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 War
and Terror
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 SINOGRAPH
US vapor trail leads
to Jasmine
revolt
Recent successes in the United States' strategy in the Muslim world - keeping
intervention light and pushing others to take the lead - could forebode even
larger plans, and an emphasis on Cold War tactics to destabilize countries.
Iran could be next in the chain, and the logical step to re-establish global
authority would be action to stir change in China.
- Francesco Sisci (Aug 31, '11)
New boss plans attacks on
Pakistan
Shah Sahib has been appointed temporary leader of the al-Qaeda-linked 313
Brigade following the killing of Ilyas Kashmiri in a drone attack in Pakistan's
tribal area in June. One of Shah Sahib's first tasks is to strengthen alliances
with other militant groups in preparation for major attacks against the
Pakistan security forces.
- Hamza Ameer (Aug 30, '11)
THE ROVING EYE
How al-Qaeda got to rule in
Tripoli
Abdelhakim Belhaj, the top rebel military commander in still war-torn Libya, is
an al-Qaeda asset. It doesn't require a crystal ball to picture that his group
- being among the war "winners" - will not be interested in relinquishing
control just to please the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Libya may now
face the specter of Muammar Gaddafi forces against a weak transitional central
government and NATO boots on the ground; and the Belhaj-led nebula in a jihad
also against NATO (if they are sidelined from power). - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 29, '11)
Israel wages war on Iranian
scientists
Startling and detailed revelations by Majid Jamali Fashi, the confessed killer
of a top Iranian scientist, heighten suspicions of at least a dozen
Israeli-trained lone operatives active inside Tehran. This brings into question
the weaknesses in Iranian protective security measures, which in turn increases
the pressure on Iran to strike back. - Mahan Abedin
(Aug 26, '11)
Kurdish pawns bind Turkish rook
Turkey has trained its eyes homeward with air strikes on Kurdish insurgents
inside Iraq just as Saudi Arabia was hoping for its help in Syria. The
probability of a robust Turkish intervention in Syria almost certainly
diminishes with the Turks tied up in the Kurdish regions, and Ankara has to put
aside its aspirations to reclaim its Ottoman legacy. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Aug 22, '11)
Shahzad murder probe drags on
The judicial commission formed to investigate the murder of Asia Times Online
Pakistan bureau chief Syed Saleem Shahzad has questioned officers from the
Inter-Services Intelligence agency. As the probe drags on beyond the first
deadline, few expect his killers to be brought to justice. - Malik Ayub Sumbal
(Aug 18, '11)
Pakistan frets over femme fatales
 The
Pakistan Taliban's third attack by a female suicide bomber in less than a year
is raising fears as the new tactic to conceal deadly explosives under
all-enveloping burqas presents a huge challenge for Pakistan's security
agencies. The Taliban, training women's cells on both sides of the AfPak
border, threaten to unleash more carnage. - Amir Mir
(Aug 17, '11)
Islamabad demands veto on drones
Islamabad is insisting on a veto over United States drone targets as the death
of innocents raises the stakes in the war against the Pakistan Taliban. A
strike against tribal elders because the Central Intelligence Agency was
"angry" over the detention of its operative Raymond Davis proved the final
straw. - Gareth Porter (Aug 17, '11)
Iran banks all on Assad's
survival
Officially, Iran is committed to the Syrian regime's survival, but concerns are
being voiced in the Islamic Republic over Tehran's failure to hedge its bets.
At its extreme the fear is that the Middle East's most resilient modern
alliance and the region's "resistance axis" will crumble should Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad be forced out or emasculated. - Mahan Abedin
(Aug 16, '11)
THE ROVING EYE
Blood on the Iraqi-Syrian
tracks
As a bloody Monday for Iraq followed carnage on Friday in Syria, many in
Baghdad are losing sleep about events across the border. Iraq may be uneasy
about the exploits of Syria's vicious security apparatus, but it is not
applying any pressure. Like Tehran, Baghdad fears any hint of a Sunni Salafi
takeover in Damascus.
- Pepe Escobar (Aug 16, '11)
 Military
gives marching orders to jihadis
The Pentagon's computer specialists are posting at jihadi websites "confusing
and contradictory orders, some so virulent that young Muslims dabbling in
jihadist philosophy, but on the fence about it, might be driven away".
Shouldn't someone start asking whether those Pentagon "orders" might not turn
out to be the online equivalent of so many loose guns?
- Tom Engelhardt (Aug 16, '11)
INTERVIEW
A matter of intelligence
Senior United States Army officer Richard Saccone served at the business end of
counter-intelligence operations in Iraq. He describes coming under mortar fire
on a daily basis by forces loyal to al-Qaeda while working at Abu Ghraib prison
in Baghdad, and defends coercive interrogations, including water-boarding.
