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By
July-August 2001, it was clear that something
dramatic was about to happen. Pepe Escobar, our
"Roving Eye", was traveling in Afghanistan
and the tribal areas of Pakistan. The rumor was
that US forces were about to use Pakistan to
launch a raid into Afghanistan. Escobar's
article, published by Asia Times Online on
August 30, 2001, was headlined Get Osama!
Now! Or else ... Our Karachi correspondent,
Syed Saleem Shazad, was meanwhile filing
articles like Osama
bin Laden: The thorn in Pakistan's flesh
(August 22, 2001) ...
May 2004
Pakistan on the march
again Through some adroit and
savvy maneuvering, President General Pervez
Musharraf has reestablished Pakistan's position
in the international fold. At the same time, the
men behind the general who really set the
country's agenda have devised a bold new policy
to regain lost influence in Afghanistan and
Kashmir. -Syed
Saleem Shahzad (May 28, '04)
Iraq: Now the sovereignty
muddle There is no doubt that an
important aspect of the United States' position
is that the interim Iraqi government that takes
over on July 1 should have no power to block
military operations by US-led forces. How then
is Washington going to hand over sovereignty? -
Ehsan Ahrari (May 28,
'04)
Muqtada's wings clipped for
now It's
still shaky, but the truce negotiated among
Shi'ites for rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to
withdraw his fighters from the holy city of
Najaf is a significant breakthrough that the US
has been quick to embrace as a way out of a
sticky situation. Meanwhile, two Japanese
journalists have been killed near Baghdad.
(May 28, '04)
Iraqi dissidents: Down but
far from out
US
friend-to-foe Ahmad Chalabi is now being blamed
for Washington's poor intelligence leading up to
the Iraq war. This overlooks the fact that the
leading candidate for Iraq's premiership,
Hussain al-Shahristani, should also shoulder
some blame, and that so quickly to dismiss the
likes of Chalabi would be yet another blunder. -
Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(May 27,
'04)
'Premier'
Shahristani hedges his bets
Chalabi: Blessed or
cursed? Ahmad Chalabi's fall from
grace means that he no longer has the backing,
either financial or political, of the US,
but this could be a good thing. It certainly is
as far as Jordan is concerned. (May 27, '04)
Iran: Invisible hands guide
military ambition The recent occupation of
Iran's new international airport by the
country's Revolutionary Guard suggests all is
not as it seems in the Islamic Republic, leaving
analysts to ponder most notably the strategic
consequences this operation will have on the
future of the Iranian theocracy, including the
possibility of militarization of the regime. -
Safa Haeri
(May 27, '04)
Jogging in the twilight
zone
Within
the relative safety of the US-controlled Green
Zone in Baghdad, Haider
Hamoudi goes for a run. On his way he passes
monuments to Iraq's troubled and bloody past,
symbols of the present imperfect, and reminders
of the tragedy that still lies ahead for the
blighted country. (May 26, '04)
The US and the lessons of
Chechnya As President George W
Bush's popularity slips in the face of ongoing
setbacks in Iraq, the same is not true of
another war president, Vladimir Putin of
Russia, who is bogged down in the war in
Chechnya. Is there a lesson here for Bush? (May
26, '04)

'Heading
for a far worse situation'
Palestine is dying in
Iraq With
the US military encircling them and daily
threats of sanctions, it is unlikely that
governments in the Middle East can or will
do anything to stop the escalating dislocation
of Palestinians. The process has already begun.
