * Cameron talked the talk at conference. But after the bombing, what then? - He knows very well that our four – or is it two? – clapped-out Tornadoes are not going to make the slightest difference to any assault on jihadi forces - 6th October
 * It’s perfectly reasonable to negotiate with villains like Isis, so why don’t we do it and save some lives? - Nobody criticises the Israeli government when it swaps prisoners with Hezbollah - 29th September
 * John Kerry’s rhetoric on Isis insults our intelligence and conceals the reality of the situation in Syria - Anyone who has studied Syria knows the moderate opposition doesn’t exist - 23rd September
 * Islamic State: Assad lures Obama into his web - The Syrian regime, which the US has sworn to overthrow, has asked America to co-operate in the fight against Isis militants. It is likely to exact a high price for any collaboration - 17th September
 * Ian Paisley’s decision to make peace with his IRA enemies might have reminded the Arabs of Sadat - His Save Ulster from Sodomy campaign would surely have been supported by many a Sunni imam - 15th September
 * Bingo! Here’s another force of evil to be ‘vanquished’ - One can see how difficult these lessons in Middle East history must be for the average American - 12th September
 * Scottish independence: Ireland since 1919 is a lesson for Scotland in what a Yes vote means - The last divorce from the United Kingdom was painful and acrimonious, but ended in harmony and prosperity. So why should independence north of the border turn out any differently? - 12th September
 * After the atrocities committed against Muslims in Bosnia, it is no wonder today’s jihadis have set out on the path to war in Syria - While the US State Department told us in Bosnia that 'fundamentalism' – the horror word of the time – might take root in Bosnia, no one spoke of 'radicalisation' - 8th September
 * Isis isn’t the first group to use the butcher’s knife as an instrument of policy. Nor will it be the last - Not since the Nazis have we had culprits documenting their war crimes on such a scale - 1st September
 * Qatar and the reason US hostage Peter Theo Curtis has been released - The Qataris are telling Assad that they are important in Syria- 26th August
 * Isis's undoubted skill in exploiting social media is no reason for US leaders to start talking about the apocalypse - Power without responsibility has provided al-Baghdadi and his men with their most potent weapon - 24th August
 * Air strikes? Talk of God? Obama is following the jihadists’ script - The President came the nearest he has come yet to rivalling George W Bush’s gormless reaction to 9/11 - 22nd August
 * Middle East crisis: We know all too much about the cruelty of Isis – but all too little about who they are - Now President Obama has seen the next US reporter to be threatened with beheading, will he blink? - 21st August
 * If the Nobel Peace Prize can be handed to Obama, why not hand it to the Israeli Defence Force? - Is Ron Dermer, one of Netanyahu’s most trusted advisers, simply delusional? - 11th August
 * Bombs away! US to the rescue – but only of certain minorities, not Muslims - Obama’s air strikes on Isis in northern Iraq are hypocritical, and a sense of déjà vu is understandable - 9th August
 * First World War Centenary: My father threw away his poppy in disgust - Robert Fisk’s family was haunted by his father’s experience on the Somme and the loss of his friends. Why, he wonders, do we pay homage to the dead but ignore the lessons of their war? - 4th August
 * Dress the Gaza situation up all you like, but the truth hurts - There was a time when our politicians and media had one principal fear when covering Middle East ..... - 1st August
 * It's not just radicalised Islamists – what about foreign fighters who flock to the IDF? - Is the Government interested in UK citizens who have been fighting in Israeli uniform in Gaza in the past couple of weeks? - 29th July
 * What if it had been 35 Palestinian dead, and 800 Israeli? - Many hundreds of thousands of people – I wish I could say millions – around the world want an end to this impunity - 28th July
 * Israel-Gaza conflict: 'Eight hundred dead Palestinians. But Israel has impunity' - There’s something very odd about our reactions to these two outrageous death tolls - 26th July
 * Why do television producers think a grey blob over a dead person’s face shows respect? - Cruelly obliterating their image kills the child a second time - 21st July
 * Dumping blame for the Holocaust on the wretched figure of the Grand Mufti is an insult to the six million victims of an evil regime - A highly incriminating story, if true – but “possible” is hardly the stuff of history - 7th July
 * How on earth can Israel tolerate this filth from B’nai Brith Canada? - Four million Canadians carrying the anti-Semitic ‘disease’? We’ve heard this kind of despicable propaganda before - 30th June
 * The jailing of Al-Jazeera journalists: A proxy in the war between Qatar and Saudi Arabia - Just as rape is a vile tool of war, so is the jailing of journalists - 24th June
 * Robert Fisk: Now we see how his doctrine turns enemies into ‘allies’ - Assad’s enemies, whom Blair’s bombing of Damascus would have helped, now threaten Iraq - 15th June
 * Robert Fisk: The old partition of the Middle East is dead. I dread to think what will follow - “Sykes-Picot is dead,” Walid Jumblatt roared at me last night – and he may well be right -13th June
 * Iraq crisis: Sunni caliphate has been bankrolled by Saudi Arabia - Bush and Blair said Iraq was a war on Islamic fascism. They lost - 12th June
 * An audience with ‘the Tiger’ – Bashar al-Assad’s favourite soldier - ...and a man you wouldn’t want to cross - 9th June
 * Alaa al-Aswany, Egypt’s greatest living novelist, knows Sisi is not a true democrat – but is still hopeful that he can ‘do good’ - "I think we must give the Sisi government a chance. People are terrorised" - 2nd June
 * Our addiction to the internet is as harmful as any drug – and what passes for comment these days is often simply foul abuse - The focus on ‘surfing’ rather than proper reading has impoverished literature - 26th May
 * Our modern gods: Amnesty International, the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations - They provide a reflection of our universal need for human protection, but are without artistic merit - 20th May
 * The spread of British hypocrisy, from Gerry Adams and Northern Ireland to Syria - If arresting Adams just before the European elections was not political, then surely the British refusal to inquire into the slaughter in Ballymurphy was - 12th May
 * Spain is inviting back Jews expelled from the country in the 16th Century. But don't mention the Muslims - Our cousins in Madrid and Lisbon simply don’t want Muslims to come to Europe - 5th May
 * Another ‘sham’ election is over, so what now for Algeria? - The ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won a fourth term in a ballot decried as fraudulent by his critics - 22nd April
 * The Middle East we must confront in the future will be a Mafiastan ruled by money - In Iraq, mafiosi already run almost the entire oil output of the south of the country - 21st April
 * I suspect that deep in the soul of the Irish people there is a sneaking affection for the Royal Family - Michael D Higgins’ visit to the UK was accompanied by enthusiastic reports in his country’s press - 14th April
 * Has Recep Tayyip Erdogan gone from model Middle East 'strongman' to tin-pot dictator? - Once a cuddly ally of Barack Obama, the Turkish Prime Minister has shown himself to be increasingly authoritarian - 12th April
 * Sinister efforts to minimise Japanese war crimes and portray the empire as a victim must be exposed - The man known as Abe’s ‘brain’ says Japan has become ‘a hopelessly pacifist nation’ - 7th April
 * The 1915 Armenian genocide: Finding a fit testament to a timeless crime - As the last survivors die out, academics must consider how best to create a lasting memorial to the 1.5 million who were murdered - 7th April
 * The extraordinary story of 100-year-old Yevnigue Salibian, one of the last people alive who can recall the horror of the Armenian genocide - Her life was saved by the reins of a horse as her family fled the brutality of Ottoman rule - 31st March
 * Assad is already counting on soldiers still at school to fill the gaps left by 30,000 casualties - There are intriguing hints that the conflict is changing. There are mini-ceasefires now - 24th March
 * Western leaders cannot face a ‘looming’ war. So I guess they'll patch something up - and let Russia gobble part of Ukraine - The Russkies are not going to be shaking in their boots at sanctions - 10th March
 * Were it not for the French, Hezbollah would all be Syrians fighting on their own government’s side inside their own country - And you thought the Middle East was a difficult place to understand. Try living here - 3rd March
 * Pluralism was once the hallmark of the Arab world, so the exodus of Christians from the Middle East is painful to one Islamic scholar - “It is a tragedy and a blow to the basic pride of Arab Islamic civilisation" - 24th February
 * Ukraine’s future is tied up with Syria’s – and Vladimir Putin is crucial to both - No one in the Middle East will be studying Ukraine’s violent tragedy with more fascination - 22nd February
 * Proof that politics hasn’t changed - Name the British PM described below, shortly after he invaded an Arab country under false pretences... - 17th February
 * Iran’s dead poets society: The execution of Hashem Shabaani shows the pen can be mightier than the sword - For writing poetry in Arabic, a pacifist, father and carer, was accused of ‘spreading corruption’ and executed - 13th February
 * The number of women sentenced to death across the Middle East has very little to do with justice - Young women who have been killed in their thousands across the Middle Eastern region should be listed, at least in the afterworld, on some roll of martyrdom - 10th February
 * Using ‘generic’ illustrations in news stories dishonours the dead and distorts the truth - One day, Stalingrad can be transposed for Kursk, or Alamein transposed for Tobruk - 3rd February
 * If only Tony Blair could grasp the truth about Field Marshal Sisi - Do the British people love Blair? Do they eat Blair chocolates and wear Blair pyjamas? - 30th January
 * Confessions beaten out of ‘suspects’, executions by the hundreds... How different is justice in today’s Iraq from the era of Saddam? - The presumption of guilt is just one of Saddam’s creations that has passed on seamlessly to his elected successors - 27th January
 * Syria report: One is reminded of Nazi Germany - Everyone knows that the Assad regime – from father Hafez onwards – has employed torture and executions to preserve the doubtful purity of the Baath party - 22nd January
 * Britain feared civil war in Ireland more than it feared war in Europe 100 years ago - Was the British Empire about to crumble from within? This was the question at the start of 1914 - 20th January
 * Egyptians – or 98.1% of them – carry on a proud tradition - This is such stuff as dreams are made on, enough to banish any nightmares troubling the sleep of Egypt’s army commander, General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi - 20th January
 * The ‘flowers’ of the Arab Spring are so distracting that Ariel Sharon’s death has barely raised a whimper - For years, Iraqis have been telling me that they prefer ‘security’ to ‘anarchy’ - 13th January
 * Ariel Sharon: Peacemaker, hero... and butcher - He was respected in his eight years of near-death, with no sacrilegious cartoons to damage his reputation; and he will, be assured, receive the funeral of a hero and a peacemaker. Thus do we remake history - 12th January
 * Now it's Middle Eastern regimes fighting al-Qa'ida, while the US ties itself up in knots -This is “Arab unity” as we have never seen it before. But watch out - 6th January



