From the category archives:

Al Qaeda

Afghan tribal rivalries bedevil a U.S. plan

March 12, 2010

The New York Times reports:
Six weeks ago, elders of the Shinwari tribe, which dominates a large area in southeastern Afghanistan, pledged that they would set aside internal differences to focus on fighting the Taliban.
This week, that commitment seemed less important as two Shinwari subtribes took up arms to fight each other over an ancient land [...]

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In Pakistan lack of opportunity fuels radicalism

February 28, 2010

The New York Times on how talent, stripped of opportunity, is feeding radicalism in Pakistan:
Umar Kundi was his parents’ pride, an ambitious young man from a small town who made it to medical school in the big city. It seemed like a story of working-class success, living proof in this unequal society that a telephone [...]

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Obama’s take-no-prisoners approach

February 14, 2010

A year ago, when President Obama signed his executive order to close Guantanamo he said: “the message we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, and we are going to do so vigilantly; we are going to do so effectively; and we [...]

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How to talk to a jihadist

February 3, 2010

Andrew Sullivan:
Watching senators and pundits huff and puff about Mirandizing terrorists when they should apparently be declared enemy combatants and tortured at length is a depressing spectacle. To see political leaders in the West have such a low view of the American judicial system and such an elevated view of the world-historical significance of these [...]

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Why the defense and oil industries must be in love with Iran and al Qaeda

January 31, 2010

The Obama administration is quietly working with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to speed up arms sales and rapidly upgrade defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a bid to thwart future military attacks by Iran, according to former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern government officials.
The initiatives, including a U.S.-backed [...]

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The return of the neocons

January 24, 2010

The return of the neocons
By David Margolick, Newsweek, January 22, 2010
Technically, there is nothing “neo” about conservatives like Robert Kagan, the historian and another Washington Post columnist, or John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary; each is a son of one of neoconservatism’s founding fathers. Indeed, no strain in American politics is so dynastic. It is [...]

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Man claims terror ties in Little Rock shooting

January 22, 2010

Man claims terror ties in Little Rock shooting
By James Dao, New York Times, January 22, 2010
A Tennessee man accused of killing a soldier outside a Little Rock, Ark., military recruiting station last year has asked a judge to change his plea to guilty, claiming for the first time that he is affiliated with a Yemen-based [...]

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Intelligence chief says FBI was too hasty in handling of attempted bombing

January 21, 2010

Intelligence chief says FBI was too hasty in handling of attempted bombing
By Spencer S. Hsu and Jennifer Agiesta, Washington Post, January 21, 2010
The man accused of trying to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day should have been interrogated by special terrorism investigators instead of FBI agents, the nation’s intelligence chief said Wednesday, adding [...]

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Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial

January 19, 2010

Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial
By Paul Woodward, The National, January 19, 2010
As Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial in a federal court in New York City her case is unknown to most Americans yet in her native Pakistan the frail neuroscientist, mother of three and reputed al Qa’eda associate has become a cause célèbre.
Last [...]

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Elite US troops ready to combat Pakistani nuclear hijacks

January 17, 2010

Elite US troops ready to combat Pakistani nuclear hijacks
By Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times, January 17, 2010
The US army is training a crack unit to seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants, possibly from inside the country’s security apparatus, get their hands on a nuclear device or materials that [...]

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Suicide attack reveals threat to Obama’s Afghanistan plan

January 15, 2010

Suicide attack reveals threat to Obama’s Afghanistan plan
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy, January 14, 2010
The bombing has focused new attention on the Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent group that U.S. intelligence officials said is based in North Waziristan, has ties to members of the Pakistani military’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and probably played a key role in [...]

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Yemen clerics warn US to stay out or face jihad

January 15, 2010

Yemen clerics warn US to stay out or face jihad
By Mohammed al Qadhi, The National, January 14, 2010
Yemen’s association of clerics warned yesterday they would call for jihad in the case of foreign military intervention amid growing concern that the United States might carry out direct strikes against al Qa’eda militants in the country.
“If any [...]

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George W. Obama

January 14, 2010

George W. Obama
By Nat Hentoff, Village Voice, January 12, 2010
Before President Obama, it was grimly accurate to write, as I often did in the Voice, that George W. Bush came into the presidency with no discernible background in constitutional civil liberties or any acquaintance with the Constitution itself. Accordingly, he turned the “war on terror” [...]

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