- Sadi Baig
(May 26, '04)
Iraq's religious tide
cannot be turned back
The
underlying belief in the Bush administration is
that once Iraqis are given back their
sovereignty - problematical even though that is
- a secular government will emerge. This is
impossible. The Islamization of the country
began a long time ago under Saddam Hussein, and
the tide of the religious forces cannot be
turned back. - Nir Rosen
(May 25, '04)
Bush's vision for Iraq vs
reality While US President George W
Bush desperately tried to convince increasingly
skeptical Americans, Iraqis and the world that
he is on the right track in Iraq, the United
Nations was presented with a a US-inspired draft
resolution that is intended to make Bush's
vision a reality. The reality on the ground in
Iraq, however, clashes head-on
with American dreams and UN resolutions. -
Ehsan Ahrari (May
25, '04)
'Sovereignty
lite' The
draft resolution on Iraq's future, handed to the
UN Monday, skirts the crucial issue of how much
real sovereignty will be passed to the Iraqi
people, whose country will continue to be
occupied by foreign forces. (May 25,
'04)
The wheels come
off A tumble from
his mountain bike has left President George W
Bush with minor scrapes. Potentially far more
damaging is the situation in Iraq, where,
although the president says that Iraqis are
ready to "take the trai
74%ning wheels off" their
bicycle to US-guided democracy, the situation
nbsp;font
class=time resembles a crash just waiting to happen. -
Jim Lobe
(May 24, '04)
Headed for the
falls Just as
President George W Bush begins a public
relations campaign to create public support for
"staying the course" in Iraq, a former
commander-in-chief of US Central Command deals
him a body blow. - Ehsan Ahrari (May
24, '04)
Stephen Cambone: Rumsfeld's
henchman Under Secretary of Defense
for Intelligence Stephen Cambone is Pentagon
chief Donald Rumsfeld's right-hand man and a key
figure in the right's web of militarists. He is
also tagged as "Rumsfeld's henchman".
(May
24, '04)
SPENGLER Socrates the
destroyer The notion that the US can
impose a rational constitution on whatever
country it pleases draws credibility from the
myth of Socratic statecraft as told by Leo
Strauss and others. But what if Socrates was not
a system-builder but a destroyer who saw
that Greek culture was a failure and set out to
tear down its premises? (May 24,
'04)
Berg beheading: No way, say
medical experts According to both a leading
surgical authority and a noted forensic expert
who spoke to Asia Times Online, the video
depicting the decapitation of American
businessman Nicholas Berg at the hands of Muslim
radicals appears to have been staged. And Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, who US officials claim did the
killing, was himself in all likelihood killed
long before the video was made. - Ritt Goldstein (May
21, '04)
Chalabi: From White House
to dog house
The
precipitous fall from grace of Iraqi National
Congress head Ahmed Chalabi, the darling of the
neo-conservatives, signifies a State Department
victory over the Pentagon. It also means that
the US has made itself a bitter and dangerous
enemy. - Jim Lobe
(May 21, '04)
UNreformable? UN drops the
ball Clashing personalties,
inept officials and classic bureaucratic
obfuscation mark the United Nations' limp
investigation into last year's bombing of its
headquarters in Baghdad. More far-reaching, the
organization has missed a golden opportunity to
reinvent itself. - Alexander Casella
(May 21, '04)
How Middle East is really
being remade The US saw the invasion of
Iraq as a transcendental moment of
transformation that would bring the region to
democracy and free trade. The Gulf states saw
the US action purely in terms of realpolitik. But with
everyone's expectations proving hopelessly
wrong, the Middle East is in a state of serious
readjustment. - Nir
Rosen
Strategic
miscalculations The main strategic
objectives of Washington's hawks were supposed
to fall into place following the invasion of
Iraq. Their miscalculation? Truly believing that
the Iraqis would be grateful. -
Jim Lobe
SPEAKING FREELY Chicken hawks do have a
plan The
cabal that drives US foreign policy is taking
stick over Iraq, but the critics have got it all
wrong. There is a plan, for Iraq, for Israel,
for the Persian Gulf. It's just that it will
take some time - and the public may not be ready
to hear about it. - Joe Nichols
(May 20,
'04) | Pentagon's Feith finds
another storm Whenever there's
controversy in the Bush administration, Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith is
not far from it. This time it's the
unfortunate chain of events that led to the
abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. -
Jim Lobe (May
20, '04)
Why the neo-cons lost their
pin-up boy After forking out
US$335,000 a month for the past four years to
Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, the
Bush administration is pulling the plug on the
group of Iraqi exiles widely blamed for
supplying its Pentagon supporters - especially
Douglas Feith - with dubious intelligence. But
why the decision at this precise juncture? (May
20, '04)
Pakistan: After the hammer,
the screws The United States,
dissatisfied with the poor results of the
Pakistani army's attempts to round up Afghan
resistance fighters ensconced in the tribal
border areas with Afghanistan, is turning the
screws on Islamabad to try again, and with more
venom. The US is also taking matters much more
into its own hands, as are the tribals.