Articles: 2013

 * By branding the entire Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists, General Sisi is adopting a well-tested tactic of past Egyptian dictators - Nasser didn’t hesitate to call on the hangman to decapitate the Brotherhood - 30th December
 * Is Mikhail Kalashnikov in Hell? The man was confident he would not go there - When I met him, his Siberian eyes were as alert as a wolf’s; he was brash, tough, unashamed. I guess he had to be - 26th December
 * Syrian rebels have taken iconoclasm to new depths, with shrines, statues and even a tree destroyed – but to what end? - Compared writing poetry to the sex act? May he be turned to dust! - 23rd December
 * Do you get phone calls from nowhere? - About a year ago, I began to recieve a wonderful series of calls from America and London - 23rd December
 * The sad and puzzling story of Abbas Khan, the British doctor found dead in Syrian jail - What prompted the death of a man whose life was more valuable to Assad than any other foreigner’s in Syria? - 18th December
 * As we move towards the Great War’s centenary, it’s time to recognise the reality of its horror - Beneath the headstones, there are sometimes just bits of human beings - 16th December
 * An obsessive’s documenting of Israeli war crimes in Lebanon can show us how the West lost respect for international law - One Norwegian officer left Lebanon with a typed report on torture taped to his chest - 9th December
 * Nearly a century after the Armenian genocide, these people are still being slaughtered in Syria - And now, almost unmentioned in the media, their holy places are also being desecrated - 2nd December
 * He may huff and puff but Benjamin Netanyahu is on his own now as nuclear agreement isolates Israel - Sudden offer by Tehran to negotiate a high-speed end to this cancerous threat of further war was thus greeted with almost manic excitement - 25th November
 * Suicide attack in Beirut: Tragedy is spreading from Iran’s western border to the Mediterranean - The suicide attack in Beirut last week was unusual in several respects, not least that the target was the Iranian embassy - 25th November
 * The real poison is to be found in Arafat's legacy - He placed vain trust in Israel and the US - mistakes that his people are still paying for - 18th November
 * Mass migrations are nothing new in the Middle East, but the sheer numbers involved are having a devastating effect - Polio has broken out in Syria and 20 million children are to be vaccinated - 11th November
 * Poppycock – or why remembrance rituals make me see red - The poppy helps us avoid a search for the meaning of war - 8th November
 * Morsi trial: If a court can exemplify the divisions of a nation, this one did for Egypt - An awful lot of people believe Morsi should never have been elected - 5th November
 * As Morsi goes to trial, General Sisi should remember: Egypt is a dangerous place to rule - The erstwhile President appears in court at a tense time even by Egypt's standards - 4th November
 * Is The Hague making a mockery of justice so the CIA and MI6 can save face? - There’s a spot of skulduggery going on in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague - 31st October
 * Remembering the First World War: The flood of 1914-18 memorabilia has begun – and it will break your heart - A pan-European digital library has collected 500,000 memento - 28th Octobers
 * How the Sunni-Shia schism is dividing the world - The unprecedented Saudi refusal to take up its Security Council seat is not just about Syria but a response to the Iranian threat - 25th October
 * It took decades for truth to be revealed in Algeria. How long will it take Syria? - Algeria’s ‘timid’ historians shy away from revealing the ugly truths about war - 21st October
 * Slow going by UN in probe on murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri - So why exactly has it all taken so long? - 21st October
 * Lebanon has cause for shame in its treatment of Syrian refugees - They are beaten in the immigration queues and cheated with exorbitant rents - 14th October
 * A tragedy off the coast of Indonesia that should shame Lebanon's neglectful government - The migrants' boat sank - but the blame must start in Beirut - 7th October
 * A tragedy off the coast of Indonesia that should shame Lebanon's neglectful government - The migrants' boat sank - but the blame must start in Beirut - 7th October
 * US cowardice will let Israel’s isolated right off the hook - The Likudists suddenly find that the whole world wants peace in the Middle East rather than war - 2nd October
 * A Syrian solution to civil conflict? The Free Syrian Army is holding talks with Assad's senior staff - Secret approach to the President could reshape the whole war - 30th September
 * "I had five sons, now I have four": Syria's senior cleric pardons the rebels who killed his son - The Grand Mufti of Syria preaches a message of forgiveness - 24th September
 * Into the Minotaur’s cave of diplomacy: how Russia became Syria’s deterrent - The Syrians, who often memorise poetry, like Lavrov: they believe he writes it in his spare time - 23rd September
 * Gas missiles 'were not sold to Syria' - Export papers seem to back Assad's denial over sarin attack – but Russians won't go into detail - 22nd September
 * Questions remain over Syria's gas attacks: Why there? Why then? Why at all? - Sadly, both sides have ceased to care about the morality of the weapons they use - 19th September
 * There is something deeply cynical about this chemical weapons ‘timetable’ - Even if it succeeds, Syrians will be left to kill each other as before - only without sarin - 16th September
 * Syria intervention: Would Operation Biffing Arabs be the best name for it? - America in Lebanon’s civil war in the 1980s, just as it is poised to do in Syria - 9th September
 * Vladimir Putin will happily let Obama sweat it out alone in Syria - There is many a cautionary tale for Arab leaders – and for arrogant Western ones – about Moscow’s dealings with the Middle East - 7th September
 * This bombardment of Syria clichés shows no sign of stopping - Politicians all around the world discuss war with the very tiredest of language - 5th September
 * Once Washington made the Middle East tremble – now no one there takes it seriously - Our present leaders are paying the price for the dishonesty of Bush and Blair - 2nd September
 * We should have been traumatised into action over Syria in 2011 - and 2012. But now? - Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West - 30th August
 * We should have been traumatised into action by this war in 2011. And 2012. But now? - Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West - 30th August
 * Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side? - ‘All for one and one for all’ should be the battle cry if the West goes to war against Assad’s Syrian regime - 28th August
 * A freed Mubarak should feel at home in today’s topsy turvy Egypt - The lads from state security are behaving with Mubarak-era ruthlessness - 21st August
 * Egypt crisis: A national tragedy plays out at Cairo’s stinking mortuary - These horrific scenes represent all sides of Egypt’s '‘state of  emergency' - 20th August
 * How some ordinary Egyptians became ‘malicious terrorists’ - It’s our dear friends the Saudis whom the Egyptian army and police can count on - 19th August
 * The police keep firing; the bodies pile up. In Cairo, bloodbaths are now a daily occurrence - There can be no excuse for the police whose duty is to protect all Egyptians - 17th August
 * Cairo massacre: After today, what Muslim will ever trust the ballot box again? - This marks a tragic turning point, from which it will take Egypt years to recover - 15th August
 * Any other ‘statesman’ who negotiated peace like John Kerry would be treated as a thief - Kerry isn’t on their side. He’s going all out for ‘peace’ on Israeli government terms - 14th August
 * Devilish compromises of fighting ‘evil’ played out on stage… and real life - Shaw's 1907 play about a weapons manufacturer is now more relevant than ever - 12th August
 * Millions take to the streets of Egypt in an ever-growing media fantasy - If that many were demonstrating, who was driving the trains, buses, underground, operating the airports, manning the police and army, the factories, and hotels? - 5th August
 * The Egyptian army wants to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood – but in many ways they are already history - Many see the Brotherhood’s defeat as the beginning of the end of the Islamist ideology - 25th July
 * Was it four killed? Or nine? In Egypt, the deaths keep racking up - and few pay any attention - When Mubarak fell the country was bright with optimism. Now life is cheap and the future brings only fear - 24th July
 * Israel will maintain contact with Hezbollah, so why should we stop? - The Israelis will continue to maintain contact with the Hizballah ‘militant staff’ whenever they want a body swap - 23rd July
 * If we are going to retreat, must we grovel so shamefully as we leave? - Now we arrive in the Middle East as smiling supplicants, blessing any “people’s change” (unless it is any monarchical autocracy of the Gulf) - 22nd July
 * By taking sides within sides, Rifkind risks a repeat of Balkans mistakes in Syria - It was the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and the Bosnian War in the 1990s. Today's superpowers are fighting in Syria, but lets be in no doubt as to their motivations - 15th July
 * We British go out of our way to avoid using the word ‘Muslim’ - If reporters avoid using the word, we also risk missing out on the positive side of religious identity - 8th July
 * When is a military coup not a military coup? When it happens in Egypt, apparently - Those Western leaders who are telling us Egypt is still on the path to “democracy” have to remember that Morsi was indeed elected in a real, Western-approved election - 5th July
 * Britain’s problems with a veto on Syria go right back to Yalta - It was then that the 'big five' were granted such power - 30th June
 * The three things that always accompany occupation - Torture by masters who claim the moral high ground, declarations they've won their war despite being in retreat, and insistence on a dignified exit after negotiation - 24th June
 * Now I really don't want to appear on the Newseum's shameful list - Two pro-Hamas journalists were removed following an Israeli-led campaign - 17th June
 * As the US wants to arm 'nice Syrian rebels' we must remind ourselves that weapons are not just guns. They are about money - Hardware will end up in the hands of al-Qa’ida - 15th June
 * Ahmadinejad’s successor is supposed to be chosen by the people, not guardians - This is not a real election for Iran but a competition between clerical favourites - 10th June
 * Hezbollah has been lured into unknown territory in Syria as it wages costly battle for survival - Mohammed Nour is the spokesperson for the Northern Storm Brigade, accused of kidnapping 11 Lebanese pilgrims in Syria - 3rd June
 * Hezbollah’s war in Syria threatens to engulf Lebanon - This is potentially the greatest danger to Lebanon’s people since the 1975-90 civil war - 27th May
 * Where else but Northern Ireland would a killer on a school board even be mooted as a possibility? - The day-to-day reality of post-conflict Northern Ireland as detailed in Fionola Meredith's Britain and Ireland: Lives Entwined is more X-Files than The Fall - 20th May
 * The Armenian hero whom Turkey would prefer to forget - Sarkis Torossian, the Armenian-Turkish officer, was awarded medals by Mustafa Kemal - 13th May
 * How Achille Lauro hijackers were seduced by high life - On board the cruise ship, the Palestinian boys who murdered a wheelchair-bound American pensioner had seen a lifestyle they knew nothing of, according to new research - 6th May
 * War reporting - a veteran’s guide: Shot at, seized by a murderous mob and chased by kidnappers... - As part of our Voices in Danger campaign, Robert Fisk reveals how he lived to tell the tale – and why the world is becoming a more dangerous place - 3rd May
 * Assad sends his feared militia squads to the battlefront - Syria’s ‘ghost’ soldiers have been accused of torturing and killing civilians. Soon they will be controlling newly captured towns - 30th April
 * This was supposed to be a 'game changer' week in Syria, so why is it all the same? - In the 13th century Sultan Qalawun was known as the 'supressor of rebels'. The army of his 21st century counterpart may be winning, but the rebels are not 'supressed' - 29th April
 * Inside Damascus - memoirs reveal the Hafez approach - Hitherto unknown information has emerged from the confidential archives of the Syrian presidency and foreign ministry - 22nd April
 * The 9,000 unsung heroes working on both sides of Syri's front line - Red Crescent heroes are delivering aid to everyone - 20th April
 * Beware wishful thinking. Assad isn’t going soon - The West has an odd habit of assuming dictators we don't like will simply disappear - 19th April
 * ‘We don’t really know what war is like. We haven’t seen it yet’ - The Independent's Middle East correspondent, reporting from Damascus, finds Syrians hardened to routine, ubiquitous violence - 16th April
 * A barbaric war throws up a horror story that makes villains of all - There aren't words to describe the brutality of an image currently circulating in Syria. But in an age of photo-shop, who knows how much of it is real - 15th April
 * The war has reached Damascus, but for now it is not a warzone - The Independent's Middle East correspondent returns to the streets of Damascus - 12th April
 * Khalil Raad's Palestinian pictures chart the history - and the tragedy - This exhibition of the work of the first Palestinian photographer helps fulfil the Palestinian narrative, but it also shows a country that will never return - 8th April
 * When George Bush invaded Iraq, life imitated art - Born-again Christians often don't realise their 'God-given' right to invade Iraq destroyed one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East - 1st April
 * Lebanon is like a Rolls Royce with square wheels… it has a lot that’s worthy of praise but it doesn’t run so well - If no agreement is reached on a new election law parliament will be crushed - 25th March
 * Bahrain hit by doctors' desertion - The Royal Family have some very difficult questions to answer - 24th March
 * The eyes of the world are trained on Israel. But will there be anything to see? - World Focus: So will it be tragedy, farce or tourism? Obama’s a tourist, so says the Davy Crockett of the American journalistic frontier and philosopher king of The New York Times (aka T Friedman, Esq), but he’s wrong - 21st March
 * The cost of war must be measured by human tragedy, not artefacts - What does heritage matter in the face of such tragic desolation? - 18th March
 * A misty-eyed farewell to Lebanon's smoky nargile dens - Long View: Against expectation, Lebanon’s anti-smoking campaign has been a success and one of the region's longest lasting habits is finally coming to an end - 11th March
 * John Kerry wants the Gulf to support the Syrian rebels. But which rebels? The soft, safe ones? Or those horrible, 'terrorist' Islamists? - Why wouldn't the Saudi royal family arm their favourite anti-Shiite militia? - 6th March 2013
 * Alawite history reveals the complexities of Syria that West does not understand - The maps long favoured in the West partition off Arab countries into ethnic divisions, but all these make clear is our own ignorance - 4th March
 * The West babbles on, and Assad is the winner - Talks in Rome did nothing to hide the fact Syria's people have been betrayed - 2nd March
 * How Canada, land of political correctness, became the latest front in the Syrian civil war - "If you believe in free speech," said the email, "please cancel Robert Fisk's tour." - 11th February
 * The murder of Shokri Belaid is a sign that Tunisia’s 'Jasmine Revolution' is turning dark - The staple demand of all Arab revolutions – “the people want the fall of the regime” - could be heard in Tunis after a leading member of the opposition was shot - 7th February
 * From the Papal monasteries to Timbuktu, absolutism lives on - For the Salafists, a Muslim shrine is a rival to God as surely as Henry VIII saw the monasteries as a Papal rival - 4th February
 * From Algeria, a lesson in how to bypass democracy - Our Middle East Correspondent on the Bouteflika regime, Pentagon folly, the many faces of Assad, and precious lessons from and old handbook in his Beirut briefcase - 28th January
 * Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the new face of al-Qa'ida (and why he's nothing like Osama bin Laden) - Robert Fisk on what he really means in the 'war on terror' - 25th January
 * Ben Affleck, Argo and a chilling portrait of suspicion and vengeance in post-revolutionary Tehran - There are no shortage of oddities in this Oscar-nominated movie, but our Middle East Correspondent is moved by a brilliant depiction of Iran after the 1979 upheaval - 21st January
 * Algeria, Mali, and why this week has looked like an obscene remake of earlier Western interventions - We are outraged not by the massacre of the innocents, but because the hostages killed were largely white, blue-eyed chaps rather than darker, brown-eyed chaps - 19th January
 * Algeria's bloody slaughter was utterly predictable - The real rulers in this country are a military who were "blooded" in a civil war that taught them to care as little for the innocent as they do for the guilty - 18th January
 * It sounds like a replay of Algeria’s civil war. Don’t bet on a happy ending - The problem is that Algeria's vicious 1990-99 conflict never really ended - 17th January
 * The retrial that will seal the fate of Hosni Mubarak - There is always a danger that the retrial will provoke sympathy rather than revulsion, but Hosni is not, after all, the lucky chap he might have appeared to be a day or two ago - 14th January
 * Anonymous comments, gutless trolls, and why it's time we all stop drinking this digital poison - Why is anonymity, the bane of every newspaper Letters Editor in the world, accepted as cyber-journalism - the more hateful, the more understandable? - 11th January
 * Army was the target audience of President's theatre at the opera house - The message for Syrians was clear: the army is the bedrock of power - 7th January
 * Why the numbers game doesn’t add up in the killing fields of Syria - Are the dead from Assad's army even counted in these statistics? - 7th January



