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Ha-Joon Chang
$17.79
By Daniel Ellsberg
$11.56
$20
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Five young Muslim American men who went missing from Virginia in November and were arrested the following month in Pakistan were indicted on terrorism charges Wednesday. The accused claim they were tortured in custody and deny that they were trying to align themselves with al-Qaida-affiliated groups, according to the BBC.
Posted on Mar 17, 2010
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Wikimedia Commons / Justin McIntosh
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By Robert Fisk — The greatest problem of writing historically about the Middle East is that the story has not ended. The war goes on. And both “sides”—actually, there are rather a lot of sides—produce conflicting narratives.
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The timing of Wednesday’s series of three suicide bombings in Baghdad was significant, considering Sunday’s parliamentary election is just around the corner. The attacks happened in rapid succession in the morning and killed 32 people, including some who had been wounded in the first two blasts and were seeking treatment at a hospital in the Iraqi capital city.
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AP / Fareed Khan
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By Chris Hedges — The conviction of the Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui in New York last week of trying to kill American military officers and FBI agents illustrates that the greatest danger to our security comes not from al-Qaida but the thousands of shadowy mercenaries, kidnappers, killers and torturers our government employs around the globe.
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Wikimedia Commons
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The Pentagon is planning to ramp up the number of U.S. special forces troops in Yemen, pointing to the botched Christmas Day attack on Northwest flight 253 as part of the impetus for the increase. It’s not clear yet how many more American troops will be sent over, but the boost will be significant, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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AP / Mohammed Zaatari
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By Robert Fisk — It looks like a hop, skip and a jump. There’s the first electrified fence, then the dirt strip to identify footprints, then the tarmac road, then one more electrified fence, and then acres and acres of trees. Orchards rather than tanks. Galilee spreads beyond, soft and moist and dark green in the winter afternoon—a peaceful Israel, you might think.
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He’s been held in solitary confinement in a New York jail for, as of this posting, 824 days on charges of supporting al-Qaida, but supporters of 29-year-old Fahad Hashmi, including Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges, believe Hashmi’s case represents a potential threat to Americans’ civil liberties and took to the NYC streets for a demonstration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
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White House / Samantha Appleton
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By William Pfaff — President Barack Obama is said to feel he is in trouble politically because his enemies in Congress and among the Washington journalists who decide what the “mood” of Washington is on any given day say he is not tough enough.
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AP / Paul Sancya
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By Gbemisola Olujobi — Christmas 2009 was not particularly cheery in Nigeria. A poor economic climate, an epileptic power supply and scarcity of petroleum products ensured that the celebrations were low-key. As if these challenges were not enough, news of an attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner by a Nigerian filtered in on Christmas Day. The nation’s heart sank.
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By Joe Conason — The latest terrorist attack against the United States proves that the Republican exploitative response to terror is as predictable as al-Qaida’s urge to kill.
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AP
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Well, that was fast: A U.S. grand jury indicted Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, he of the explosive unmentionables on Northwest Flight 253, on six counts Wednesday. Charges against the 23-year-old Nigerian included attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder.
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U.S. Air Force / Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison
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By William Pfaff — It is not widely understood that the policy objective of al-Qaida is not to attack Western countries, but to bring about an upheaval in the Islamic world in which Islam can be rescued from corrupted governments and degenerate practices.
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AP / Brennan Linsley, pool
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the U.S. government has decided that now is not the best time to transfer Yemeni detainees back to their homeland from Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. More than 80 Yemeni prisoners—almost half of the entire group at Gitmo—will stay put for the time being, as the situation between the U.S. and Yemen remains tense.
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CIA
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The Washington Post is reporting that the suicide bomber who carried out the deadliest attack against the agency in a quarter-century was a trusted double agent who “lured intelligence officers into a trap by promising new information about al-Qaeda’s top leadership. ...”
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AP Photo
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The situation in Yemen became more heated Monday as Yemeni forces clashed with suspected al-Qaida operatives, killing two and reportedly wounding a few more 25 miles from the capital city of San’a. According to The New York Times, Yemeni officials linked the militants they targeted in Monday’s fight to ongoing threats against U.S. and British embassies in their country.
