War in Context

Moderates hold key in Pakistan
By Carlotta Gall, New York Times, March 26, 2008
One of the most significant results of Pakistan’s elections in February was the defeat of the religious parties that ran this critical border province for the last five years. In their place, voters elected moderates from a small regional party that may now […]

Al Qaeda bloggers’ sparring with Taliban could signal key differences
By Ron Synovitz, RFE/RL, March 12, 2008
An Internet-fueled squabble between Taliban leaders and influential Al-Qaeda sympathizers over nonviolent tactics and foreign influence in Afghanistan hints at deep disagreements that could alter counterinsurgency efforts in that country.
Islamic extremists who regularly post messages to a pro-Al-Qaeda website in […]

Terror talks: would contacting al-Qaida be a step too far?
By Ian Black, The Guardian, March 15, 2008
[Jonathan Powell was Tony Blair’s chief of staff for 12 years] Jonathan Powell’s candid reflections on talking to terrorists in his book revealing an insider’s view of the Northern Ireland peace process will ring true to anyone who has […]

Al-Qaida claims responsibility for shooting attack near Israeli Embassy in Mauritania
Haaretz, February 3, 2008
Al-Qaida claimed responsibility early Sunday morning for Friday’s shooting attack near the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania that wounded three French nationals.
The international terrorist organization urged Muslim states to cut all ties to Israel. Mauritani, an Islamic republic that straddles black and Arab […]

Calls grow for shift in Afghan policy
By David R. Sands, Washington Times, January 31, 2008
The Bush administration faces increasing pressure to make a major policy course correction on Afghanistan, shifting the focus from Iraq to fight a resurgent terrorist threat and build up the faltering government in Kabul.
A Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing today is […]

Normalizing air war from Guernica to Arab Jabour
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch, January 29, 2008
For those who know something about the history of air power, which, since World War II, has been lodged at the heart of the American Way of War, that 100,000 figure [– the quantity of explosives dropped on Arab Jabour south of […]

PPP pushes for independent Bhutto probe
By Farhan Bokhari, Financial Times, January 20, 2008
Pakistan’s main opposition party, the Pakistan People’s party, on Sunday dismissed the arrest of a teenager in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, and renewed calls for an international investigation into her killing last month.
The PPP’s response followed […]

Pakistan military retreats from Musharraf’s influence
By Tim Johnson, McClatchy, January 18, 2008
As President Pervez Musharraf grows more unpopular in Pakistan, his newly named successor as army chief is seeking to distance the institution from the Musharraf regime and pull back its virtual occupation of the top senior ranks of civilian ministries and state corporations.
Gen. Ashfaq […]

A fresh look at terrorism’s roots
Leaderless Jihad by Marc Sageman, reviewed by David Isenberg, Asia Times, January 19, 2008
Among Sageman’s most useful points is his description of al-Qaeda both as a social movement and an ideology. The most important thing the United States can do, in countering global Islamic terrorism, is to avoid the mistakes […]

The West has not just repressed democracy. It has aided terror
By Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, January 9, 2008
The Pakistani senator gazed at the headline in despair. It read: “US weighs new covert push in Pakistan”. Washington was authorising “enhanced CIA activity” in the country while US Democratic candidates declared they were all ready “to launch […]

U.S. considers new covert push within Pakistan
By Steven Lee Myers, David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, January 6, 2008
President Bush’s senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The […]

For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets
The Sunday Times, January 6, 2008
A whistleblower has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets.
Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the […]

False messiah of Pakistan
By William M. Arkin, Washington Post, December 31, 2007
Whether Benazir Bhutto was killed by a bullet to the head, shrapnel or a blow that resulted as her driver sped away from the scene, the challenge for the United States remains the same: how to pursue U.S. interests and the cause of international […]

Who knows?
By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 30, 2007
“Benazir Bhutto was so fearful for her life that she tried to hire British and American security experts to protect her,” The Sunday Telegraph reveals. Her entourage even approached Blackwater. They might have been able to protect her life but they would have destroyed her image. […]

The cover-up
By Paul Woodward, War in Context, December 29, 2007
If the Pakistani government is not engaged in a cover-up, they’re certainly doing a good job of making it look like a cover-up. First the crime scene was immediately hosed down removing any evidence. Then, after Benazir Bhutto had been pronounced dead, there was no autopsy. […]