Articles: 2012

 * Does Arab progress founder on an ossified language? - We need to understand our history better: why did Arabs disappear from ‘our’ science? - 31st December
 * A word of advice about the Middle East – we’ve reached the ‘tipping point’ with cliches - You've got to be careful when Syria's rebels are perpetually "closing in" - 24th December
 * Finucane, Sami al-Saadi and Khaled el-Musri: will we once again just 'move on' from the murky conduct of MI6 and the CIA? - Torture, rendition, sodomy: with ‘protectors’ like these, who needs ex-frie - 17th December
 * A monument to evil that can teach the modern world - The picture shows German tanks on the streets of Oslo in 1940. In Norway, our correspondent examines how education, terror and history are linked - 10th December
 * Syria, Bashar al-Assad, and the truth about chemical weapons and who may or may not have them - Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad was brutal but never used chemical arms. And do you know which was the first army to use gas in the Middle East? - 8th December
 * Syria's elite used to believe the bureaucracy would continue even after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. After Makdissi’s defection, that has changed - Whatever the reasons for the "dismissal" of Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, his defection is the government's loss - 5th December
 * A feminist, patriot and widow who hankers after the values of an earlier age - “I was born here and I have a right to live here – the same thing goes for the Arab population” - 23rd December
 * The democracies of Europe will vote to recognise Palestine at the UN. Will Cameron stand with them? - Peace at any price is a non-starter. But peace at Mr Netanyahu’s price is not attractive to every Israeli - 30th November
 * Israel, Yasser Arafat, and Polonium-210: the questions and curiosities around the death of 'Mr Palestine' - The former Fatah leader died in curious circumstances. Our Middle East Correspondent says that, looking at history, one consolation is the company he keeps - 28th November
 * Netanyahu leads Israel into isolation - The Iron Dome system kept missiles at bay, but another 'dome' shields the people from reality - 25th November
 * One of Israel's great leftist warriors wants peace with Hamas and Gaza - but does the Knesset? - Our correspondent meets the legendary Uri Avnery, who roars out against Netanyahu and his government and foresees growing ethnic strife in Israel - 23rd November
 * What was it all for? The murder of Palestinians and Israelis is just a prelude to the next Gaza war - Netanyahu’s campaign for the January elections began the moment he ordered the assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari. He's improved Hamas's election chances too - 23rd November
 * Israel demands our support because it fights its ‘war against terrorists’ in our name - We westerners set the precedent when it comes to "collateral damage", now the Israelis are reeling out the same tired excuses - 21st November
 * As the 'gates of hell' open once more in the Middle East, these old journalistic clichés won't do - Whether it's 'surgical air strikes', 'rooting out terror' or 'cyber-terrorism', the stench of hypocrisy is rife - 19th November
 * If Assad goes, Hezbollah will be alone in the Levant – much to the delight of Israel - Syria's fate is crucial to the future of the Lebanese group - 12th November
 * The Case of the Swedish weapons in Syria - How did warning flares from a small town near Gothenburg find their way into the weaponry of the anti-Assad resistance? - 5th November
 * Whichever of Obama or Romney wins, US dealings with the Arab world will change - Every reader of this article will be dead of old age before the Arab "revolution" is complete - 29th October
 * Rached Ghannouchi says he doesn’t want an Islamic state in Tunisia. Can he prove his critics wrong? - The leader of the North African country’s largest political party defends it against accusations that it poses a threat to secularism in the birthplace of the Arab Spring - 25th October
 * The legacy of imperialism still haunts every street in Rome - My dad, I'm afraid, had a soft spot for Mussolini, especially when Benito crushed the commies - 20th October
 * Plucky little Turkey standing up to evil Syria? It's not as simple as that - Turkey is funnelling weapons and armed men across the border into Syria - 8th October
 * Sanctions hurt Syria and Iran but regimes can ride on regardless - One of the small but immensely wealthy states which may suffer from Iran's crisis is Dubai - 5th October
 * These 'savages' created some of history's finest art - It's true, I suspect, that "cultural" Islam, which includes a lot of Christian artists, is greater than the Islamic religion - 1st October
 * Benjamin Netanyahu's warning reveals his moments of memory loss - Israeli President "Bibi" Netanyahu on Guy Fawkes. The super-terrorist plans to blow up parliament and the King; the very nation will be liquidated. Fawkes was a Catholic rather than a Muslim – though Renaissance Europe was pretty good at bestialising both – but what a cartoon! - 29th September
 * Beyond the Alexandria Quartet: a 'lost' Lawrence Durrell novel reveals the author's Israel bias - If it lacks historical integrity – and, by God, it does – the prose shines through thickets of propaganda - 24th September
 * Al-Qa'ida cashes in as the scorpion gets in among the good guys - A Damascus friend of mine called this weekend and was pretty chipper. "You know, we're all sorry about Christopher Stevens. This kind of thing is terrible and he was a good friend to Syria – he understood the Arabs." - 17th September
 * The provocateurs know politics and religion don't mix - It only takes a couple of loonies a few seconds to kick off a miniature war in the Muslim world - 13th September
 * No one likes violence...But people know there is no going back. If they return home, they will die one by one - The Syrian general opened an envelope and upended its contents on his desk - 10th September
 * In Maaloula, the past has relevance to Syria's tragic present - Sunday is a good day to drive to Maaloula. There are fig and olive trees and grapes by the road and, for a time, you can forget that Syria is enduring an epic tragedy - 4th September
 * Syria's road from jihad to prison - For the first time, a Western journalist has been granted access to Assad's military prisoners - 2nd September
 * Another week in the violent, murderous and divided world of Syria - Christians and Armenians among latest to die - 1st September
 * Minister for information who wants to go straight - Truth will no longer be a casualty of Syria's civil war, says President Assad's media supremo - 31st August
 * The Syrian army would like to appear squeaky clean. It isn't - "Our own beloved Free Syria Army has actually advertised its own murders on YouTube" - 27th August
 * The bloody truth about Syria's uncivil war - Those trying to topple Assad have surprised the army with their firepower and brutal tactics - 26th August
 * Syria's newspapers trumpet an army victory but the sound of shellfire tells the true story - Sniper attacks prove that this war is far from over - 25th August
 * No power can bring down the Syrian regime - After gaining exclusive access to Bashar al-Assad's army officers, our writer reports from the Aleppo front line - 22nd August
 * 'They snipe at us then run and hide in sewers - Our writer was given exclusive access to the Assad Generals accused of war crimes as they seek to defeat the rebels in Aleppo - 21st August
 * UN leaves Syria to its bloody fate - Special report: As the international troops retreat, heavy arms will flood into what will become a free-fire zone - 19th August
 * Syria's conflict has crossed the border, and the ghost of Lebanon's civil war returns - Kidnappings in Beirut highlight a sectarian divide made worse by neighbouring violence - 17th August
 * In the end, all Israel and her Western allies want to do is to break Iran – via Syria - A video allegedly shows Samaha transporting explosives from a car in an underground car park - 13th August
 * Syria welcomed them – now it has spat them out - The Palestinians caught in Syria's crossfire have fled - 11th August
 * Hijab defection drives wedge into fractured party - The increasing defection of Sunni figures drives a wedge into an already fractured Baath - 7th August
 * Assad's merciless assault risks wiping out both his country's future – and its past - We may reflect how 'the battle for Syria's history' has been fought many times before - 6th August
 * Syria's ancient treasures pulverised - Nation's extraordinarily rich historical heritage is falling victim to the looting of war - 5th August
 * Syrian war of lies and hypocrisy - The West's real target here is not Assad's brutal regime but his ally, Iran, and its nuclear weapons - 29th July
 * Yes, there's violence, but some Syrians think it's time to return - There has been a rebel surge – but most of the country is still under Bashar al-Assad's iron rule - 26th July
 * If Alawites are turning against Assad then his fate is sealed - There seems to be a Baathist pattern of destroying Sunni villages on the edge of the Alawite heartland - 23rd July
 * Sectarianism bites into Syria's rebels - The deathwish of fighters in Damascus terrifies many who oppose Assad - 22nd July
 * Assassinations on an epic scale – but Syria rebels will not claim their greatest prize - The appalling scenes in Syria begin to reflect the barbarism of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia - 19th July
 * Where is a Goya who could chronicle today's conflict? - Women dragged off for rape, men shot by death squads – such atrocities take place by the hour - 16th July
 * Beirut's banks – and a money trail from Syria to Iran… - The Central Bank of Lebanon is accused of taking deposits from terrorists and criminals - 12th July
 * A truce is declared in Egypt and the revolution continues – for now - 11th July
 * The rebel sheikh defying Hezbollah to take aim at Assad - Yes, the former president of Syria and father of the president regime incumbent is roasting away there, and has been since he died of a heart attack while chatting on the phone to the Lebanese president in 2000 - 9th July
 * President Morsi, a rigged ballot and a fox's tale that has all of Cairo abuzz - The army intelligence service is said to want a mini-revolution to get rid of corrupt officers - 2nd July
 * Egypt has no constitution, parliament... or control - Morsi's victory has done nothing to calm fears among Egyptians – or to rein in the army - 26th June
 * Mohamed Morsi is no revolutionary and not much of a nationalist. The army elite has already laid traps for him - Zaghloul might be missed today, after an election in which the words 'Islam'and 'security' seemed like interchangeable platitudes - 25th June
 * Late for the revolution, Muslim Brotherhood take over Tahrir Square - Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood came in their tens of thousands to Tahrir Square yesterday to tell the Egyptian army to return to their barracks and transfer power to a national government without further delay - 23rd June
 * Only the military are guaranteed victory in this Egyptian election - Returning to Cairo, Robert Fisk finds the city gripped by the demise of its former president – but fearing the outcome of the vote to decide his successor - 21st June
 * Mubarak's 300,000-strong army of thugs remains in business - The military has played a shrewd game – insisting Mubarak go on trial while helping supporters keep their privileges - 18th June
 * Assad will breathe a sigh of relief at death of Arab Spring - The 1991 Algerian parallel is relevant: a poll won by Islamists, special powers for the army, torture - 16th June
 * Posters of martyrs in the market place say it all – and more are on the way - The Long View: Lebanese troops lounge in the jeep opposite Ali's office, just as they stop dodgy-looking motorists - 11th June
 * Revolutions don't always pan out quite as we wanted - Is Mubarak's ghost going to be reinstalled, substituting a security state in place of democracy? - 6th June
 * Hosni Mubarak has fallen. Assad clings on. Yet the fate of their nations is anyone's guess - The Long View: They can say Shafik's rule would be 'a more ferocious version of a police state than that under Mubarak' - 4th June
 * Mubarak will die in jail, but that's no thanks to us - As the former Egyptian dictator is sentenced, our writer remembers the West's determination to overlook his regime's violence - 3rd June
 * The West is horrified by children's slaughter now. Soon we'll forget - The Algerian FLN regime got away with it, after 200,000 dead – compared to the mere 10,000 killed so far in Syria's war - 29th May
 * The going price of getting away with murder... would $33m be enough? - The Long View: Are the Pakistanis being so dastardly when they lock up a national who has helped in a murder? - 28th May
 * The Belfast hotel where you check in but never leave - The Long View: "But 1973 should come in with hope for all men and women," the Governor wrote. Pull the other one - 21st May
 * Must we stand idly by while world leaders spout this codswallop? - Even Churchill told the Empire that Britain would 'not stand by idly and see Poland trampled' - 14th May
 * Arab Spring has washed the region's appalling racism out of the news - The Long View: Migrant workers from the subcontinent often live eight to a room in slums – even in oil-rich Kuwait - 7th May
 * Did Osama really believe I would polish his image? - He should have spent more time watching his contact messenger and the drones overhead - 4th May
 * After the Arab Spring, an Islamic Awakening? - Surely the doors of Islamic perception may now swing open in the Arab world - 28th April
 * The Children of Fallujah - the hospital of horrors - Stillbirths, disabilities, deformities too distressing to describe - what lies behind the torments in Fallujah hospital? - 27th April
 * Iraq's road back from oblivion - Memories of sectarian war, kidnapping and child killing are fading. It is safer. But nine years since Saddam's fall, Robert Fisk meets many who feel they have lost their homeland - 24th April
 * This is politics not sport. If drivers can't see that, they are the pits - Supposing it was Assad shelling out £40m for a race. Would Ecclestone be happy to give him a soft sporting cover for his repression? - 21st April
 * Counter-revolution – the next deadly chapter - Bahrain is crushing dissent. Syria is crushing dissent. Mubarak's former head of intelligence is standing for president in Egypt - 21st April
 * The Baghdad street of books that refuses to die - Here you get a feeling of what is going on in the mind of an educated Baghdadi, who still walks a road that you could get killed on five years ago - 14th April
 * Shot in the heart - the journalist Assad made into a martyr - Mourners demand answers over fate of cameraman killed on the Lebanese border - 12th April
 * Under siege but vicar of Baghdad is still spreading the word - Andrew White, the Anglican Chaplain to Iraq, supported the US invasion - 7th April
 * Watch us lead the UN donkey up the Khyber - What happens to the Afghans? The women? The schools? The bridges? The Taliban know we are leaving - 31st March
 * On Lebanon's border, silent Syrians are flocking to an unknown future - Our writer visits a village where families flee Assad's wrath - 30th March
 * Living on the edge of Syria's bloody war - As Assad's troops fire shots across the border into Lebanon, the nation's religious factions remain bitterly divided on how to tackle their neighbour from hell: President Assad - 29th March
 * When did we stop caring about meaning? - Is our writing getting worse? I've made no secret that I suspect the internet and text messaging have damaged literacy - 24th March
 * Madness is not the reason for this massacre - I'm getting a bit tired of the "deranged" soldier story. It was predictable, of course - 17th March
 * Condemn me, but get your facts right first - Last time I faced this sort of filth, it came from the actor John Malkovich - 10th March
 * The fearful realities keeping the Assad regime in power - Nevermind the claims of armchair interventionists and the hypocrisy of Western leaders, this is what is really happening in Syria - 4th March
 * War reporting: The heroic myth and the uncomfortable truth - Robert Fisk has risked his life to 'witness history'. But after almost four decades, he feels ambivalent towards his profession - 3rd March
 * Jailed in Geneva - the colonel who stood up against Mubarak, but refused to spy for the Swiss - His defence of Christian Copts made him a thorn in the side of Egypt's regime. But when he fled, Colonel Ghanem found himself in an equally dangerous game. After six years in prison, he tells his story - 2nd March
 * The regime calls it 'cleaning', but the dirty truth is plain to see - The word being used by Syria is a chilling one - 1st March
 * The new Cold War has already started – in Syria - The new Cold War in the region which Hague was blathering on about has already started over Syria, not Iran - 25th February
 * If only Hague and Clinton would listen to Yusuf Islam - Robert Fisk sees Cat Stevens thrill an audience in Beirut and give his verdict on a Wild World - 22nd February
 * Tewfik Mishlawi: I've lost a good, brave, honourable friend - Tewfik Mishlawi was the first Palestinian to report for The Times - 18th February
 * Could there be some bad guys among the rebels too? - John McCain backed the good guys in Libya, who are now keenly torturing their opponents to death - 11th February
 * John McCarthy knows the value of history - John McCarthy's interest in history – and getting it right – is admirable - 11th February
 * From Washington this looks like Syria's 'Benghazi moment'. But not from here - Look east and what does Bashar see? Iran standing with him and Iraq refusing to impose sanctions - 7th February
 * An attack on Tehran would bemadness. So don't rule it out - After invading Iraq over weapons of mass destruction, we plan to clap as Israel bombs Iran - 4th February
 * The present stands no chance against the past - The political heirs of 'deeply racist traditions' are the new champions of the Jewish state - 28th January
 * We've been here before – and it suits Israel that we never forget 'Nuclear Iran' - The Ayatollah ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was the work of the devil - 25th January
 * Fragments of history rescued from oblivion - There are statements on the Bismarck, although contemporary reports got the story wrong - 21st January
 * The 'invented people' stand little chance - Thank goodness we don't have to hear Newt Gingrich for a while - 14th January
 * This is not about 'bad apples'. This is the horror of war - How many other abuses took place off camera? How many Hadithas? How many My Lais? - 13th January
 * Assad faces his people's hatred - But as their anger grows, his excuses are still just the same - 11th January
 * shocking truth that killing can be so casual'' - International law doesn’t stop us from turning others into Nazis - 7th January