Posted on Jan 4, 2010
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AP / Nasser Nasser
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Both the U.K. and U.S. temporarily closed their embassies in Yemen “for security reasons” on Sunday after increasing concern about al-Qaida threats in the capital city of Sana’a. Yemen has been under heightened scrutiny after the 2009 Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner was traced to the Middle Eastern country.
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AP
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In response to the attempt to blow up a Northwest flight landing in Detroit on Christmas Day, the U.S. has announced it is planning retaliatory strikes in Yemen against al-Qaida members, though not necessarily those involved in the attack attempt.
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AP / J.P. Karas
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By Robert Scheer — There is no “war” against terrorism. What George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama insists on perpetuating does not qualify. Not if by war one means doing the obvious and checking a highly suspicious air traveler’s underwear to see if explosives have been sewn in.
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Wikimedia Commons / ai@ce
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The Christmas Day incident on Northwest Flight 253 has brought Yemen further onto the U.S. radar, and now Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, is calling for more help from the West to deal with what he considers to be a sizable al-Qaida network operating within his country.
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YouTube
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Ever vigilant in his attention to potential terrorist attacks on the United States these days, Joe Lieberman hailed the “miracle on Christmas Day” aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 and warned that Yemen may be the site of “tomorrow’s war.” The senator made the comments on last weekend’s “Fox News Sunday.”
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bbc.co.uk
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A branch of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has announced its affiliation with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who allegedly tried to set off an explosive device aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
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Wikimedia Commons / CIA
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A meeting of alleged al-Qaida leaders was the target of an airstrike carried out by Yemeni forces with American support in a mountainous zone to the southeast of Yemen on Thursday. The Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi was possibly among the 30 or more people killed in the attack, according to The Washington Post.
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This may sound more like a press release from Captain Obvious than incisive strategic commentary from one of our nation’s top military leaders, but lest it be overlooked, Gen. Stanley McChrystal recommends that the U.S. capture Osama Bin Laden and push back on the Taliban as two crucial action items on America’s to-do list for Afghanistan.
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AP / Hadi Mizban
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A spate of car bombings attributed to al-Qaida killed at least 127 people and wounded 448 in Baghdad on Tuesday. The bombs targeted a police patrol and official buildings, according to the BBC.
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White House / Samantha Appleton
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Those who hoped that President Barack Obama would consider withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan anytime soon are likely to be disappointed, judging by the hints Obama dropped about his plans for America’s military involvement in the volatile South Asian nation.
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The latest in a string of attacks in Pakistan this week happened Friday when a bomb exploded outside the Inter-Services Intelligence agency’s northwest headquarters in Peshawar, killing at least nine people and wounding 50.
Posted on Nov 12, 2009
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AP / Rodolfo Gonzalez
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President Barack Obama has ordered a probe into how American intelligence agencies dealt with information they had about suspected gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan before the Nov. 5 shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.
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AP / Anja Niedringhaus
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By Robert Scheer — The most idiotic thing being said about America’s involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm’s way.
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AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar
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Hillary Clinton continued her diplomatic spree in the Middle East on Monday, meeting with Arab heads of state in Morocco, and she once again found herself revisiting, and perhaps revising, her words when she read a statement qualifying a comment she’d made last weekend about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Still: AP via youtube.com
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced the unenviable task of trying to change U.S.-Pakistani relations for the better during her three-day diplomacy spree in the South Asian nation. However, it was unclear as her visit drew to a close whether she’d made any headway, as she herself acknowledged on Friday.
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AP / K.M. Chaudary
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During an interview with journalists in Lahore, Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her puzzlement over why certain al-Qaida leaders believed to be harbored within the country’s borders haven’t been caught. She did not address the issue of missile attacks from U.S. drones that had earlier fueled student protest.
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By William Pfaff — When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Pakistan this week, she will hear a lot about how fearful the Pakistan populace is, not of the Taliban and al-Qaida, but of the United States.