- Victor Fic (Aug 15, '11)
Balochistan caught in spiral of
violence
A report by Human Rights Watch on resource-rich Balochistan province says "the
Pakistani security services are brazenly disappearing, torturing and often
killing people because of suspected ties to the Baloch nationalist movement".
In response, Balochis are targeting Shi'ites and Punjabis. The violence is
escalating into all-out war, recreating the situation in 1970-1971 that
culminated in the birth of Bangladesh. - Amir Mir
(Aug 11, '11)
Unrest ripples across the region
Strife-torn Balochistan is a key component of the regional rivalries centered
in Afghanistan. These create further friction in the already-deteriorating
relations between Pakistan and the United States, while Iran and India also
have reason for concern as the province slips into anarchy.
- Abubakar Siddique (Aug 11, '11)
THE ROVING EYE
US shocked and awed by the
Taliban
 It's
tantalizing to indulge the conspiracy theories surrounding the downing of a
Chinook that claimed the lives of 19 United States Navy SEALs from the same
unit that killed Osama bin Laden. More constructive is to realize that the
Taliban missile that brought down the helicopter underscores the harsh truth
that the "new" Afghan strategy is a failure. - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 9, '11)
What the Bin Laden files could
tell us
Instead of focusing only on what kind of food and personality Osama bin Laden
had, fundamental issues can be addressed by sifting through his information
trove - relations with Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence, Iran, the Muslim
Brotherhood and al-Qaeda's penetration of the West.
- Walid Phares (Aug 8, '11)
US drags its feet in Iraq
Iraqi politicians appear ready to give ground as the United States pushes for
some troops to stay beyond the year-end withdrawal date to "train" Iraqi
forces, even if keeping tabs on the oil-producing Kurdish heartland is the real
reason to linger. With wounds inflicted by mercenary contractors still raw, the
sticking point for Iraq is the issue of immunity for US trainers. - Karamatullah
K Ghori (Aug 5, '11)
US accuses Tehran of deal with
al-Qaeda
The United States Treasury Department has accused Iran of entering a "secret
deal" with al-Qaeda to transport money and operatives. The revelations, similar
to US pretexts for the Iraq War and the strongest ever official US assertion
that Tehran is in bed with the terror outfit, will become a rallying call for
neo-conservatives demanding military action over Iran's nuclear program. - Jim
Lobe (Jul 29, '11)
Another stinging blow for Libya
The killing of rebel military commander  General
Abdel Fattah Younes brings into focus a complex and extensive web of power
relationships and rivalries spanning both sides of the conflict in Libya. With
the prospects of a ground intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization receding, the twin scenarios of a collapse of the rebel front and
a power vacuum take center-stage. - Victor Kotsev
(Jul 29, '11)
Parents balk at 'suicide'
schools
The Taliban's latest high-profile suicide attack killed the mayor of
Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar. The bomber had explosives hidden in
his turban. Even before this grisly incident, some Afghan parents had stopped
sending their children to madrassas (seminaries) in Pakistan, where
youngsters are taught the virtues of blowing up themselves and others.
- Arash Kabuli (Jul 28, '11)
Pakistan to get rid of Bali
bombing suspect
After much debate, Pakistan has decided to return to Indonesia Umar Patek, the
prime suspect in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. Jakarta is concerned its
courts will not be able to successfully prosecute Patek, who could also become
a rallying cry for would-be jihadis. Australia and the United States have
reason to be miffed. - Amir Mir (Jul 27, '11)
A Saudi beacon for Iraq's Sunni
militias
Iraqi Shi'ite militias have stepped up attacks on United States troops while
al-Qaeda and Sunni forces have exercised restraint, targeting only Shi'ites and
refraining from firefights. It seems al-Qaeda has reached an understanding with
a foreign power reluctant to be tied to killing US soldiers and interested in
rolling back Iran's influence. But is Saudi Arabia courting disaster?
- Brian M Downing (Jul 26, '11)
Reckoning with Taliban
irreconcilables
As the ill-defined concept of Taliban reconciliation moves forward in fits and
star src=nbsp;69 align=FONT color=ts, those who were once part of a comparatively hopeful, if ineffective,
unity government in Kabul are now disaffected with one another in a vastly
unproductive fashion. All the elements of the web of interlocking and competing
interests at work in Afghanistan today will be impossible to satisfy
simultaneously.