Articles: 2011

 * shamefully forgotten allies'' - It took Indigènes to remind the French that they owed their liberation not only to De Gaulle's largely white Free French troops - 31st December
 * Turkey's long road to reconciliation - I've just completed 21 interviews on the Armenian genocide - 24th December
 * The adventures of Tintin in Beirut - Why were posters for Spielberg’s Tintin blacked out in Beirut? - 17th December
 * Bankers: Dictators of the West - I have never read so much garbage, so much utter drivel, as I have about the world financial crisis - 10th December
 * Phoenician footprints all over Beirut - I walked down a Phoenician street the other day, built under Persian rule - 3rd December
 * Back to Tahrir Square - When they massed to call for the fall of Mubarak, Egypt's protesters were filled with hope. Now they are disillusioned with the army they trusted – but just as angry as ever - 2nd December
 * Sanctions are only a small part of the history that makes Iranians hate the UK - It's a weird irony that Iranians know the history of Anglo-Persian relations better than the Brits - 30th November
 * A glimpse of real democracy – but it may be too good to be true - The cops and soldiers were on the streets of Cairo again ... ignored by the queues outside polling stations - 29th November
 * Why torturers film their handiwork - When prisoners were brought to Saddam Hussein's intelligence service for interrogation, their torturers often videotaped the torment - 26th November
 * Exile dreams of a bloodless return after a life spent opposing Assad regime - Opposition leader Khaled Khoja tells our writer in Istanbul why revenge is not on the table - 25th November
 * Ukraine, 1942. What are we seeing? - In 1942, in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a Polish postal official working for the resistance opened a letter sent by a German soldier to his family - 19th November
 * Arab Spring has given Turkey a voice. Don't mess with it - Turkey is angry over the Syrian failure to apologise for an attack on the Turkish embassy - 18th November
 * Assad will only go if his own tanks turn against him - Predictions of Syrian leader's imminent demise are hopelessly optimistic - 15th November
 * Arab League's 'roar' at Syria shows how tiny Qatar is starting to flex its muscle - The once pathetic group has now got the clout to stand up to Damascus - 14th November
 * Will computers make extinct the last of Islam's proud and honourable calligraphers? - Calligraphy is an Islamic rather than a mere Arabic form of art, partly because Muslims disapprove of the human image in religious work - 12th November
 * Do those who flaunt the poppy on their lapels know that they mock the war dead? - Heaven be thanked the soldiers of the Great War cannot return today to discover how their sacrifice has become a fashion appendage - 5th November
 * Al Jazeera - 15 years in the headlines - The Qatar-based channel has become the world's best-known – and most influential – source of news from the Middle East - 2nd November
 * What the killing of Gaddafi means to Syria - Two days before Gaddafi was murdered, I was reading the morning newspapers in Beirut and discovered a remarkable story on most front pages - 29th October
 * Syria slips towards war - Stories of killings in Homs are reinforcing support for Assad in Damascus - 27th October
 * Assad's army remains defiant as it buries its dead - Syrian officers told me 1,150 soldiers have been killed in Syria in the past seven months - 26th October
 * Assad, his raids on Lebanon, and Syria's slow slip into civil war - In Damascus, the regime presents a picture of vast rallies of support. But as tensions rise on the nation's borders, cracks are showing. In Beirut, Robert Fisk peers behind the propaganda - 17th October
 * Great War secrets of the Ottoman Arabs - Forgotten soldiers. We all know about Gallipoli; hopelessly conceived mess, dreamed up by Churchill to move the Great War from the glued trenches of France to a fast-moving invasion of Germany's Ottoman allies in 1915 - 15th October
 * Democratic governments don't deal with terrorists – until they do - In three decades, the Israelis have freed 7,000 prisoners in return for 19 Israeli prisoners - 13th October
 * Violence shows uneasy place of minorities after Arab Spring - Egypt is no stranger to religious tensions – but where do Christians fit into its revolution? - 11th October
 * The never-ending war against cliché and jargon - Asked to give a talk on the Middle East last week, I read on my invitation: "We want to bring visionaries, innovators, doers, funders, connectors, and their community into one space...With all of these people gathered into one space, it's inevitable that sparks will happen, ideas will find momentum, and positive change will take [sic] birth." - 1st October
 * Palestine, yes, but Israelis draw the line at Jerusalem - Mahmoud Abbas's call for a return to the 1967 border cuts through the heart of the 'eternal capital' - 27th September
 * Prayers, taunts and weary resignation in Jerusalem - The Palestinians have watched the US acceptance of Israeli occupation for 44 years - 24th September
 * A President who is helpless in the face of Middle East reality - Obama's UN speech insists Israelis and Palestinians are equal parties to conflict - 23rd September
 * Dreams of a helpful US keep Palestinians hoping - With two days to go before the UN statehood vote, some are celebrating already - 22nd September
 * Why the Middle East will never be the same again - The Palestinians won't achieve statehood, but they will consign the 'peace process' to history - 20th September
 * German U-boats refuelled in Ireland? Surely not - Never a man to neglect a good tale, I return to that old saw about German U-boats refuelling in neutral Ireland. Not because I believe it – I spent much of my PhD thesis on Ireland in the Second World War disproving it. But because a reader has sent me a fascinating account of his dad's war service as an SOE recruit - 17th September
 * Bin Laden's haunting last words, a decade after 9/11 - Al-Qa'ida anniversary video reveals a weakened and inept group with a decaying ideology - 14th September
 * New light on an old horror – and still there is no justice - On Wednesday morning, 14 April 1909, British Vice Consul Major Charles Doughty-Wylie set off to the Turkish city of Adana after receiving a letter from his dragoman – his Turkish translator, a man called Trypani – saying that "there was a very dangerous feeling in that town, threats had been freely offered, there were some murders..." - 10th September
 * It's not the brutality that is 'systematic'. It's the lying about it - Not long after Baha Mousa had been arrested and beaten to death, a British officer came to his father's home and offered cash by way of saying sorry - 9th September
 * Lies we still tell ourselves about 9/11 - Have we managed to silence ourselves as well as the world with our own fears? - 3rd September
 * Algeria sends the West a message by taking in Gaddafi's brood - Neighbour thinks the Libyan revolution gathered Western support because the land is so rich in oil - 31st August
 * war crimes? Be sure to read the small print'' - It's good to see bad guys behind bars. Especially if they're convicted. Justice is better than revenge - 27th August
 * repeats itself, with mistakes of Iraq rehearsed afresh'' - With Gaddafi at large, a guerrilla war eroding the new powers is inevitable - 25th August
 * long before the dominoes fall?'' - The West is offering lessons in democracy to New Libya; how to avoid the chaos we ourselves inflicted on the Iraqis - 23rd August
 * long does it take before justice is irrelevant?'' - A great storm blew across Europe in 1993 and even the trees of Treblinka were torn out by their roots. The Nazis had destroyed their death camp before the arrival of the Red Army almost half a century earlier, scattering the remains of hundreds of thousands of their Jewish victims - 20th August
 * his fast-disappearing billions that will worry Assad, not words from Washington'' - Nearly 10 per cent of Syria's deposits went in the first four months of 2011, some ending up in Lebanese banks - 19th August
 * immortality of a great, if flawed, historian'' - How many of the Nato admirals fighting the beast of Tripoli realise the origin of their title? - 13th August
 * slaughter will end only when words of condemnation are acted on'' - Dictator of Damascus will continue his bloody reign until he is stopped - 9th August
 * city and its workers that first took on Mubarak'' - The Egyptian cotton city of Mahallah hides its political lessons well - 6th August
 * untouchable, the old despot and his sons faced the wrath of the nation they had terrorised'' - This was a moment when a country proved not only that its revolution was real, but that its victims were real - 4th August
 * awaits first trial of an Arab Spring dictator'' - Former president Hosni Mubarak is charged with corruption and the killing of protesters - 3rd August
 * revolutionary youth are being sidelined'' - Revolution betrayed. The Egyptian army now colludes with the hated Muslim Brotherhood - 2nd August
 * Arab world's dictators cling on, but for how long?'' - Ever a weathervane of passing fortunes, Walid Jumblatt has begun to make some very pessimistic comments about Syria - 30th July
 * the one about the child and the blood money?'' - The book bazaar stands just opposite the main gates of Tehran University, a line of "libraries" of Persian poetry, American obstetrics manuals, English literature and novels translated from Russian, French and Italian authors - 23rd July
 * the Arab Spring becomes an Arab Summer'' - Syrians shot down in the streets across the country, tanks surrounding the major cities of Syria, soldiers killing unarmed, largely Sunni Muslim demonstrators as the authorities protest that "armed gangs" are themselves killing troops - 16th July
 * Tahrir Square the anger is growing again'' - Mubarak may be gone, but the new order is floundering and people still demand change - 12th July
 * Why I had to leave The Times - When he worked at The Times, Robert Fisk witnessed the curious working practices of the paper's proprietor, Rupert Murdoch. Despite their jocular exchanges, the writer knew he couldn't stay... 11th July
 * dictator's trial that even his enemies questioned'' - How do you defend a dictator who's been around for years and years and years when he's accused of – well, being a dictator for years and years and years? - 9th July
 * new focus of Syria's crackdown'' - In February 1982, President Hafez al-Assad's army stormed into the ancient cities - 6th July
 * Iran wages its own global 'war on terror''' - The Iranians know how to do these things - 2nd July
 * the Syrians, then the Iranians, then the Libyans were the expedient culprits'' - At first, it was the horrible Syrians. Since the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri wanted the remainder of Syria's military rabble out of Lebanon, it must have been the Syrians who did it. Syria's "friends" in Lebanon – security agents who should have been able to keep Hariri alive if they had wanted to – were arrested - 1st July
