Road map to hell
The cycle of violence in the Middle East continues with the assassination by Israel of Hamas spritual leader Sheikh Yassin, but it has moved up a notch. Israel, apparently, has signalled its determination to go to war, not only against all Palestinians, but against all Islam. (Mar 26, '04)

The al-Zawahiri fiasco
Despite confident official claims, the thousands of troops dispatched to Pakistan's tribal areas have failed to find "high-value target" Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda number two. What they have found, though, is fierce resistance from local tribesmen who owe far greater allegiance to other such "targets" than they do to Islamabad. (Mar 23, '04)

The emergence of hyperterrorism
In the wake of last week's bombing in Madrid, Europe is afraid. According to Brussels intelligence estimates, there may be an invisible army of up to 30,000 "holy warriors" spread around the world. How to stop them? There's no possible diplomacy, no target to attack. Al-Qaeda is not a Joint Chiefs of Staff: it is an idea. (Mar 16, '04)

Who's behind Spain's 3-11?
Thursday's Madrid train bombings don't fit the modus operandi of the obvious suspect, the Basque ETA separatist group. On the other hand, Spain, which has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, had been warned by al-Qaeda's highest leadership that it was a target for terrorism. After the initial - official - rush to blame ETA, doubts are emerging thick and fast. (Mar 12, '04)

Iraq: The civil war bogy
Even though Shi'ites are not blaming Sunnis or Kurds for the attacks on their numbers last week, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council, by insisting on playing the "civil war" card, have touched a raw nerve that might yet help them get their way in the country. (Mar 10, '04)

Get Osama - but where, and when?
He's here, there and everywhere according to which reports one chooses to believe, the latest of which place Osama bin Laden in Pakistan's South Waziristan and close to capture. But even if he is caught any time soon, will the world ever get to hear of it, given that the US presidential elections are still eight months away? (Mar 4, '04)

A constitution drenched in blood
Any jubilation generated by the Iraqi Governing Council finally agreeing on a draft constitution quickly evaporated with the multiple attacks on Shi'ites in Baghdad and Karbala. Now the mood is one of deep gloom, and equally deep fear that the aspirations of the Iraqi people will be determined in blood, not parchment. (Mar 3, '04)

Bring me the head of Osama bin Laden
Amid the hive of military activity on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United States's chief headhunter for Osama bin Laden, fresh from nailing Saddam Hussein, is in position to make the ultimate catch. But what if bin Laden doesn't play ball? (Feb 25, '04)

Holdup at the ballot box
The timetable in Afghanistan for any sort of election - presidential or parliamentary - by the end of June favors the Bush administration, which would like to leave the country as quickly as possible. But where weapons rather than political policies hold sway, Afghanis are highly unlikely to be casting their votes on time. (Feb 19, '04)

IRAQ AND AL-QAEDA
Part 1 - The usual suspects
The apparent discovery by the United States of an al-Qaeda memo outlining plans to foment sectarian strife in Iraq fits well with the Bush administration's take on events in that country. On the ground, though, such an interpretation makes little sense. This is the first article in a two-part report. (Feb 12, '04)

IRAQ AND AL-QAEDA
Part 2: Why al-Qaeda votes Bush
Al-Qaeda may have given the Bush administration the perfect motive for bombing Afghanistan and then invading Iraq. But the flip side of the coin is that even though seriously disabled, al-Qaeda benefits enormously from all the attention it receives in Washington.   (Feb 13, '04)

(DIS)UNITED EUROPE
Part 1 - My friend Silvio
Italy - under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - squandered much goodwill in Europe after its disastrous European presidency in the second half of 2003. Not that this matters to the flamboyant Berlusconi, who counts among his friends President George W Bush and Vladimir Putin, and who has everything under control in his own country - or so he thinks. This is the first article in a two-part report. - Pepe Escobar (Feb 5, '04)

(DIS)UNITED EUROPE
Part 2 - Ever changing alliances
Europe may look like it has been broken, but under the direction of the Franco-German duo - with increased British input - the shape of things to come indicates that Washington and Brussels won't be haggling only about steel quotas, bananas and genetically modified crops, but geopolitics as well.  (Feb 6, '04)