- Derek Henry Flood (Jul 22, '11)
Washington's
singular accomplishment
The United States military has gathered biometric data, including eye scans, on
one of every 14 Iraqis and one of every 20 Afghans. It may not be the same as
winning a world war, building giant steel mills, or other American
accomplishments of the past, but in a moment like this, one takes what one can
get. When this endeavor is complete, Washington will be able to identify any
Iraqi or Afghan on the planet by eye-scan alone. - Tom Engelhardt
(Jul 22, '11)
Iran steps up assault on world
terror
Tehran is increasing its diplomatic response to world terrorism with some
urgency as the United States withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan prompts
Israel and Saudi Arabia to press Washington to return to an aggressive stance
on Iran. Sympathy for the Iranians as victims of attacks is unlikely to flow,
however, given claims the regime has not been entirely innocent abroad. - Brian
M Downing (Jul 21, '11)
Execution videos strike terror
in Pakistan
A video showing 16 Pakistani policemen, 
hands tied behind their backs, being executed by Taliban gunmen is a brutal
reminder of how they mercilessly take revenge - in this instance to avenge the
deaths of six children killed during security operations. Terrorized local
people are more afraid than ever to speak out against the militants. - Ashfaq
Yusufzai (Jul 20, '11)
US war debt dances on the
ceiling
No one knows the true cost in blood and  treasure
of the United States' open wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and covert conflict in
Pakistan over the past 10 years, but a recent report's estimates of 225,000
dead and US$4 trillion spent may prove too conservative. The study excluded
long-term obligations to veterans and promised money, yet to be paid, for
reconstruction.
- David Isenberg (Jul 19, '11)
US drones target white jihadis
The Pakistan al-Qaeda network is increasingly recruiting white Muslim converts
to widen the pool of terrorists able to foil racial profiling and hit Western
targets. The July 5 killing of another white jihadi amid an unprecedented surge
in drone attacks in Waziristan since a European terror plot was unearthed shows
that the network is being ruthlessly dismantled.
- Amir Mir (Jul 18, '11)
Taliban tell why Ahmad Wali had to
die
 Kandahar
provincial council chief Ahmad Wali Karzai, assassinated on Tuesday, had his
fingers in every conceivable pie in the southern regions of Afghanistan, and
was no stranger to double-dealing and the darker side of the law. Only one
thing mattered to the Taliban - Wali Karzai was in the pay of the United States
Central Intelligence Agency and in this capacity he had furthered the aims of
the US's troop "surge". For this he had to be killed.
- M K Bhadrakumar (Jul 15, '11)
Muqtada toys with US's Iraq
intentions
Iraqi officials insist Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr is playing a "double
game" over a United States military presence after 2011, pointing to his
reported acquiescence to a deal alongside a surge in Shi'ite militia attacks on
US troops. While the US appears unwilling to play along, this doesn't weaken
Muqtada's decisive sway in the fate of US bases in Iraq.
- Gareth Porter (Jul 15, '11)
Mumbai sees return of a familiar
fear
In the post-Osama bin Laden world of swirling Pakistan-American tensions,
militants were itching to strike and the fluid epicenter of Indian modernity
was the easiest target. As Mumbai residents clear the rubble of Wednesday's
triple bombing - hankering for the peace that prevailed since November 2008 -
the likely suspects are drawing up plans for the follow-up to this "testing of
the waters". - Dinesh Sharma (Jul 15, '11)
Mumbai rocked, Pakistan suspected
 Terror
returned to Mumbai on Wednesday nearly three years after the massive assault on
the city that left 164 people dead. The latest attack was a relatively smaller
incident, with three bomb blasts killing 21 people. The significance is no
minor matter though, for while no group has claimed responsibility, suspicion
points again at Pakistan. - Raja Murthy (Jul
14, '11)
THE ROVING EYE
Taliban deliver hammer blow to NATO
 The
assassination on Tuesday of Ahmad Wali Karzai, President Hamid Karzai's
half-brother, smashes to bits the notion that the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization is winning the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban are now rid of the
major pro-Washington actor not only in Kandahar province but in the whole south
of Afghanistan - where NATO has been involved en masse to crush the Taliban in
their spiritual home and favored grounds.
- Pepe Escobar (Jul 13, '11)
Why Ahmad Wali Karzai was
controversial
Allegations against Ahmad Wali Karzai include that he paid off Taliban
insurgents, that he laundered money, that he seized government land, that he
reaped enormous profits by facilitating the shipment of opium through his
region. He was also said to be in the pay of United States intelligence. Now
Washington has lost someone who - depending on which reports one finds credible
- was simultaneously both a partner and a liability for the West.
(Jul 13, '11)
Pakistan bristles at failed
label
On a host of measures Pakistan has been labeled as heading for failed state
status, even as the country's media and politicians bristle at the suggestion.
Yet many outside the country argue that a stable Pakistan is crucial to Asia's
growth; not least because the world cannot afford to have two defiant orphan
states weeping side-by-side.