 * war games go underground'' - The Iranians doctored a photograph of a missile which in reality plunged to the desert floor - 29th June
 * of an adviser could bring down Ahmadinejad'' - A corruption row engulfing the Iranian President's inner circle may be his undoing - 28th June
 * of wisdom from an Irish Renaissance man'' - To Monaghan, then, with its narrow sun-flashed lanes and petrol smugglers and hidden lakes and the North's wind farms on the horizon and the driver telling me that Patrick Kavanagh came from here and me, tired and irritable after the flight from Beirut, saying yes I know that, and then infuriated when the man adds that he's never read anything by the fellah - 25th June
 * wonder they were rioting in Damascus. This was insulting both to the living and to the dead'' - the reality behind Bashar al-Assad's address to the nation - 21st June
 * saw these brave Bahraini doctors trying to save lives – these charges are a pack of lies'' - Eyewitness: Bahrain didn't invite the Saudis to send their troops; the Saudis invaded and received a post-dated invitation - 14th June
 * the flies and tell the truth – live on al-Jazeera'' - 'This is al-Jazeera." The familiar "jib shot" as the boom swings the camera down from the height of the studio, and there is Sami Zeidan or David Foster or Darren Jordan or Nick Clark or Ghida Fakhry - 11th June
 * people vs The President'' - Syria in turmoil as resistance turns to insurrection - 8th June
 * dumping ground for despots welcomes another'' - We haven't weaned ourselves off the little Hitlers of the Middle East - 7th June
 * cares in the Middle East what Obama says?'' - The Arab world is turning its back on a president who has shown himself to be weak in his dealings with the Middle East - 30th May
 * tale from the frontline of Palestinian protest'' - 28th May
 * times in Lebanon as Syrian revolt simmers'' - If you want to discover the truth about Tripoli, you have only to visit the castle of Saint Gilles - 21st May
 * of rhetoric – but very little help'' - Then we had to hear what America's 'role' was going to be in the new Middle East. We did not hear if the Arabs wanted them to have a role - 20th May
 * words may not address Middle East's real needs'' - In a keynote speech today, Barack Obama will try to redefine America's relationship with the Arab world - 19th May
 * no outcry over these torturing tyrants?'' - Christopher Hill, a former US secretary of state for east Asia who was ambassador to Iraq – and usually a very obedient and un-eloquent American diplomat – wrote the other day that "the notion that a dictator can claim the sovereign right to abuse his people has become unacceptable" - 14th May
 * and reconciliation? It won't happen in Syria'' - 7th May
 * Shane Bauer really an enemy of Iran?'' - The journalist, a fearless defender of the Middle East's dispossessed, is about to go on trial in Tehran for alleged espionage - 6th May
 * al-Qa'ida leader knew he was a failure. Now US has turned him into martyr'' - The West has taught a different lesson to the people of the Middle East: that executing opponents is perfectly acceptable - 5th May
 * this is a US victory should its forces go home now?'' - We long ago lost the plot in the graveyard of empires - 4th May
 * close encounter with the man who shook the world'' - One hot evening in late June 1996, the telephone on my desk in Beirut rang with one of the more extraordinary messages I was to receive as a foreign correspondent - 3rd May
 * Laden died a failure, outstripped by history'' - The mass revolutions in the Arab world this year mean that al-Qa’ida is already politically dead - 3rd May
 * may need 'space' to get over this linguistic crime'' - Artists use it; office managers use it; architects and journalists and incomprehensible academics use it - 30th April
 * the rumours and conspiracies are true, then President Assad's regime is on the road to civil war'' - If the dead soldiers are victims of revenge killings, it means the opposition is prepared to use force - 27th April
 * blame to Lebanon may be the method in Assad's madness'' - Many Arabs were appalled that Mr Obama would apparently try to make cheap propaganda over the tragedy - 25th April
 * what if the spirit of rebellion spread to Iran?'' - there's a non-Arab country with a very big stake in this extraordinary history - 23rd April
 * concession makes the President more vulnerable'' - Every dictator knows that, when he starts making concessions, he is at his most vulnerable - 23rd April
 * Assad do what it takes to cleanse his regime?'' - There are those in Syria who say it is over, there is nothing the President can do - 20th April
 * legacy of light from the sorrow of death'' - There are some individual things in life so terrible, so unspeakable, so hideous that ordinary language no longer works - 16th April
 * Arab awakening'' - It began not in Tunisia this year, but in Lebanon in 2005 - 15th April
 * the images of war speak for themselves'' - I hate being called a war reporter. Firstly, because there is an unhappy flavour of the junkie about it. Secondly, because you cannot report a war without knowing the politics behind it - 2nd April
 * Arab Spring stops here'' - While Syria's protesters demand freedom, the President has a stark message for his people - 31st March
 * adventures hold lessons for our leaders'' - Amid the fury of the Arab awakening – not to mention our own deepening crisis over Libya – old Constantinople is a tonic - 26th March
 * across the Arab world, freedom is now a prospect'' - From the mildewed, corrupted dictatorships is emerging a people reborn. Not without bloodshed and violence. But now at last, the Arabs can hope to march into the bright sunlit uplands - 22nd March
 * the civilian victims of past 'Allied' bombing campaigns'' - People such as Raafat al-Ghosain are often tragically forgotten in the fog of air attacks - 21st March
 * it was Saddam. Then Gaddafi. Now there's a vacancy for the West's favourite crackpot tyrant'' - Gaddafi is completely bonkers, a crackpot on the level of Ahmadinejad and Lieberman - 19th March
 * understand Gaddafi better than we do'' - To Beirut. Storms. Heavy rain. Seas sweeping over the little port by my home - 12th March
 * Tunisian whose jihad was for the people, not God'' - The second Arab awakening of modern history – the first was the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire – requires some new definitions, perhaps even some new words in at least the English language - 5th March
 * historical narrative that lies beneath the Gaddafi rebellion'' - Poor old Libyans. After 42 years of Gaddafi, the spirit of resistance did not burn so strongly. The intellectual heart of Libya had fled abroad - 3rd March
 * destiny of this pageant lies in the Kingdom of Oil'' - The Middle East earthquake of the past five weeks has been the most tumultuous, shattering, mind-numbing experience in the history of the region since the fall of the Ottoman empire - 26th February
 * raved and cursed, but he faces forces he cannot control'' - So he will go down fighting. That's what Muammar Gaddafi told us last night, and most Libyans believe him - 23rd February
 * Vainglorious. Steeped in blood. And now, surely, after more than four decades of terror and oppression, on his way out?'' - Muammar Gaddafi, tyrant of Tripoli - 22nd February
 * are secular popular revolts – yet everyone is blaming religion'' - Our writer, who was in Cairo as the revolution took hold in Egypt, reports from Bahrain on why Islam has little to do with what is going on - 20th February
 * humour in a time of dictatorship'' - In an old and rather tatty gift shop in the Zamalek district of Cairo this week, I asked the owner if he had a photograph of Saad Zaghloul for sale. No sooner said than done - 19th February
 * weeks in Egypt show the power of brutality – and its limits'' - As he leaves Cairo, Robert Fisk reflects on the lessons of an extraordinary uprising for protesters and police alike - 16th February
 * the army tightening its grip on Egypt?'' - 14th February
 * circle on Tahrir Square as history comes in gulps'' - Fresh from Northern Ireland and the aftermath of the Portuguese revolution, I arrived in the Middle East in June of 1976, and turned up in Cairo to cover one of Lebanon's interminable civil war ceasefire negotiations - 12th February
 * tyrant's exit. A nation's joy'' - They sang. They laughed. They cried. Mubarak was no more - 12th February
 * Mubarak clings on... What now?'' - Fury of a people whose hopes were raised and then dashed - 11th February
 * is exposed by the wind of change'' - So when the Arabs cry out for the very future that Obama outlined, we show them disrespect - 10th February
 * 3, day 16, and with every passing hour, the regime digs in deeper'' - Our writer sees Cairo's protesters rally again in Tahrir Square - 9th February
 * scared and trapped, protesters put forward plan for future'' - On a day of drama and confusion in Cairo, opponents of the Mubarak regime propose a new kind of politics - 5th February
 * marched together with one goal'' - Secular and devout. Rich and poor. They came in their hundreds of thousands singing - 2nd February
 * Death throes of a dictatorship'' - Our writer joins protesters atop a Cairo tank as the army shows signs of backing the people against Mubarak's regime - 30th January
 * day of reckoning'' - Mubarak regime may not survive new protests as flames of anger spread through Middle East - 28th January
 * new truth dawns on the Arab world'' - Palestinian papers put region in revolutionary mood - 26th January
 * that bear witness to Algeria's Jewish tragedy'' - "Do you want to see the Israelite graves?" the security guard asked me - 22nd January
 * brutal truth about Tunisia'' - Bloodshed, tears, but no democracy. Bloody turmoil won’t necessarily presage the dawn of democracy - 17th January
 * people will do anything to avoid blame'' - I am no happy reader of Canada's National Post, but am driven to report to you that a recent graph in the paper suggests that "the term 'Palestinian' became popularised as a marker of identity after the Six Day War of 1967" - 15th January
 * a nation haunted by the murder of Hariri'' - Soldiers, soldiers everywhere. And targeting Hezbollah could create a new crisis - 14th January
 * forgotten martyrdom of Algeria's reporters'' - How quickly we forget the murder of colleagues - 8th January
 * make no moral distinctions where they fall'' - To Mannheim for its annual film festival and I am gripped by Armadillo, a documentary on a Danish NATO unit in Afghanistan, real bullets whizzing past one of the bravest directors of photography in the world, real soldiers falling wounded, one with a Wilfred Owen pallour of death on his face - 1st January