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www.iiu.edu.pk
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As Pakistan’s army continued battling militants in southern Waziristan on Tuesday, two suicide bombers set off explosions at Islamabad’s International Islamic University, killing themselves and four others and wounding 18, according to The Associated Press. Updated
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AP / K.M.Chaudary
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After recent militant attacks in Pakistan that killed about 150, the Pentagon is pushing forward with plans to send about $200 million in military aid—in the form of equipment and “services,” according to Reuters.
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chinadaily.com
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Although the Taliban apparently enjoys good funding these days, thanks in part to drug money, the BBC reported Monday that al-Qaida is struggling by comparison, according to “terrorist financing official” (?) David Cohen.
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AP / Fraidoon Pooyaa
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While the Obama administration continues to mull over its options regarding America’s commitment to the war in Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council has voted to urge “member states to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources” to the ongoing conflict.
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In the left corner, we have filmmaker Michael Moore, taking his anti-capitalism roadshow to ... Fox News. On the right, we have anchorman Sean Hannity, eager to repeatedly point out how much money Moore makes. But does Hannity believe in conspiracy theories? This does get lively.
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AP / Brennan Linsley
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The U.S. has been fighting in Afghanistan for eight years. To mark the anniversary, the Afghan Taliban asserted themselves via an Internet statement Wednesday, claiming they had—and have—no intention of attacking other countries, but they will continue to fight against Western colonizers as long as they occupy the country.
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Flickr / U.S. Army
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By Robert Scheer — There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaida back. On the contrary, all the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise.
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AP / B.K. Bangash
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The United Nations World Food Program office in Islamabad, Pakistan, was a suicide bomber’s target Monday, and unfortunately it was a successful strike. The bomber was able to enter the building in the guise of a guard and set off 16 pounds of explosives during a busy noontime at the office, according to The New York Times.
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AP / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — Communism once was, as the Islamic terrorist threat is today, presented as an undifferentiated revolutionary impulse that could never be diplomatically accommodated without sacrificing our own security or, indeed, our freedom. The various communist nations and movements, like those currently led by a polyglot collection of Islamist radicals, were stripped of any complexity, be it in their national identity or ideology.
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U.S. Navy / MC1 Molly Burgess
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The situation has changed significantly since President Obama took office last winter and fixed his focus on Afghanistan, and these changes—including a disputed Afghan presidential election and deadly spikes in insurgent violence—may spell trouble for Obama’s initial strategy in that country, according to an assessment issued by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Updated
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Flickr/Army.mil
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Numerous historical examples have demonstrated that attempting to go to war in Afghanistan isn’t really the best plan, what with the tricky geography and all, yet here we are, eight years into just that very scenario. Along with the landscape-oriented issues, The Wall Street Journal has noted yet another reason that this war is dragging on without a clear end in sight.
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defenselink.mil
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There are already about 62,000 American troops in Afghanistan, and more may be sent to combat the Taliban and contain insurgent violence, according to Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said Tuesday that the next couple of weeks could be telling in terms of how many more troops the U.S. might deploy.
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Flickr / Army.mil
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Hey, so what exactly are we doing fighting in Afghanistan again? What’s the U.S. role, if any, in sorting out the recent, trouble-plagued Afghan presidential election? It’s not likely that this Los Angeles Times “primer” on Afghanistan is going to get to the more uncomfortable answers to these questions, but here’s what the paper has to say for starters.
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AP / Ron Edmonds
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Hey, hasn’t something—or someone—been missing from this latest round of debate and discussion about America’s use of troublesome interrogation tactics in recent years? Who could it be? Oh, of course. Enter Dick Cheney, stage right.
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Navy
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Another account describing the CIA’s alleged use of harsh interrogation techniques has come to light, according to a Newsweek magazine report about the intelligence agency’s treatment of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a suspect in the 2000 bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen.
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army.mil
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By Stanley Kutler — Vietnam’s primary lesson remains intact: American power is not without limits, both in terms of defeating an enemy and in terms of its domestic support. The primary lesson of Vietnam seems to be that it is a lesson lost. And now we have some of the same intractable problems in Afghanistan.
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AP / STR
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A deadly showdown that pitted an al-Qaida-associated organization against Hamas and police troops left at least 13 killed and 85 wounded in the Gaza Strip on Friday, marking the worst day of violence in the region since January’s Israeli offensive, according to the BBC.
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