From the category archives:

Al Qaeda

Al-Qaida in Yemen: Poverty, corruption and an army of jihadis willing to fight

August 30, 2010

In a two-part series, The Guardian’s intrepid Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports from Yemen:
With its conservative Islam, ragged mountains, unruly tribes and problems of illiteracy, unemployment and extreme poverty, Yemen has been dubbed the new Afghanistan by security experts.
The Guardian spent two months in the country, travelling to the tribal regions of Abyan and Shabwa, where al-Qaida [...]

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As Petraeus takes over in Afghanistan, could success be worse than failure?

July 11, 2010

While reflecting on the dangers of “success” in Afghanistan, Tom Engelhardt writes:
On the basis of our stated war objective — “[W]e cannot allow Al Qaeda or other transnational extremists to once again establish sanctuaries from which they can launch attacks on our homeland or on our allies,” as General Petraeus put it in his confirmation [...]

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The grim, relentless task of crushing of the Taliban and al Qaeda

July 1, 2010

John Bolton writes: “America’s Afghanistan policy is in chaos. Fear of another Vietnam is palpable, and our friends and adversaries worldwide sense it.”
Another Vietnam? If only the US might be so lucky! Vietnam was an exercise in nation building, interrupted by an American occupation, and then fairly swiftly brought to a peaceful conclusion after the [...]

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Is Obama moving to escalate the war in Pakistan?

May 12, 2010

The United States is at war in Pakistan. It will be up to historians to decide when this war began.
“Drone Strikes Pound West Pakistan” says the headline above a brief report in the New York Times. After the CIA fired 18 missiles resulting in at least 14 deaths on Tuesday, the operation was described merely [...]

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America’s latest nemesis

May 10, 2010

Among the many problems the Obama administration inherited from the Bush administration, none may be more troublesome than the fact that the man once granted the status most dangerous man in the world still remains the most elusive man in the world.
But if Osama bin Laden can’t be tracked down, maybe the alternative is to [...]

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The nuclear paradox

April 13, 2010

Here’s how President Obama states the nuclear paradox:
The risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up.
Here’s how I define it:
Hypothetical nuclear threats provoke more fear than real nuclear threats.
Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Tel Aviv and Tehran.
Which city is currently [...]

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A presidential death warrant

April 8, 2010

American soldiers have to be trained how to kill, but for American presidents killing comes naturally.
Anyone who aspires to become president must surely ask themselves: am I willing to end someone else’s life, be that an individual or perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of people? After all, even though it’s not [...]

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Time to shut down the CIA

March 24, 2010

Former CIA operative Robert Baer writes:
On January 10, 2010, CIA director Leon Panetta wrote a Washington Post op-ed in which he disputed that poor tradecraft was a factor in the Khost tragedy [after a Jordanian doctor named Humam Khalil Abu-Malal al-Balawi blew himself up, in one of the deadliest attacks in the CIA's history]. Panetta [...]

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Talking to terrorists

March 17, 2010

The Washington Post has a passage from Mark Perry’s new book, Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage With Its Enemies. As Perry notes, talking to groups that the US government has labelled as “terrorists” is not only necessary but is a choice that has already been pursued and shown highly effective. As he [...]

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A trial for Saddam and a bomb for bin Laden

March 17, 2010

The Associated Press reports:
Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive.
In testy exchanges with House Republicans, the attorney general compared terrorists to mass murderer Charles Manson and predicted that events would ensure “we will be reading [...]

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Israel is empowering al Qaeda, Petraeus warns

March 16, 2010

As erupting violence in Jerusalem suggests a third intifada may soon take hold, the CENTCOM commander Gen David Petraeus, testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee today, gave a grave warning about the wider impact of a conflict that has been the epicenter of Middle East hostilities ever since the creation of Israel.
In issuing [...]

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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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