Articles: 2010

 * tragedy of Algeria's 'disappeared''' - Algeria is hailing half a century of freedom from French rule. But what followed left its own scars - 20th December
 * out of trouble by not speaking to Western spies'' - Almost 30 years ago, a British diplomat asked me to lunch in Beirut - 18th December
 * can't a Palestinian woman tell her own story?'' - Ypres and Palestine, the Jewish Holocaust and Iraqi Kurdistan - 11th December
 * the star – and Washington is worried'' - Latest cables show that the emirate's growing power is seen as a threat elsewhere - 8th December
 * of the neutral - Ireland's Second World War'' - On 11 November 1939, Irish diplomat Francis Cremins cabled home to Dublin from neutral Switzerland that his host country was taking steps to strengthen its defences against air attack. "I am told that at Berne ... the view prevails that this country need not feel too anxious so long as Italy refrains from entering the war on the German side." - 4th December 2010
 * we know. America really doesn't care about injustice in the Middle East'' - Leaked US diplomatic literature proves that the mainstay of Washington's Middle East policy is alignment with Israel - 30th November
 * election magic turns the opposition almost invisible'' - Mubarak's campaign workers hand out meat and beatings - 29th November
 * of blood and profits for the mongers of war'' - Since there are now three conflicts in the greater Middle East; Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel/"Palestine" and maybe another Lebanese war in the offing, it might be a good idea to take a look at the cost of war - 27th November
 * man who dares to take on Egypt's brutal regime'' - Despite beatings and corruption, Ayman Nour still hopes for change. Robert Fisk meets him ahead of new polls - 25th November
 * American bribe that stinks of appeasement'' - In any other country, the current American bribe to Israel, and the latter's reluctance to accept it, in return for even a temporary end to the theft of somebody else's property would be regarded as preposterous - 20th November
 * Ankara and other 'fake' capitals'' - Just up behind my Beirut home is a narrow, shady laneway called Makhoul Street. And in Makhoul Street, there is a small shop with a rusting door behind which an Armenian sells ancient postcards of Beirut - 13th November
 * Lebanon can't escape shadow of Hariri's murder'' - Five years after former PM was killed, rising sectarian tensions and teetering government are threatening new conflict - 12th November
 * justice can bring peace to this benighted region'' - The speed with which the Baghdad church massacre by al-Qa'ida has frightened the peoples of the Middle East is a sign of just how fragile is the earth's crust beneath their feet - 6th November
 * and Iran make uneasy bedfellows'' - I think it should be a Beirut Diary this week. Deep background, you understand. The truth. Believe me, it is - 30th October
 * changing map of the Middle East'' - A Christian flight of Biblical proportions has begun - 26th October
 * shaming of America'' - Robert Fisk on the revelations that expose the brutality of war in Iraq - and the astonishing deceit of the US - 24th October
 * trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge again'' - Refusing to buy The Wall Street Journal, I sometimes sneak a look at copies that are left behind by other people - 23rd October
 * oil deals and political murder'' - the real story behind Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent visit - 20th October
 * I learned the day I took tea with Ian Blair'' - Not long after the 34-day Hizbollah-Israel war in 2006 – in which Israel reached its now almost routine scorecard of killing about 1,300 Lebanese, most of them civilians (the Hizbollah killed 130 Israelis, most of them soldiers) – I received a long letter from a man called Blair - 16th October
 * comes face to face with Ahmadinejad'' - Lebanon's southern border hosted latest leg of Iranian president's provocative tour - 15th October
 * and Hizbollah ready to welcome Ahmadinejad'' - Iran's leader is coming to town in the hope of a propaganda victory - 13th October
 * in three dimensions'' - I am now the proud owner of a wooden "Perfecscope". Do not, readers, Google - 9th October
 * old warbirds with a guilty past'' - Castle Air Force Base has a dark memory for a lady I meet in Fresno - 2nd October
 * artist who gave us life as it was lived'' - The Dutch Golden Age - 25th September
 * trains, relic of a bygone era that will outlast us all'' - The 10.50 from Dublin Connolly to Maynooth, No 186, a J-15 class 0-6-0 steam loco in spit-and-polish black livery, was born exactly 20 years before my father - 18th September
 * democracy and human rights in Syria'' - Ribal al-Assad gives Robert Fisk a rare insight into the dynasty that has shaped modern Syria - 16th September
 * man who lived by his word – and died by it'' - Most of the audience for my David Roberts lecture were Lebanese – not surprising, since this is the British-Lebanese Association – so I pulled out my old copy of the biography of David Roberts, Scottish lithographer, romantic, the man who brought the might as well as the detail of Egypt's and Lebanon's dynastic and Roman ruins to early 19th-century Britain
 * years, two wars, hundreds of thousands dead – and nothing learnt'' - Did 9/11 make us all mad? Our memorial to the innocents who died nine years ago has been a holocaust of fire and blood . . . - 11th September
 * truth about 'honour' killings'' - All this week, 'The Independent' has been highlighting a global scandal: the murder of thousands of women every year in the name of 'honour'. Here, Robert Fisk concludes a remarkable series of reports by reflecting on his findings - 10th September
 * crimewave that shames the world'' - It's one of the last great taboos: the murder of at least 20,000 women a year in the name of 'honour'. Nor is the problem confined to the Middle East: the contagion is spreading rapidly - 7th September
 * the trail of a dead British major in Vichy Lebanon'' - Search for the past - 4th September
 * should take responsibility for Iraq. But he won't. He can't'' This is not a debate, it's a bloody, blood-soaked disaster for which the former PM should take responsibility - 3rd September
 * stereotypes that were fed to young minds'' - In the late 1950s, my father would drop by Reynolds paper shop in Maidstone High Street to buy pipe tobacco for himself and comics for me - 28th August
 * the little dog was not spared by Cromwell'' - To Saint Canice's, then, in the ancient city of Kilkenny, its ninth-century round tower still watching for Viking invaders, home of the forgotten Gaelic Irish-Old English Confederation, its citizens spared by Cromwell - 21st August
 * Iraq legacy: Torture. Civil war. Corruption'' - Its combat troops have gone, but America has certainly left its mark - 20th August
 * language has a way of turning women into men'' - Gender politics - 14th August
 * of Buchenwald in an Egyptian paradise'' - War criminals - 7th August
 * apology fatally devalued by the passage of 65 years'' - Robert Fisk reports on the day that America and Britain united with Japan to remember victims of Hiroshima - 7th August
 * tensions flare after skirmish leaves four dead'' - Can a tree start a Middle East war? It almost did yesterday - 4th August
 * has crept into the EU without anyone noticing'' - The death of five Israeli servicemen in a helicopter crash in Romania this week raised scarcely a headline. There was a Nato-Israeli exercise in progress. Well, that's OK then - 31st July
 * should mourn these desert staging posts'' - So what, readers, is a "caravanserai"? - 24th July
 * Palestinian invasion'' - Robert Fisk on fears that Israeli plans for the West Bank – and US policy – could destroy the country - 22nd July
 * all grovelling and you can guess the reason'' - Which brings us, of course, to the Grovel of the Week, the unctuous, weak-willed, cringing figure of Barack "Change" Obama - 17th July
 * was wrong about Ayatollah Fadlallah'' - I might have guessed it. CNN has fired one of its senior Middle East editors, Octavia Nasr, for publishing a twitter – or twatter in this case, I suppose – extolling Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon, calling him "one of Hizbollah's giants whom I respect a lot" - 10th July
 * to the scene of a lynching'' - The killing of Mohamed Msallem shocked a nation. Two months on, Robert Fisk visited Ketermaya to find out what his death says about Lebanon - 6th July
 * bloody truth about the Battle of Britain 70 years on'' - The Battle of Britain is far more complex, ruthless and bloody than we often care to remember - 3rd July
 * why the BBC has an 'issue' with problems'' - Rhetoric - 3rd July
 * 30 years of fear'' - A grim report sheds light on the thousands of 'disappearances' during Hafez al-Assad's rule - 24th June
 * as a linguistic battleground'' - Using terms such as ‘spike in violence’ is playing along with a pernicious game - 21st June
 * captains, U-boats and other lies about Ireland'' - By chance, I arrived in Dublin this week on the day that the Saville report on Bloody Sunday was published - 19th June
 * day the innocent became the guilty'' - We knew the First Battalion, the Parachute Regiment. 'Tough' was the word we used if the soldiers were beating up rioters. Brutal was the word we should have used - 16th June (Bloody Sunday: summary)
 * premier who thought Hitler was a 'Joan of Arc''' - Wartime diaries - 12th June
 * truth behind the Israeli propaganda'' - I have, of course, been outraged at armed men boarding ships in international waters, killing passengers on board who attempt to resist and then forcing their ship to the hijackers' home port - 5th June
 * is too cowardly to help save lives'' - Can the Gaza War of 2008-09 (1,300 dead) and the Lebanon War of 2006 (1,006 dead) and all the other wars and now yesterday's killings mean that the world will no longer accept Israel's rule? - 1st June
 * and redemption in a terrorist's mind'' - Letter from a prisoner - 29th May
 * Middle East peace broker?'' - If America can't broker peace in the Middle East, is it time for the Russians to step in? They have a long history with the region – and aren't hobbled by an Israeli lobby - 27th May
 * with Bin Laden...and other stories'' - The Independent's distinguished Middle East correspondent recalls the culinary highs and lows of his career - 22nd May
 * is determined to kill its rich Ottoman past'' - Destruction of history - 22nd May
 * for speaking the truth about Guantanamo'' - I began my column last week with the words "We know all about Guantanamo". I was wrong - 15th May
 * have their gulags too'' - How many readers of the Independent can name a single man imprisoned in the Arab gulags? - 8th May
 * ancient treasures must be saved'' - Over the door of the Kabul museum today is a Persian quotation: 'A nation stays alive when its culture and history are kept alive' - 1st May
 * luxury resort in the middle of a war zone'' - Under the gaze of the Israeli army, but protected by Lebanon, one man is building an extraordinary hotel - 27th April
 * reckoned the Japanese preferred war-war to jaw-jaw'' - The advance down the coast of Malaya made steady progress and the British had insufficient forces there to stop it - 24th April
 * listen as a lost people tell of their woes in a kind of trance'' - These people speak with great and terrifying and justifiable anger - 17th April
 * silence over Scuds speaks volumes to Israel'' - Robert Fisk: Fears of conflict escalate as group refuses to discuss its arsenal with Jerusalem – or the Lebanese government - 16th April
 * 1948: another shameful episode in Britain's colonial past'' - Some 24 innocent villagers were killed by Scots Guards in a pre-Vietnam My Lai - 10th April
 * me the academics who only want a 'safe, positive space''' - I put my medium bomber squadron on alert to defend the English language - 3rd April
 * new front in battle for hearts and minds'' - Once it was grainy video footage on websites. Now the Taliban believes its best chance of winning the propaganda war lies in a magazine - 2nd April
 * advocates of justice'' - The top judge is again on a collision course with the country's political leaders, this time over corruption. Robert Fisk reports from Islamabad on the judiciary's battle to uphold due process and the rule of law - 1st April
 * the streets of Pakistan, it's as if the sun hasn't set on the Raj'' - Like everything else here, the bigger your cortège, the more important you are - 27th March
 * things get worse in Pakistan, the optimism continues to soar'' - Civilians have paid the price in revenge attacks that usually target the army - 20th March
 * really won't be the internet that wins it'' - Not a day now goes by without someone dubbing the coming election the e-election, the Twitter election, the Facebook election, the first British election that will be won or lost in the virtual world - 19th March
 * mysterious case of the Grey Lady of Bagram'' - How does a neuro- scientist and mother of three end up in jail as an al-Qa'ida agent? - 19th March
 * the terrifying world of Pakistan's 'disappeared''' - Robert Fisk meets the wife of one of 8,000 citizens who have gone 'missing' at the hands of the state - 18th March
 * this reading list if you want to understand the Middle East'' - The greatest problem of writing historically is that the story has not ended - 13th March
 * proof of the Armenian genocide'' - Evidence for Turkey's slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians is in an orphanage near Beirut - 9th March
 * again, a nation walks through fire to give the West its 'democracy''' - Democracy doesn't seem to work when countries are occupied by Western troops - 8th March
 * true eloquence of letters from the front'' - Is it their humanity, or fear, that spares real soldiers from the clichés of journalism? - 6th March
 * remembers this atrocity at last – to Obama's dismay'' - World Focus: Armenia - 6th March
 * challenger can't rely on a fair race'' - World Focus: Opponents accuse ElBaradei of wanting to play Karzai in a new pro-American Egypt - 5th March
 * from a busy Beirut correspondent's notebook'' - The Israeli police turn up to see what we are doing prowling on the Jewish Sabbath - 27th February
 * eventful, yet typical, day out with Our Man in Jerusalem'' - I haven’t been through this type of illusory world since the Lebanese civil war - 20th February
 * time to come clean'' - Britain's explanation is riddled with inconsistencies. How could the Arabs pick up on a Mossad killing, if that is what it was? Well, we shall see - 18th February
 * to truth in Dubai remains secret'' - Whoever killed the Hamas official in Dubai – let's speak frankly – it's part of an old, dirty war between the Israelis and the Palestinians in which they have been murdering their secret police antagonists for decades - 17th February
 * is a man with a plan. The trouble is, it's a map of Israel'' - How do you make sense of this place, with its weird Areas A, B and C? - 13th February
 * of denial: Robert Fisk searches for peace in Israel'' - Can peace in the Middle East really be achieved? - 11th February
 * defiant tunnellers head deeper underground'' - Robert Fisk meets the Palestinian smugglers bringing oranges, car batteries and bottle tops to a territory under siege - 10th February
 * presence of the Palestinian in the Israeli painter's eye'' - Many of the Tel Aviv paintings show an emergent Israel with fewer Arabs - 6th February
 * feels under siege. Like a victim. An underdog'' -Insecurity - and paranoia - at this week's Herzliya Conference about the state of Israel - 2nd February
 * Blair and his oh-so-clean conscience'' - 30th January (Iraq war inquiry)
 * can no longer ignore the existence of the first Holocaust'' - Recognition of the Armenian genocide is a paramount moral and educational act - 30th January
 * does the US turn a blind eye to Israeli bulldozers?'' - Most of the West Bank is under rule which amounts to apartheid by paper - 30th January
 * over safety of planes taking off in storms'' - An explosion in the sky – and Beirut's worst fears came true - 26th January
 * never-ending exodus of Christians from the Middle East'' - One of the oldest sects in the world is still fleeing sectarian violence for the West - 23rd January
 * tree-lined bunkers that could change the face of the Middle East'' - The border looks peaceful, but Hizbollah and Israel are preparing for war - 21st January
 * stakes get higher as Arab princes try to outdo each other'' - Do the Saudis not have the slightest idea of what is going on around them? - 16th January
 * stakes get higher as Arab princes try to outdo each other'' - Do the Saudis not have the slightest idea of what is going on around them? - 16th January
 * as spectator sport – what does that say about us?'' - One guy bawled at the man on the crane. ‘Come on! Jump! I haven’t got all day!’ - 9th January
 * desire to be loved and feared has long misled CIA'' - The mystery is how Jordanian 'mole' could be of use in Afghanistan - 6th January
 * never work: in the Middle East or in Ireland'' - Israel’s illegal claim to West Bank Arab land is based on holy texts, not on a king’s fiat - 2nd January