- Dinesh Sharma (Jul 13, '11)
Islamabad takes a shot at US
drones
The decision by the United States to withhold US$800 million in security aid to
Pakistan is the culmination of a series of disagreements between the "war on
terror" allies. Islamabad has shrugged off the loss in revenue, while stepping
up its drive to curtail Washington's drone strikes inside Pakistan that have
claimed 2,587 lives in the past 10 years. - Amir Mir
(Jul 12, '11)
US moves toward Afghan guerrilla
war
After 10 years of relying on conventional warfare in Afghanistan, the United
States will complement counter-insurgency efforts with an expanded
unconventional warfare campaign in many insurgent-controlled areas. Guerrilla
warfare could well allow the US to increase its effectiveness against the
Taliban while at the same time reducing its troop levels and expenditure. - Brian
M Downing (Jul 11, '11)
US homes in on al-Qaeda's new head
The United States is turning up the heat to catch Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was
formally appointed al-Qaeda's amir on June 16 following the killing in
Pakistan of Osama bin Laden. Security circles say that while Zawahiri lacks Bin
Laden's charisma, he should not be underestimated, mainly because his
organizational and operational skills make him public enemy number one. - Amir
Mir (Jul 8, '11)
Osama ally stuck in legal limbo
Osama bin Laden confidante and Bali bomb suspect Umar Patek is stuck in legal
limbo as he enters his sixth month in custody in Pakistan, amid concerns that
Indonesia cannot secure a conviction after being offered the first opportunity
to put him on trial. A change in law has hobbled the chances of prosecutors in
Jakarta, although Patek could be extradited elsewhere. - Jacob Zenn
(Jul 7, '11)
Petraeus burnishes Afghan legacy
 As
he swaps hats from the United States commander in Afghanistan to spymaster,
David Petraeus remains fixated on changing a desperate legacy in the Hindu
Kush. By claiming as his own the strategic shift in the locus of the war to
border tribal areas, he may take credit for cutting ground forces, but that
offers cold comfort for Pakistan amid a likely rise in militant attacks. - M K
Bhadrakumar (Jul 6, '11)
Shahzad's killing echoes in
Washington
A report firmly pointing the finger of suspicion over the killing of Syed
Saleem Shahzad at Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has moved the issue to
the very highest levels in Washington. The case of Asia Times Online's former
Pakistani bureau chief will mesh well with evidence against the ISI that the US
is gathering from many sources. China, increasingly concerned with Pakistan's
stability, will be wary of drawing closer to a failing state. - Brian M Downing
(Jul 6, '11)
THE ROVING EYE
The House of Saud paranoia
For Riyadh, the great Arab revolt is all an Iranian plot, another front for the
House of Saud in the psy-ops war it is fighting against Tehran's "polytheists",
directed by the Medieval Wahhabi clerical establishment. The Saudi message to
Washington and London is clear - we hold the petrodollars and we're top dog in
the Gulf, so forget silly ideas about "democracy".
- Pepe Escobar (Jul 6, '11)
 To follow Pepe's
articles on the Great Arab Revolt, please click
here.
US, Pakistan top brass fire
risky salvos
Events on the ground may show some movement to repair mangled relations, but
the American and the Pakistani top brass are still testing each other's wits
after the US killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil. More is at stake than
noses out of joint in Rawalpindi as any further damage to ties could hurt US
plans to save face in Afghanistan. - Karamatullah K Ghori
(Jul 5, '11)
Libya after Gaddafi
Discussions of contingency plans for Libya's future are becoming increasingly
public, indicating a surprising confidence that Muammar Gaddafi's fate is
already sealed. Given the realities on the ground, though, and the
ever-increasing signs of the North Atlantic Treaty's desperation, this show of
confidence could either be a bluff, or the final preparation stage for a ground
invasion.
- Victor Kotsev (Jul 5, '11)
THE ROVING EYE
Have lobby, will travel
The "rebel" government - which is now named, after numerous permutations, the
Interim Transitional National Council of Libya - has hired Patton Boggs, one of
Washington's leading (and one of the most profitable) public relations firms,
to "advise and assist" them in, well, winning the war - and getting their hands
on billions of dollars in frozen funds from the Muammar Gaddafi regime held in
the United States. - Pepe Escobar (Jul
5, '11)
To follow Pepe's
articles on the Great Arab Revolt, please click
here.
Taliban sing a false note
The United States' plan for Afghanistan includes reconciliation with the
Taliban, but the latter have no plans that allow American gains, much less
bilateral negotiations to end the conflict. To understand why this is the case,
one needs to grasp three key concepts that underpin the Taliban movement - taqiyya
(deception), jihad and sharia. - Walid Phares
(Jul 5, '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 Iran'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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