- Syed Saleem Shahzad
(May 18, '04)
CORPORATE MERCENARIES Part 1: Profit comes with a
price The war in Iraq has focused
world attention on the role of private military
companies, and the lucrative business they do in
battle zones. But these "corporate mercenaries"
don't have things all their own way, and the
work they do is often highly dangerous. This is
the first article in a two-part report by David Isenberg. (May
18, '04)
CORPORATE MERCENARIES Part 2: Myths and
mystery The
war in Iraq is testing the mettle of private
military companies, faced with steadily rising
insurance costs, contractual hazards and a lack
of hirable personnel. But as the June 30
handover date draws nearer, their services will
be required more than ever. Meanwhile, having
friends in high political places always helps.
This is the conclusion of a two-part
report by David Isenberg. (May
19, '04)
The Taliban in
Texas There are a
lot of smiles in Houston, Texas, the world oil
capital, as the price of crude hits new records
almost by the day. Expensive oil is good
business. But Big Oil is not exactly fond of the
situation in the Middle East. Iraq, for example,
is terribly
dangerous - ergo, bad for
business. Big Oil is missing the good
old days, when the Taliban visited Houston
and had a ball. (May 17,
'04)
US: Where have all the
terrorists gone? It has been more than two
and a half years since al-Qaeda shattered the
feelings of security in the United States on
September 11, yet no attack has been carried out
- or even foiled - since. While some analysts
credit the loss of al-Qaeda's so-called "safe
haven" in Afghanistan, not everyone is as
optimistic, as this is an election year, an
opportunity "too good to pass up". - Ashraf Fahim (May 17, '04)
SPENGLER Does Islam have a
prayer? The common liturgy of
communal prayer betrays the inner secrets
of cultures, and so provides an answer to the
question of why cultures clash. In one
sense, the standard communal prayer of Islam may
be considered an expression of jihad - the
spread of Islam by means of holy war.
(May 17, '04)
Torture? It's just
another day at the office (May 14,
'04) Torture has been common in
Washington's interaction with many countries,
more recently in Iran in the 1950s, through
Latin America, and America's best
documented direct participation in mass torture
during the Vietnam War, writes Jack A Smith. This
"culture" of official misconduct, says Ritt Goldstein,
has its roots in the US's abuse of its own
citizens by law enforcement agents.

Brutality
starts at home ... - Ritt
Goldstein

... And
travels very well - Jack A
Smith
Made to be
broken Long before the pictures of
prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib prison were
released, a string of reports pointed to
widespread, systemic violations of the
Geneva Conventions, not only in Iraq, but in
Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. - Jim
Lobe |
The Iraq gold
rush The dangers of working in
Iraq are by now obvious to everyone, and yet
Americans are lining up by the hundreds for the
chance at a job there. The reason also is
obvious: the desert is paved with gold, courtesy
of Halliburton subsidiary KBR. (May
13, '04)
COMMENTARY It's Bush who is in the
dock Final judgment
on President George W Bush's larger moral
rationale for invading Iraq - to democratize the
country and then use it as an example for
restructuring the Muslim Middle East - will only
be made in November's presidential elections.