Articles: 2009

 * did no imams plead for Akmal Shaikh's life?'' - From Cairo to Mecca, the Briton got a raw deal from his co-religionists - 30th December
 * silent cleric who holds the key to Iran's future'' - Iranian politics do not run on the supposedly Western principle of majority rule - 29th December (see: Iran: summary)
 * you think we can ignore these linguistic crimes, think again'' - My favourite is 'any', as in 'any passengers who may have been inconvenienced' - 19th December
 * can glimpse the divine in a carpet as in a cave'' - The rugs had blossoms and birds, leaves, deer, vast medallions and quotations from Hafiz - 12th December
 * glittering palace that's built on shifting sands'' - Robert Fisk finds Abu Dhabi's opulence undermined by the encroaching financial crisis - 11th December
 * Iranian troubadours show how music can corrupt the soul'' - I am old enough to remember Ruhollah Khomeini banning Mozart and Haydn - 5th December
 * the anti-Semites of Hizbollah have sent Anne Frank back into hiding'' - The Jewish Holocaust is not a subject which Arabs have learned to live with - 4th December
 * strategy has been tried before - without success'' - As Barack Obama plunges ever deeper into chaos, let us remember the British retreat from Kabul and its destruction in 1842 - 3rd December
 * not taken in by luxury hotels' new green awareness'' - If you want clean towels, you’ve got to leave them on the floor like a peasant - 28th November
 * may hold whip hand in this power game'' - The biggest merchants in Dubai are Indian and they stand to gain as the emirate falters - 27th November
 * for Alec Collett's death remain buried in Bekaa'' - World Focus: Even Gaddafi has been airbrushed from the body-recovery story - after all he is now our friend - 26th November
 * of the past reveal Britain's doomed empire in Hong Kong'' - By the time the British surrendered in 1941, thousands of civilians had been killed - 21st November
 * and hostages – the old days of Mao's revolution'' - Grey's experience is painfully similar to those of his later colleagues in Beirut - 14th November
 * Great War and words to remember'' - Poets and soldiers recorded the horror of the Great War in writing that has affected generations. But as English evolves in the digital age, will their powerful words soon stop making sense? - 11th November
 * German Lawrence of Arabia had much to live up to – and failed'' - The victors write the history, so Frobenius's adventures are today virtually unknown - 7th November
 * is performing its familiar role of propping up a dictator'' - As in Vietnam, Karzai is going to rule over an equally tiny island of corruption - 4th November
 * truth about the Middle East is buried beneath the headlines'' -News bureau chiefs in Cairo know who their local spies are but can’t dismiss them - 31st October
 * history can't be reduced to a mere 'heritage trail''' - The Romans were here. The Crusaders were here, and then the Muslims came - 24th October
 * of an era for Lebanon's free press'' - Once a bastion of journalistic independence, Beirut's newspapers are losing their edge - 22nd October
 * don't need colour to see the full bloody horror of war'' - I took black-and-white pictures of the Bosnian war to bleed colour out of the world - 17th October
 * right photographer can strip a leader's power'' - Karsh of Ottawa was an arch man, not afraid to make his sitter into a clown or a chump - 10th October
 * forgotten: Armenians horrified by treaty with Turkey'' - A new trade deal is set to gloss over the murder of 1.5 million people - 8th October
 * financial revolution with profound political implications'' - Such large financial movements will have major political effects in the Middle East - 7th October
 * a remote corner of China lies a tiny patch of Muslim freedom'' - I find a brace of outrageously polite children learning the Koran - 3rd October
 * should pay attention to criticism from its own people'' - They wouldn’t accept that the casualties of this war were disproportionate - 26th September
 * Sarah blows in'' - Robert Fisk witnesses the carnage as Alaska's former mom-in-chief touches down in Hong Kong - 24th September
 * seems to be agreeing with Bin Laden these days'' - Only Obama, it seems, fails to get the message that we’re losing Afghanistan - 19th September
 * even a civil war could stop the old bookbinder of Beirut'' - Riyad is a man who gives context to this city in which I have lived these 33 years - 12th September
 * revisited as Iraq accuses Syria of sheltering Baathist bombers'' - World Focus: In the Saddam-Hafez era, they hanged each other's bombers - 11th September
 * secrets of a scandalous branch of the Fisk family tree'' - I didn’t like him a lot because I suspect my father grovelled to him - 5th September
 * curious case of the missing Egyptian and the Swiss police'' - Now here's a weird story from Cairo. Or rather from Geneva. Or wherever ex-Colonel Mohamed el-Ghanem, formerly a senior officer in the Egyptian interior ministry, happens to be - 29th August
 * the truth, look to Tehran and Damascus – not Tripoli'' - The welcome given to Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi in Tripoli was a perfect deviation from what the British Government is trying to avoid. It's called the truth, not that Mr Miliband would know much about it - 22nd August
 * will not bring freedom'' - So they voted. But for what? Democracy? Yes, the Afghans wanted to vote. They showed great courage in the face of the Taliban's threats. But there's a problem - 21st August
 * these deaths hit home as hard as the Somme'' - More than 200 soldiers dead in Afghanistan, and now Gordon Brown advises us that "the best way to honour their memory is to see the course through" - 18th August
 * praise of tea, the brew that powered Britain for centuries'' - Before tea, needless to say, millions of Brits warmed themselves with alcohol - 15th August
 * has changed since the secretive days of the Suez crisis'' - It seems we really are going to have an Iraq inquiry. But I’m not holding my breath - 8th August
 * Iran be plotting a Hizbollah offensive to take the heat off its leaders?'' - 4th August
 * War legacy flares as 'stingy' Kuwait puts the squeeze on Iraq'' - Oil-rich state demands billions from Baghdad as dispute over border rages - 29th July
 * does life in the Middle East remain rooted in the Middle Ages?'' - According to a UN report, the global improvement in living standards has passed much of the Arab world by - 28th July
 * Focus: As Iran protests go global, the regime reacts'' - Protest demonstrations over Iran's presidential election results spread across at least 80 cities in six continents this weekend – with one worrying sign for supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran - 27th July
 * in justice and fairness from a no-nonsense historian'' - He will go into the whole Middle East fiasco and come out fighting - 25th July
 * lessons in sacrifice from Liverpool in two world wars'' - Were we made of ‘sterner stuff’, as my Dad would have said, in those days - 18th July
 * story of Baha Mousa'' - 'He was a decent guy. They didn't need to do that' - 12th July
 * won't find any lessons in unity in the Dead Sea Scrolls'' - I looked at the texts in Toronto – a tale that was bound to pose a series of questions - 11th July
 * roll and guns fall silent, but the clichés go on for ever'' - Catholics are always ‘devout’, Protestants in Northern Ireland inevitably ‘staunch’ - 4th July
 * jury is out on the Iranian model of religion and politics'' - So what of the famous revolution? Was it a return to the basic values of Shia Islam? - 27th June (See: Iran: summary)
 * are not enough to win this battle'' - It is indeed an 'intifada' that has broken out in Iran, however hopeless its aims - 23rd June
 * battle for the Islamic Republic'' - Robert Fisk: Iran's Supreme Leader and its officially elected president are terrified of counter-revolution - 21st June
 * is fighting for his own position as well as Ahmadinejad's'' - Is he worried about another clergyman who would like to be Supreme Leader? - 20th June
 * dead of Iran are mourned – but the fight goes on'' - Despite the intimidation, the appetite to overthrow Ahmadinejad remains strong - 19th June
 * letter 'proves Mousavi won poll''' - The letter may well join the thousands of documents, real and forged, that have shaped Iran's recent history - 18th June
 * has gone in a land that has tasted freedom'' - Defying the ban on foreign reporters, The Independent's correspondent witnesses an extraordinary stand-off in Tehran - 17th June
 * day of destiny'' - Fisk witnesses the courage of one million protesters who ignored threats, guns and bloodshed to demand freedom in Iran - 16th June
 * sides to Iran's controversial winner'' - Ahmadinejad whips crowd to frenzy as Iran's opposition muzzled - 15th June
 * back 'the Democrator''' - A smash in the face, a kick in the balls - that's how police deal with protesters after Iran's poll kept the hardliners in power - 14th June
 * The world may be one but you need a visa to get around it'' - Rich countries give you tiny stamps while poorer ones plaster a whole page - 13th June
 * old guard are poised to crush any hope of revolution'' - The West has no right to expect the polls to bring in radical change - 12th June
 * glimpse of Obama in a Cairo emptied of its people and its poor'' - The sight of POTUS was enough, a lithe, athletic figure by a dumpy little old lady - 6th June
 * that could heal wounds of centuries - President Obama reaches out to the Islamic world in a landmark speech - 5th June (See: Decoding the President: what Obama's words really mean'' - Patrick Cockburn analyses the highlights of the much-anticipated – and carefully constructed – Cairo speech)
 * it be al-Qa'ida is missing Bush?'' - Is the ever-smiling President Barack Obama beginning to stick in Osama bin Laden's craw? - 4th June
 * state is the wrong venue for Obama's speech'' - Maybe Barack Obama chose Egypt for his "great message" to Muslims tomorrow because it contains a quarter of the world's Arab population, but he is also coming to one of the region's most repressed, undemocratic and ruthless police states - 3rd June
 * Arabs know this speech will make little difference'' - I suspect that what the Arab world wants to hear is that Obama will take his soldiers out of Muslim lands - 2nd June
 * mysterious case of the Israeli spy ring, Hizbollah and the Lebanese ballot'' - Spying is as familiar in Beirut as it was in post-war Vienna – there's even a giant "Third Man"-type ferris wheel here – but the events of the last few days are growing more mysterious by the hour - 1st June
 * don't need colour to tell the brutality of war – but it helps'' - French troops march to their deaths in red kepis, the British in brown uniforms - 30th May
 * real mission is to stop Hizbollah'' - When Joe Biden came to town yesterday he was accused by Hizbollah of interfering in Lebanese domestic affairs. And I thought, they may be right - 23rd May
 * I look at the Pyramids, I wonder why I tire of Egypt'' - 23rd May
 * West awaits the return of friendly 'democrats' to Lebanon'' - The Hizbollah issue won’t go away any more than Hamas will go out of sight in Gaza - 16th May
 * every picture tells a story, what do they say to each other?'' - Years ago I framed a postcard of Archduke Ferdinand, posted in Vienna in 1914 - 9th May
 * pay price of war from above'' - We shall be told the dead Afghan civilians were "human shields" and shall "deeply regret" innocent lives were lost - 7th May
 * to the very end in Iraq, our masters denied us the truth'' - The sentence ‘millions of Iraqis now live free of oppression’ is pure public relations - 2nd May
 * historic day for Iraq - but not in the way the British want to believe'' - One hundred and seventy-nine dead soldiers. For what? 179,000 dead Iraqis? Or is the real figure closer to a million? We don't know. And we don't care. We never cared about the Iraqis - 1st May
 * this the price of America's new friendship with Syria?'' - World Focus: Pro-Damascus generals held for the assassination that sparked turmoil in Lebanon walk free after four years - 30th April
 * falls short on Armenian pledge'' - It was clever, crafty – artful, even – but it was not the truth. For in the end, Barack Obama dishonoured his promise to his American-Armenian voters to call the deliberate mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. How grateful today's Turkish generals must be - 28th April
 * wants to be an author, but no one is reading books'' - Our dependency on computers is destroying our ability to ‘deep read’ - 25th April
 * wars come and go but the enemy remains the same'' - Note how the Taliban has now become conflated with al-Qa’ida - 18th April
 * can you trust the cowardly BBC?'' - The BBC Trust is now a mouthpiece for the Israeli lobby which abused Bowen - 16th April
 * win that's too good to be true'' - At a supposed vote in his favour of 90.24 per cent, Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, the 72-year-old Algerian leader, anointed himself President for an unprecedented – and quite possibly unconstitutional – third term yesterday - 11th April
 * Obama honour pledge on genocide of Armenians?'' - when the Obama cavalcade turned up in the heart of the old Ottoman Empire last night, he and all his panjandrums were praying that he did not have to use the "G" word - 6th April
 * I've really lived. I've gone on a movie set and shouted 'Action!''' - The film is about an honour killing in an Afghan village. I am on the road to Hollywood - 4th April
 * a victim of Canada's baffling approach to fighting terror'' - How could the Canadian embassy in London have believed Mr Galloway's food and medicine shipment to Gaza, made with Israel's agreement, and its delivery to the Hamas government was a "terrorist" act, even if Stephen Harper's Canadian government regards Hamas as a "terrorist organisation" - 1st April
 * brave man who stood alone. If only the world had listened to him'' - I wish I had met Tom Hurndall, a remarkable man of remarkable principle - 28th March
 * told him I admired his refusal to sign the death sentences'' - The executioners messed up their work; at least one of the pair had to be throttled - 21st March
 * Avigdor Lieberman is the worst thing that could happen to the Middle East'' - I can identify Lieberman's language with the language of Messrs Mladic and Karadzic and Milosevic - 18th March
 * West should feel shame over its collusion with torturers'' - I want to know why those complicit in Almalki’s ordeal are not tried in court - 14th March
 * Christian painter who could not see the light in Palestine'' - Holman Hunt appears to have been blind to the divisions within Jewish society - 7th March
 * the Pope's words, and there's only one thing to conclude'' - Benedict will demean other religions to prove Christianity’s ‘superiority’ - 28th February
 * Obama was unconvinced by Bibi’s desire for peace'' - Mr Obama apparently found Bibi arrogant and unconvincing in his professed desire for peace with the Palestinians - 21st February
 * been 250 years, but war still rages on the Plains of Abraham'' - The Québecois just don’t want Wolfe to rest in peace. Maybe they should do what the French used to do at Waterloo: pretend that they won - 21st February
 * fair point: Everyone is equal in their suffering during wartime'' - The third and very final part of the "normality" of war - 14th Febraury
 * saw a mesmeric Islamic uprising turn to savagery'' - The fall of the Shah was an epic, a morality play or a Greek tragedy if he had been a truly great man rather than just another American satrap, complete with US fighter aircraft, a swamp of corrupt officials and a sadistic intelligence service - 10th February
 * A nation still haunted by its bloody past'' - 11 February 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini ushered in a regime that was at once brutal and naive, provocative and dangerous - 8th February
 * reporters used to prefer morality over impartiality'' - I wonder whether we show the same power and passion as the earlier generations - 7th February
 * did we stop caring about civilian deaths during wartime?'' - The mere monitoring of bloody conflict assumes precedence over human suffering - 31st January
 * sense and nonsense: the view from the post bag'' - A letter tells me that I am encouraging fundamentalist attacks on the West - 24th January
 * far, Obama's missed the point on Gaza...'' - It would have helped if Obama had the courage to talk about what everyone in the Middle East was talking about - 22nd January
 * and laughter as victims rot'' - Mahmoud Abbas stepped further into humiliation by saying the only option for Arabs isto make peace with Israel - 20th January
 * I asked the UN secretary general, isn't it time for a war crimes tribunal?'' - Mr Ban said it would not be up to him to launch a war crimes tribunal. It was pathetic - 19th January
 * it comes to Gaza, leave the Second World War out of it'' - How do Holocaust survivors in Israel feel about being called Nazis? - 17th January
 * I go, I hear the same tired Middle East comparisons'' - On both sides of the Atlantic the experience has been weirdly repetitive - 10th January
 * do they hate the West so much, we will ask'' - Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. What is amazing is that so many Western leaders bought the old lie; that Israelis take great care to avoid civilian casualties - 7th January
 * in the peacekeepers? It's not as easy as it sounds'' - Do I hear the braying of the UN donkey in Gaza? - 6th January
 * out the cameras and reporters simply doesn't work'' - Israel's version of events has been given so much credence by the dying Bush administration that the ban on journalists entering Gaza may simply be of little importance to the Israeli army - 5th January
 * rotten state of Egypt is too powerless and corrupt to act'' - Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to shout in the streets of their capitals – but then they will be shut down - 1st January
 * in a name? Quite a lot, where the military is concerned'' - Churchill objected to names of a frivolous nature and banned Operation Bunnyhug - 3rd January



