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 War
and Terror
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January 2011
Iran wins, Israel loses in turmoil
Nervousness in Israel over the turmoil in Egypt stands in sharp contrast with
jubilation in Iran. Whereas for Tehran pent-up popular anger is an opportunity
to break regional isolation as the United States drops the ball on the nuclear
issue, the biggest worry for Tel Aviv in losing Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak - its only friend in the Middle East - is that the new realities may
compel America to reset its regional sights. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Jan 31, '11)
Al-Qaeda banks on the chaos theory
The unrest in Tunisia that led to the toppling of the president has not as yet
translated into a viable opposition capable of effecting sweeping change.
Similarly, the protests in Egypt lack an effective political leadership.
Al-Qaeda ideologues and strategists are thus playing a waiting game, banking on
further chaos before they make a move - as they did in Somalia, Iraq and
Afghanistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Jan 27,
'11)
Al-Qaeda hand in Moscow attack?
 Monday's
bombing at an international airport in Moscow that killed at least 35 people
and injured another 180 fits in with al-Qaeda's plans to spread the war in
Afghanistan from the north of that country to Central Asian nations. - Syed
Saleem Shahzad (Jan 25, '11)
US wants to clip Karzai's wings
Washington expected Afghan President Hamid Karzai to be a tame US surrogate.
Instead, he has turned out be a nationalist, trying to find regional solutions
to Afghan problems by reaching out to Pakistan, Russia and Iran. His jilted
American suitors are now branding him a tin-pot dictator and stirring up ethnic
Panjshiris to oppose him politically. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Jan 24, '11)
Army poised over peace broker's fate
Confusion surrounds the fate of Sultan 
Ameer Tarar, alias Colonel Imam, who was kidnapped nearly a year ago while on a
mission to broker a peace deal with militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan.
If he has indeed been killed by his captors, as some reports say, the military
could finally be roused to launch a major offensive in the tribal region. - Syed
Saleem Shahzad (Jan 24, '11)
NORTHERN LIGHTS, Part 3
Soft Sufi, hard-rock militant
 Taliban
commander Qari Mustafa operates in northern Afghanistan, having been convinced
to abandon his teacher's post in a mosque to oppose the foreign occupation.
He's also a Sufi, a sect that traditionally has little in common with
al-Qaeda-style Salifism. The 26-year-old describes his journey, and his view on
how the Afghan insurgency has to spread to neighboring Central Asia countries.
- Syed Saleem Shahzad (Jan 21, '11)
This is the final article in a three-part report.
Part 1:
A shadowy new battlefield
Part 2: Taking
on the Taliban
Who's hitting on Iran?
It would be difficult and dangerous for foreign intelligence services - even
ones as skilled as Israel's - to attempt to deploy their own officers inside
Iran for the long periods needed to acquire the targeting and surveillance
information necessary to carry out attacks. It is likely the culprits for the
recent killings of nuclear scientists are drawn from dissident nationalities in
the Kurdish and Baloch regions. - Richard M Bennett
(Jan 21, '11)
AN ATOL EXCLUSIVE
Al-Qaeda to unleash Western jihadis
Twelve Caucasian Canadian militants are receiving jihadi training in al-Qaeda
camps in Pakistan's North Waziristan for terror attacks in their home country,
Asia Times Online has learned. The men, who first went to Afghanistan for
specialist instruction, are a part of Al-Qaeda's growing army of white recruits
to spread the flames of the South Asian war theater to the West. - Syed Saleem
Shahzad and Tahir Ali (Jan 14, '11)
IAEA has an Iran headache
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has
done nothing to dispel a cloud of suspicion that the United Nations nuclear
watchdog has increasingly turned itself into an instrument of United States
policy on Iran. That leaves him exposed to questions about the quality of
evidence backing others' claims that Iran is in the process of acquiring
nuclear weapons. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Jan 13,
'11)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Weapons giant becomes Big Brother
Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation that
receives one of every $14 doled out by the Pentagon, is shadowing you? No? Then
you haven't been paying much attention. Put it this way: If you have a life,
Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it. - William Hartung
(Jan 13, '11)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Freedom fighters for a fading empire
It's commonplace to hear President 
Barack Obama say that the United States military is "the finest fighting force
that the world has ever known", just as his predecessor regularly did. These
claims, now part of reflexive presidential speech, are never questioned in the
media or anywhere else, yet this sort of hyperbole and overwhelming praise is
ill-suited to the military the US has. - William J Astore
(Jan 10, '11)
Rituals of renewal in Vietnam
 Vietnam's
ruling Communist Party is about to come together for its latest congress, an
event that occurs every five years. These congresses are more about adjusting
the party's internal balance of power and patronage than they are about policy,
but they do give important clues about the direction in which the country is
heading. - David Brown (Jan 6, '11)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The urge to surge: The US's 30-year
high
Just as 2010 ended, reports of secret United States plans to send special
operations forces surging into the Pakistani tribal borderlands indicated that
an American urge to surge had resurfaced in a significant way. War is a drug,
and after Washington's 30-year high, the urge is still coursing through its
veins, and won't easily be denied. - Tom Engelhardt
(Jan 6, '11)
Voice of moderation silenced in
Pakistan
The security guard who on Tuesday shot Punjab governor Salman Taseer gave as
his reason Taseer's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws. This outspokenness
might have been the motivation, but the right-wing forces that had - literally
- placed Taseer in the firing line carry much blame. - Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Jan 5, '11)
NATO politics driving Afghan war
Member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization say they are in
Afghanistan because operations there against the Taliban-led insurgency are
vital to their security. But highly placed sources insist that the real motive
behind NATO's Afghan war is a desperate bid to keep a moribund military
alliance alive. - Gareth Porter (Jan 4, '11)
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ATol Specials
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar, '06)
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The evidence for and against Ir0nbsp;nbsp;IMG height= cellPadding=1maroon/ASTRONG/FONTFONT color=9
an's alleged
nuclear weapons program
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the 3rd
armored cavalry in western Iraq
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Islamism, fascism and
terrorism
by Marc Erikson
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For earlier articles go to:
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