Whether or not Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
and others go before that is not the real
issue. - Ehsan Ahrari (May
13, '04)
Pictures of abuse spell bad
news for Bush The latest US polls, coming
on the back of Iraqi prisoner abuse photos
released last week, show continued erosion in
support for President George W Bush and the war
in Iraq. The photos appear directly linked to
the sharp loss in support, and for the first
time a majority has declared that the war is not
worth it. - Jim Lobe (May
13, '04)
The war of the snuff
videos The upcoming videos and
photos showing more abuse at Abu Ghraib have
found their counterpart in a video of an
American being beheaded. Meanwhile, the folks in
Texas and elsewhere in conservative America are
sick of the whole business. It will get
worse. (May 12, '04)
Tale of two allies: Koizumi
and Blair Fortunes are diverging
radically for America's two staunchest
allies in the Iraq war. While the sun shines on
Japan's Junichiro Koizumi, storm clouds
gather around Britain's once invincible Tony
Blair, who has lost popularity and might
soon lose his job. - J Sean Curtin
(May 12, '04)
Bush's cavalry joins the
Indians President George W Bush and
close allies have drawn a defensive circle
around embattled Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, waiting for the troops to rally to the
cause. But unlike in western movies,
reinforcements might not be on the way: many in
the army have had enough of their civilian
leader. - Jim Lobe
(May 11, '04)
Life without
Rumsfeld Assuming the sharpened
knives claim Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's
scalp, the obvious next question is whether his
departure would be too late to make any
difference to the US's troubled foreign
policies. (May 11, '04)
Sorry, it does look like
Vietnam Disaffected voices within
the US military have commented that "a pattern
of winning battles while losing a war
characterized the US failure in Vietnam". The US
administration rejects any such parallels with
Iraq. A former US army intelligence operative in
Vietnam explains why it is wrong to do so.
(May 11, '04)
SPEAKING FREELY All going according to
plan? Forget the
skeptics who say the United States did
not have a plan for post-invasion Iraq. Intended
or not, Washington has actually achieved as much
as it could possibly hope for, both in the
country and the region. But how and
when to get out? - Sadi Baig
(May 11, '04)
Rumsfeld and the 'beastly'
Boykin As Pentagon chief, Donald
Rumsfeld's head is ultimately on the block over
the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Somewhat down the
chain of command are the uncompromising
characters who conceived and implemented the
techniques to "enable" the interrogation of
prisoners. Chief among these is
Lieutenant-General William "Jerry" Boykin, once
described as a "beast-man". - Ramtanu Maitra (May
10, '04)
An American
tragedy Deep in the heart of middle
America, a "don't mess with Texas" pickup
heaven, Donald Rumsfeld is a misunderstood hero
and the Abu Ghraib fiasco "understandable",
given the link between Iraq and September 11.
Meanwhile in this PR Pearl Harbor, a nation
struggles to come to grips with its gulag
archipelago. (May 10, '04)
Credibility
boost for the Red
Cross - Alexander
Casella
SPENGLER Mistah Kurtz, he
clueless Unable to pursue its policy
of democratizing Iraq, the US is
likely to embrace the next best thing - chaos.
The results will be infinitely more
unpleasant than Abu Ghraib, but at least
Americans will slumber in peace. (May
10, '04)
Military might and moral
failure That the US has adopted a
policy of moral exceptionalism, and "goes abroad
in search of monsters to destroy", means that it
has to produce a military that embodies the
country's perceived goodness. This is why it is
all the more shocking when Americans
in uniform fail to meet expectations. - Jim Lobe (May
10, '04)
Rumsfeld: The fallen
angel?
The vultures
of Capitol Hill (most of them Democrat for now)
are circling above Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, smelling blood over the Iraqi prisoner
scandal. The real issue, though, is not so much
the fate of Rumsfeld as the sustainability
or otherwise of the occupation of Iraq. -
Jim Lobe
(May 7,
'04)
Now Indians cry foul over
Iraq Hard on the heels of news
of abuse against Iraqi prisoners, Indian workers
claim that they are being press-ganged into
menial jobs at US camps in Iraq. New Delhi has
put Washington on notice. - Siddharth Srivastava
(May 7, '04)
Not a pretty
picture By joining
all the dots of darkness that have characterized
the situation in Iraq over the past year, a
composite picture emerges, and it is not easy on
the eye. - Ian Williams
(May 6, '04)
Now the desperate damage
control
In addition
to concerns over world reaction, the Bush
administration is clearly worried over the
fallout in the US domestic arena from the
debacle of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, hence
the rapid and heavyweight attempts to defuse the
situation. But now that the story is out, it
won't be easy to make it go away. - Ehsan Ahrari (May
6, '04) Iraq: Fine line between
abuse and torture The reported abuse of Iraqi
prisoners has been met with universal anger,
from the West to the Middle East, with critics
using strong language to express their
revulsion. However, debate is swirling over
whether the abuse is something more - torture.