Articles: 2008

 * self delusion that plagues both sides in this bloody conflict'' - Israel has never won a war in a built-up city, that's why threats of 'war to the bitter end' are nonsense - 31st December 2008 (see: 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict)
 * bombing Ashkelon is the most tragic irony'' - How easy it is to snap off the history of the Palestinians, to delete the narrative of their tragedy, to avoid a grotesque irony about Gaza which – in any other conflict – journalists would be writing about in their first reports: that the original, legal owners of the Israeli land on which Hamas rockets are detonating live in Gaza - 30th December 2008 (see: Ashkelon, modern history)
 * lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignored'' - We've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis - 29th December 2008
 * can anyone believe there is 'progress' in the Middle East?'' - A test of Obama’s gumption will come scarcely three months after his inauguration - 27th December 2008
 * missing word sowed the seeds of catastrophe'' - No one in 1967 thought the Arab-Israeli conflict would still be in progress 41 years late - 20th December 2008
 * to Portugal, where once there was revolution in the air'' - Who knew when the Soviet menace would blow across the English Channel? - 13th December 2008
 * I'm in Tajikistan, my mobile phone says I'm in Dubai'' - Just look how we’ve forgotten the CIA’s secret prisons in Afghanistan - 6th December 2008
 * British should not forget the massive debt they owe the Irish'' - Those long-dead soldiers were in the wrong uniform in the wrong war - 29th November 2008
 * 'Nobody supports the Taliban, but people hate the government''' - As he leaves Afghanistan, our correspondent reflects on a failed state cursed by brutal fundamentalism and rampant corruption - 27th November 2008
 * 30 years ago, and Kabul today. Have we learned nothing?'' - 'Terrorists' were in Soviet sights; now they are in the Americans' - 22nd November 2008
 * more fear stalks the streets of Kandahar'' - Five years after his last visit, our correspondent finds the Taliban back in charge of their spiritual home – and girls attacked with acid simply for attending school - 20th November 2008
 * is no end to the centuries of savagery in Afghanistan'' - Geneva Conventions were supposed to end the mass destruction of human life - 15th November 2008
 * agents, car bombs and antics worthy of James Bond'' - A mystery visitor leads our man in Beirut to wonder what Syria was up to when it aired a mass confession on state TV - 13th November 2008
 * has to pay for eight years of Bush's delusions'' - He will have to get out of Iraq, and tell Israel a few home truths - 8th November 2008
 * have to rely on Britain and Israel for their history'' - There is no Public Record Office in the Arab World, no National Archive - 6th November 2008
 * of six held in Guantanamo even after Bush plot claim is dropped'' - No evidence that men living in Bosnia plotted attack on Sarajevo embassy - 31st October 2008
 * doom and gloom is everywhere – except Lebanon'' - Beirut’s Blombank has just boasted a record 34 per cent rise in profits - 25th October 2008
 * the fourth century BC, words our leaders should heed'' - Thucydides' account of the Spartan war contains a dark and chilling relevance - 18th October 2008
 * 'Collateral damage' or targeted killing, the effect is much the same'' - One grandfather lost all his sons and grandsons. His family line came to an end - 11th October 2008
 * it comes to Palestine and Israel, the US simply doesn't get it'' - Biden and Palin hid like rabbits from the centre of the Middle East earthquake - 4th October 2008
 * rescues Wall Street but leaves his soldiers to die in Iraq'' - Until the elections, the people in the Middle East are yesterday’s men - 27th September 2008
 * does the US think it can win in Afghanistan?'' - The Taliban are better trained, and – sad to say – increasingly tolerated by the local civilian population - 20th September 2008
 * of war our leaders never have to confront'' - Bush and Blair have not had to soil their thoughts with images of wickedness that make the gorge rise - 13th September 2008
 * never good to swap people for bodies'' - If you get into this grisly game, the result is a murderer released from Israel parading around Lebanon - 6th September 2008
 * do we keep letting the politicians get away with lies?'' - How on earth do they get away with it? Let's start with war between Hizbollah and Israel – past and future war, that is - 30th August 2008
 * A voice recovered from Armenia's bitter past'' - It's a tiny book, only 116 pages long, but it contains a monumental truth, another sign that one and a half million dead Armenians will not go away - 23rd August 2008
 * keeps its promise to be 'bone in crusaders' throats''' - Al-Qa'ida "in the Maghreb" strikes again. Forty three dead on Tuesday, another 11 yesterday. And across the Muslim world, it continues - 21st August 2008
 * region boiling with tales of kings, gangs and war'' - Two groups from Moscow fought it out with Kalashnikovs amid Dubai's architectural masterpieces - 16th August 2008
 * sends its warriors from Iraq to wage 'jihad' in Lebanon'' - Bomb attack in Tripoli has exposed the brutal infighting in the country's second city - 15th August 2008
 * cliché like the plague? Never'' - We are all guilty. To my distress, I find that I thrice used the word 'iconic' in my book. Ye Gods! - 9th August 2008
 * tragic last moments of Margaret Hassan'' - When a renowned British aid worker was kidnapped in Iraq, the world was horrified. Her body was never recovered, but her execution was captured on video and sent to Al Jazeera,the Arab satellite channel. Robert Fisk watched it and reveals why it has never been broadcast - Thursday, 7th August 2008
 * New actor on the same old stage - If Obama is elected he will be enmeshed in the Middle East tragedy and forced to take sides - Saturday, 2nd August 2008
 * My days in Fleet Street's Lubyanka - Our readers' demands for an idealised Britain were met with a diet of dolly birds - Saturday, 26th July 2008
 * When propaganda turns out to be fact...I'm talking about the "myth" of the German army's atrocities in little Belgium in 1914 - Saturday, 19th July 2008
 * Theatrical return for the living and the dead...Yesterday was the last day of the 2006 Lebanon war, the final chapter of Israel's folly and Hizbollah's hubris - Thursday, 17th July 2008
 * Day of jackals as Paris marks the overthrow of a monarch - The Caliph of Damascus celebrated the overthrow of the French king yesterday. Bashar al-Assad looked quite at home, standing in his pale blue suit, wearing those inevitable Baathist sunglasses, occasionally clapping the precision drill of the French regiments in front of him, some of whom spent decades repressing Arab nations - Tuesday, 15th July 2008
 * Europe has a duty to educate the US about Middle East - Walid Moallem leans forward in the armchair of the Paris Intercontinental Opera. "It's all on the record," he snaps. It usually is. The Syrians can be up- front when you least expect it - Tuesday, 15th July 2008
 * A lesson from across the Atlantic - Canadians don't want to be the 'melting pot' that the US boasts - Saturday, 12th July 2008
 * Thank you, readers, for these gems - Why, I find myself asking when I read them, can't we journalists write like this? - Saturday, 5th July 2008
 * Today's despot is tomorrow's statesman - Millions believe Bashar al-Assad plotted murder. Now France is honouring him - Saturday, 21st June 2008
 * Snapshots of life in Baghdad - The dangerous face of ordinary life has been captured by Iraqis on their mobile phones – reaching the places Western photographers can no longer go - Wednesday, 18th June 2008
 * The Middle East never tires of threats - Governments love warnings, hence the endless waffle about the 'war on terror' - Saturday, 14th June 2008
 * The West's weapon of self-delusion - There are gun battles in Beirut – and America thinks things are going fine - Saturday, 7th June 2008
 * So al-Qa'ida's defeated, eh? Go tell it to the marines - Last week the head of the CIA claimed it was winning the battle. Nonsense, argues Robert Fisk. The extremists in the Middle East are growing stronger - Sunday, 1st June 2008
 * Horrors we have no choice but to forget - Only a poet could come up with the idea of a poem that would clear amnesia - Saturday, 31st May 2008
 * So just where does the madness end? - All the monsters buried in the mass graves of the civil war have been dug up - Saturday, 17th May 2008
 * Lebanon does not want another war. Does it? - Despite everything that has happened in the past few days, the people have no appetite for yet more civil conflict - Sunday, 11th May 2008
 * Hizbollah rules west Beirut in Iran's proxy war with US - Saturday, 10th May 2008
 * The mystery of the man who shot Nelson - Against advice, Horatio is wearing his many decorations. Talk about asking for it - Saturday, 10th May 2008
 * Gun battles as Hizbollah claims Lebanon is at war - Friday, 9th May 2008
 * Lebanon descends into chaos as rival leaders order general strike - Thursday, 8th May 2008
 * It's easy to be snotty with an airline so haughty that it regards its own customers as an inconvenience - BA should be broken up and left with a core institution. Deportation or Rendition Airlines - Saurday, 26th April 2008
 * Painters love martyrs and prophets - Saint Sebastian's death – arrows puncturing skin – is straight out of Shia martyrology - Saturday, 19th April 2008
 * The fearful lives in a land of the free - Westerners assume that anyone with a Canadian passport is safe - Saturday, 5th April 2008
 * Where is our man for all seasons? - Ghosts from our recent tragedy spring at us from this screenplay - Saturday, 29th March 2008
 * How Ireland exorcised the ghost of empire - On the 92nd anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, our Middle East correspondent sees numerous parallels between the bloody, intractable conflicts in Ireland and Israel – and says that the war in Iraq has shown us the true value of neutrality - Sunday, 23rd March 2008
 *  It's not a straight road to dictatorship - An Italian restaurant in the Irish village of Dalkey caused quite a kerfuffle when it opened a few months ago. It is called Benito's and – yes – it is indeed named after Il Duce - Saturday, 22nd March 2008
 * The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn - Wednesday, 19th March 2008
 * Silenced by the men in white socks - The Damascus Spring has presaged no golden summer for Syria - Saturday, 15th March 2008
 * The cult of the suicide bomber - Friday, 14th March 2008
 * Offended by Shakespeare? Let's ban him - Into the bin must go TS Eliot, and I guess we’ll have to chuck out Winston Churchill - Saturday, 8th March 2008
 * The gardens of the devil, still sowing death - The foundation of their lives remains the war that was fought before they were born - Saturday, 1st March 2008
 * Dreams of becoming Hitchcock's hero - When I was at university, I wrote to every journalist known to me for advice. Should I return to my old job on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle or try for Fleet Street? - Saturday, 23rd February 2008
 * The remnants of war in the desert sands - Saturday, 16th February 2008
 * Bloody end of man who made kidnapping a weapon of war - (Imad Mughniyah) Thursday, 14th February 2008
 * Seduced by the power of historic books - I prowl through parchment pages in search of the city I live in today - Saturday, 9th February 2008
 * Torture does not work, as history shows - The Americans are just apeing their predecessors in the Inquisition - Saturday, 2nd February 2008
 * The curious case of the forged biography - When Robert Fisk heard that his life of Saddam Hussein was selling well, one thing bothered him: he had never written one. His investigation took him to the murkiest corners of Cairo - Friday, 1st February 2008
 * Eight dead, and echoes of Beirut's bloody history reverberate around its streets - Tuesday, 29th January 2008
 * Visions that come to men as they sleep - For many extreme Muslims, dreams are a serious affair. Osama bin Laden is a dream-believer - Saturday, 26th January 2008
 * Beirut's assassins kill the detective on their trail - Saturday, 26th January 2008
 * A lesson in how to create Iraqi orphans. And then how to make life worse for them - Thursday, 24th January 2008
 * Film-makers must atone for their sins - Cultural censorship is like a disease. It moves among us unseen. Let me show you how it works - Saturday, 19th January 2008
 * Bloody reality bears no relation to the delusions of this President - As a bomb explodes in Beirut and Israel kills 19 in Gaza raids, Bush takes his Middle East peace mission to Saudi Arabia (and signs off $20bn weapons deal with repressive regime) - Wednesday, 16th January 2008



News & updates:

 * The forgotten massacre. Thirty years after 1,700 Palestinians were killed at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps, Robert Fisk revisits the killing fields 15th September 2012
 * Aleppo's poor get caught in the crossfire. Robert Fisk meets the civilians who have been stranded on the streets by a brutal conflict. 25th August 2012
 * 'Rebel army? They're a gang of foreigners.' Robert Fisk hears the Syrian forces' justification for a battle that is tearing apart one of the world's oldest cities. 23rd August 2012



References:
<td bgcolor="#F0F8FF" style="border-style:solid;border-width:1px;padding:1em;padding-top:0;">

Links:

 * Wikipedia Bio
 * The Truthseeker: archived columns (2002 / current)
 * The Nation articles