SISTANI'S WAY
Part 1: Democracy, colonial-style
Although Washington has welcomed the news that the United Nations will send a team into Iraq to determine the viability of holding elections, that's not the end of the matter. The power struggle between President George W Bush and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has just begun, Pepe Escobar reports in the first part of a two-part series. (Jan 28, '04) 

SISTANI'S WAY
Part 2: The marja and the proconsul
Senior American administrator L Paul Bremer has his views on how elections in Iraq should be conducted, as does Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, religious leader of the country's 15 million Shi'ites. For Washington, this means one of two outcomes: jihad or civil war. This is the second part of a two-part report by Pepe Escobar (Jan 29, '04)

Rough justice in Pakistan
With more than a little help from their government, two French journalists have been spared jail terms for violating their visa conditions in Pakistan. Not so fortunate, though, is their Pakistani "fixer", who has simply disappeared, let alone been afforded a trial for his alleged crime.

THE RAT TRAP
Part 1: How Saddam may still nail Bush
The United States has caught its rat, but like any rat worth its name, Saddam Hussein can be expected, once he comes to trial, to deploy every dirty trick in the book to expose his captors. And he certainly has some incriminating stories to tell, reports Pepe Escobar in the first part of a two-part series. (Dec 18, '03)

THE RAT TRAP
Part 2: Why the resistance will increase
From tribal sheikhs to businessmen, from Sunni and Wahhabi religious leaders to cashiered soldiers to foreign jihadis, the Iraqi resistance has many faces, yet these disparate groups have a truly common agenda: a war against the American occupation of Iraq. This is the second part of a two-part report by Pepe Escobar. (Dec 19, '03)  

Shanghai rocks!
It is arguably the most exciting city in Asia, where Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping's unforgettable war cry, "to get rich is glorious", rings truer than anywhere else in China. Yet the glitz of Pudong and the intoxicating atmosphere cannot fully obscure the city's seamy history - or the dark side of all this modernity. - Pepe Escobar (Oct 28, '03)

A Shi'ite warning to America
Iraq's Shi'ites speak with several very influential voices, which Pepe Escobar hears loud and clear, and their message is: Shi'ites are not happy with the situation at present, and unless it changes, so will their passive wait-and-see approach to the US presence in their country. (Oct 10, '03)

Going mobile in Iraq
Turkish troops will soon be marching around Iraq, although there has been some surprise opposition from within the country to their deployment. Also on the move are a Kurdish, an Egyptian and a Kuwaiti business, awarded brand new mobile phone licenses. Or that is what one is supposed to believe.  (Oct 8, '03)

Selective reading and choice friends
Elements in the Bush administration refuse to believe that Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War of 1991, despite the evidence, which Asia Times Online has also seen. It should not be a surprise, then, that these same elements continue to put their trust in Ahmad Chalabi, founder of the Iraqi National Congress.  (Oct 6, '03)

The American Saddam
It was easy enough for the United States to break Iraq, now the problem is to fix it, and fix it in such a way that it does not become just a US version of Saddam Hussein's regime.  (Oct 3, '03)

The marvels of de-Ba'athification
In much of Iraq, and especially in the Sunni triangle, the heartland from which the former Ba'ath Party drew most of its members, the stark reality is one of unemployment, lack of government and poor security. Ba'athists are not allowed to fill this void. Their alternative hardly bears contemplating. - Pepe Escobar (Oct 2, '03)

Fear and anger in the Sunni triangle
Across the Sunni triangle, businessmen sheikhs are angry, religious sheikhs are angry, and the people are angry as well as afraid, not only of local thieves who stalk the highways, but also of what is happening to their country. (Sep 29, '03)

Fallujah: A multilayered picture emerges
At the heart of the Sunni triangle, where most anti-American resistance takes place in Iraq, lies the city of Fallujah. Its people have stories to tell, from the mayor to a powerful sheikh to the ordinary citizens, and they all paint a different picture from the one that the US prefers to present. (Sep 25, '03)

Hot off the press
Iraq's press is now free - well, sort of, depending on which side of the fence one sits. At least, though, newspapers can publish all the juicy rumors and speculation doing the rounds in Baghdad, which Pepe Escobar notes down. (Sep 23, '03)

