Archive for 'Al Qaeda'
NEWS: Locals hold key in Pakistan
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 […]
Posted: March 27th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, Pakistan, War on Terrorism.
Comments: none
ANALYSIS: An emerging split between al Qaeda and the Taliban?
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 […]
Posted: March 20th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Taliban.
Comments: none
NEWS: Talking to terrorists
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 […]
Posted: March 15th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, War on Terrorism, political dialogue.
Comments: none
NEWS & ANALYSIS: Debatable targets
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 […]
Posted: February 3rd, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Israel, Pakistan.
Comments: none
NEWS: “NATO is not winning in Afghanistan”
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 […]
Posted: January 31st, 2008 under Al Qaeda, NATO, Taliban, war in Afghanistan.
Comments: none
OPINION: Terrorism, Iraq, and the facts on the ground
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 […]
Posted: January 30th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in Iraq, Bush, media, military affairs, propaganda, war in Iraq.
Comments: none
NEWS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Suspect suspect “confesses”
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 […]
Posted: January 20th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Editor's comments, Pakistan.
Comments: none
NEWS & ANALYSIS: Developments in Pakistan and Afghanistan
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 […]
Posted: January 19th, 2008 under Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, Pakistan, Taliban, War on Terrorism, political dialogue, war in Afghanistan, war in Pakistan.
Comments: none
REVIEW: Leaderless Jihad, by Marc Sageman
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 […]
Posted: January 19th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, terrorism.
Comments: none
NEWS, ANALYSIS & OPINION: The unraveling of the War on Terrorism
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 […]
Posted: January 11th, 2008 under Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Pakistan, Taliban, War on Terrorism, war in Afghanistan.
Comments: none
NEWS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: The new Cambodia?
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 […]
Posted: January 6th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, CIA, Editor's comments, Pakistan, War on Terrorism, war in Afghanistan, war in Pakistan.
Comments: none
NEWS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Sibel Edmonds claims nuclear secrets have been sold
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 […]
Posted: January 6th, 2008 under Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, Editor's comments, Pakistan, Turkey, nuclear issues.
Comments: none
NEWS & OPINION: The liability of dictatorship
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 […]
Posted: December 31st, 2007 under Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, Pakistan.
Comments: none
EDITORIAL: The knot of uncertainty tightens
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. […]
Posted: December 30th, 2007 under Al Qaeda, Pakistan.
Comments: 3
EDITORIAL: The cover-up
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. […]
Posted: December 29th, 2007 under Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, Pakistan.
Comments: none































