The Islamic Counterterrorism Institute

By SAM BAZZI

"The world should not blame us because we cannot sit cross-armed [idly] while we watch the blood of our people being spilled before our eyes. We have the right to defend our childhood, which was forsaken by the beastly al-Assad army," said she.

By MICHAEL YOUNG

The notion of a “resistance axis” has been a casualty of the revolts in the Arab world. Using the term displays willful blindness to what has taken place during the past year. Resistance, the way the word is currently understood in the Arab world, implies resistance to injustice and hegemony, principally imposed by the United States and Israel. Yet when Iran and Syria, pillars of the axis, have been at the vanguard in violently and unjustly suppressing freedoms at home, the term “resistance axis” elicits only laughter. And yet there are people who need to keep the term alive, with its moral implications, because their professional agenda is invested in its being taken seriously.

Raffic Labboun appeals his conviction of seven counts of bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344(1). As alleged by the government and found by the jury, each of these counts arose from an alleged credit card “bust out” scheme in which Labboun used “bad checks” to pay off outstanding credit card account balances and then incurred or attempted to incur additional charges on those accounts before the checks bounced. He raises eight issues on appeal. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.