Middle East Perspectives by Rick Francona

  6 Days is a 2017 joint British and New Zealand production based on the events of April-May 1980 when six armed gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and took 26 people hostage. The...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2024/10/6-days-is-2017-joint-british-and-new.html

  Damascus Cover is a 2017 espionage film, based on the 1977 Howard Kaplan novel of the same name. The book is the first of four in Kaplan’s The Jerusalem Spy Series. I have not read the ...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2024/10/movie-review-damascus-cover-vertical.html

  I originally reviewed this excellent miniseries in 2018 soon after it was released. I watched it again because of what is happening in the region, including the Yemeni Houthi involvement ...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2024/06/revised-miniseries-review-last-post-bbc.html

Iranian Consulate - Damascus, Syria An Israeli airstrike in the early evening hours of April 1 on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killed the apparent target of the operation, Islami...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2024/04/israeli-airstrike-on-iranian-consulate.html

  Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada   Taliban Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada announces a return to the policy of stoning women:  > "We will soon implement the punishment for a...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2024/03/taliban-to-return-to-policy-if-stoning.html

Syrian Air Force IL-76 YK-ATA The Syrian Air Force (SYAF), officially the Syrian Arab Air Force, operates three Ilyushin IL-76T (NATO: Candid) heavy lift transport aircraft: YK-ATA, YK-ATB, an...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2023/02/interesting-syrian-air-force-flight.html

  Fauda (the Arabic word for chaos) Season 4 is now available in the United States, much to the delight of fans of the series – I’m one. The first three seasons* were all “must see,�...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2023/01/miniseries-review-fauda-season-4.html

  The second season* of this docudrama about the Ottoman Empire focuses on the rivalry/enmity between Sultan Mehmed II** and Vlad III Dracula (also known as Vlad the Impaler), the Voivode o...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2023/01/miniseries-review-rise-of-empires.html

  Sometimes you need a story that reminds you of the power and resilience of the human spirit. This movie does that in spades. By August of 2015, the civil war in Syria had been going on ...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2023/01/movie-review-swimmers-netflix-2022.html

(Note: This is my translation of an article from Syrian "Voice of the Capital") ISRAELI AIR RAIDS DESTROY EARLY WARNING AND AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS IN THE ENVIRONS OF DAMASCUS 17 September 20...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2022/09/syrian-voice-of-capital-reporting-on.html

If you are interested in Middle East history and culture, this series is for you. It combines an interesting fictional story woven around a Sephardim Jewish family with an accurate portrayal...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2022/09/movie-review-beauty-queen-of-jerusalem.html

  This movie focuses on a CIA investigation into a failed intelligence operation that takes place in Vienna, Austria eight years earlier. The movie is set in 2020, with the botched operat...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2022/04/movie-review-all-old-knives-amazon-2022.html

The Operative is an adaptation of the novel The English Teacher by Yiftach Reicher-Atir. Reicher-Atir is a former Israeli army commando (he led part of the force during the 1976 raid on Ente...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2022/03/movie-review-operative-yuval-adler-2019.html

  There have been three movie adaptations of Agatha Christie’s 1937 novel Death on the Nile. The first was in 1978 starring Peter Ustinov as the legendary Hercule Poirot, followed by th...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2022/02/there-have-been-three-movie-adaptations.html

  Yes, I know this is not about the Middle East. I am reviewing this because of the intelligence aspects of the movie.   As with all good fiction, the reader must exercise what autho...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2022/01/movie-review-munich-edge-of-war-netflix.html

My initial observation: this is the worst title the producers could have chosen for the English-language version of this miniseries. The Hebrew title, Azharat Masa ("Travel Advisory") is not ...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2022/01/miniseries-review-girl-from-oslo.html

  Here we have yet another fact-based movie about an intelligence officer who betrays her country and her oath. Here again, we have yet another whitewash by the entertainment industry who a...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/10/movie-review-official-secrets-2019.html

Against my better judgment, I decided to watch Oliver Stone’s production of the story of the traitor Edward Snowden. I often wonder at Stone’s predilection with anti-American themes, but th...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/10/movie-review-snowden-oliver-stone-2016.html

  A U.S. helicopter flies over Kabul (Rahmat Gul - AP) Thanks to the Biden Administration’s disastrous handling of the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, the world is abo...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-fall-of-kabul-who-did-not-see-this.html

FROM THE SKY is a short film, only 18 minutes long, but it’s worth the watch.  The film was released in the spring of 2014, so I am estimating that it was probably filmed in 2013. The pr...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/06/film-review-from-sky-ian-ebright-2014.html

  In March 2020, I wrote and analysis of a U.S. Army contract linguist who was arrested for espionage. You can read that article here: Department of Defense Linguist Charged with Espionage ...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/06/defense-department-linguist-sentenced.html

That’s not a rhetorical question – I think I have a fairly good idea of what comes next for Reality Winner. She will gain fame and fortune as a darling of the left-wing media.   Winn...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/06/nsa-leaker-reality-winner-released-from.html

Normally I review movies and series that are based on or about the Middle East. However, I did spend my entire career as a professional intelligence officer – about half the time as a sig...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/03/movie-review-security-risk-allied.html

  In a recently aired episode of the CBS television series Seal Team, there was a quick phrase that probably went unnoticed by most of the viewing audience. Even if they heard it, they prob...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/03/yeah-thank-you-charlie-wilson-law-of.html

Obviously satire, but let’s take a look at what is driving it. It’s simple – President Biden’s ill-advised and ill-timed policies on Iran, basically rolling back all of the gains of t...

http://francona.blogspot.com/2021/02/bidens-iran-policy-obama-failure-20.html