The mean streets of Baghdad
With the risk of assassinations, car bombings, muggings and incurring the deadly wrath of extremely nervous US soldiers, Baghdad's streets are not the place for the faint-hearted, or the innocent, as Pepe Escobar finds out. (Sep 22, '03)

(Just) alive and kicking in Baghdad
The word in some intelligence quarters, and also on the streets in Baghdad, where Pepe Escobar does some footwork, is that Saddam "Elvis" Hussein is secreted in the capital, albeit a devastated city that he would not recognize from the days when he ruled with an iron fist. (Sep 18, '03)

Twin Towers and the Tower of Babel
Part 2 : The roadmap of human folly
The past two years of the "war on terror" have offered up myriad lessons for mankind, with Afghanistan and Iraq sad examples of how things can go horribly wrong, and will continue to do so if the lessons remain unheeded, writes Roving Eye Pepe Escobar in the concluding article of a two-part series. (Sep 10, '03)

Part 1: Sleeping with the enemy
After consistently blaming "remnants of Saddam's regime" for all of the troubles in Iraq, Washington has been forced to recruit hundreds of the worst of these remnants - the feared Mukhabarat - to try to at least identify the more than 40 different groups that compose the resistance. Roving Eye Pepe Escobar reports in the first article of a two-part series. (Sep 9, '03)

Ayatollah's killing: Winners and losers
The car bomb outside the Imam Ali Shrine in Iraq's holy city of Najaf on Friday has simultaneously split the country's majority, moderate Shi'ites and turned them against the United States. At last, a Saddam-al-Qaeda nexus comes into view, with both being the big winners from the killing of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim.

Vietnam, Leninism and capitalism
As early as 1994, the road ahead was clear: "The leadership of the Party is the decisive factor in maintaining a socialist orientation for our market economy and the entire development of our country." Translation: the road to socialism is the Communist Party plus capitalism. The inevitable question: Where does this outlandish mix of Leninism and capitalism go from here?  (Aug 26, '03)

The plot thickens
In the absence of any group claiming responsibility for the bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq on Tuesday, speculation is the order of the day. Wherever the finger is pointed, though, there is one inescapable truth: the resistance has many faces. (Aug 22, '03)

Why the lessons of Vietnam do matter
During the Vietnam War, the objective of the resistance was always to harass, bog down and demoralize a hugely superior army, and play up national consciousness, patriotism and local traditions - exactly what Iraqis are now trying to do.  (Aug 19, '03)

Vietnam: The deep end of doi moi
Thirty years after the war ended, the Vietnam government is still struggling to decide what it wants to be - communist, socialist or capitalist. In the meantime the citizens are keeping their money in their mattresses. (Aug 14, '03)

Vietnam: The survivor (Aug 11, '03)
Jihad virus attacks Pentagon logic (Aug 6, '03)
Deadlock in Cambodia  (Jul 30, '03)
Even the Khmer Rouge loves democracy  (Jul 28, '03)
Year 28: Cambodia gets ready to vote  (Jul 24, '03)
Bremer a quick study in colony building  (Jul 11, '03)
Culture shock and awe (Jul 3, '03)
Who killed Daniel Pearl?  (Jun 27, '03)
A long and tortuous road  (Jun 5, '03)
The Saddam intifada (May 27, '03)
Iraq showdown: Winners and losers (May 20, '03)
Al-Qaeda: Dead or alive?  (May 14, '03)
The lions of Babylon  (Apr 25, '03)
The Baghdad deal (Apr 24, '03)
The Mukhabarat's shopping list
Shi'ites on the march to Karbala (Apr 21, '03)
Direct democracy in action (Apr 18, '03)
A (mis)guided tour of Baghdad   (Apr 17, '03)
Suicide at the walls of Baghdad   (Apr 7, '03)
The battle for Shi'ite hearts and minds (Mar 28, '03)
The 'Palestinization' of Iraq  (Mar 26, '03)
Jihad in Mesopotamia (Mar 25, '03)
Jordan opens up Iraq's western front  (Mar 21, '03)
This war is brought to you by ... (Mar 19, '03)
The moment of truth - and lies (Mar 17, '03)
Inside Saddam's mind (Mar 13, '03)
Beating the African drum (Mar 10, '03)
Coercion, all in the name of democracy (Mar 25, '03)