(May 5, '04)
 Election
process moves ahead
THIS NUCLEAR AGE
Part 1: US neo-cons and
war Driven by the
neo-conservatives, a major push to create new
nuclear weapons and substantively expand
America's nuclear weapons complex is presently
ongoing. Apart from the obvious costs of such a
program, there are the dangers of using nuclear
weapons to achieve political objectives. This is
the first article in a three-part report by Ritt Goldstein. (May
4, '04)
PART 1: Besieged in
Shawal As the US net closes around
al-Qaeda, Taliban and Afghan resistance fighters
holed up in the remote Shawal areas of
Afghanistan and Pakistan, tribal leaders are
being pressured to help catch them. And they are
not happy. This is the first in a series of
reports from what is likely to become a key
frontier. (May 2, '04)
PART 2: The 'al-Qaeda'
cleric In the sweep for al-Qaeda
suspects in the Shawal area of Pakistan, Maulana
Salahuddin was rounded up, and spent some weeks
as a "guest" of the authorities. But it soon
became obvious that the humble Sufi cleric had
nothing to do with al-Qaeda and the Afghan
resistance. Not that he is short on ideas in
tackling the issue, though. (May
3, '04)
PART 3: Through the eyes of
the Taliban The US, in an attempt to
both exploit splits in the Taliban and restore
peace to Afghanistan, has made numerous
overtures to one of the key figures in the
resistance movement - Jalaluddin Haqqani. But
the legendary mujahideen leader and former
Taliban minister refuses all overtures. His son
explains why. (May 4, '04)
PART 4: Return of the
royalists The US plan to press Afghan
warlords into service to fill the political
vacuum created by the demise of the Taliban has
failed, with many wily commanders turning
against their would-be benefactors.
Subsequently, Afghan royalists have been pushed
into the limelight, an exercise many see as
equally futile. One senior royalist with high
ambitions begs to differ. (May
5, '04)
Part 5: Jihadis pay the
ultimate price Foreign fighters were an
integral part of the Afghan resistance against
the Soviets in the 1980s, and now they play a
pivotal role in the guerrilla war against US-led
forces in the country. In an ultimate irony,
though, these very symbols of jihad may yet be
offered as sacrificial pawns to bring peace to
Afghanistan. (May 12, '04)
| US intelligence faltering
on N Korea nukes The price of
US intelligence failures regarding terrorism and
WMD in Iraq has been staggering. Now the US
administration's politicized, inconsistent use
of new intelligence from Pakistan on North
Korea's nuclear program is complicating an
already difficult assessment. (May
4, '04)
Confronting the demons of
urban warfare In the siege of Fallujah,
US forces were drawn into urban warfare,
something they had wanted to avoid because
of the high casualty rates and unique
fighting methods involved, and the fact that
much of the technology that they normally use in
battle is rendered useless. - David Isenberg (May
4, '04)
 The
dreaded 's' word
Japan to polish tarnished
Mideast image After a solid display of
support for US moves in Iraq, Japan's once
glittering Middle East image has been tarnished.
Now, Tokyo is pursuing a more independent,
pro-Arab foreign policy, and though Japanese
troops will remain in Iraq, attempts to
distinguish Japanese policy from that of the US
could lead to a rift in relations with
Washington. - J Sean
Curtin (May 4, '04)
Thailand's tinderbox:
Foreign links feared Crack troops who earned
their spurs in East Timor have been sent into
Thailand's restive south, and trigger-happy
police are quickly being pulled out of the
region in a bid to keep the non-violent majority
from joining the militants. But violence
continues, and if progress isn't made soon and
links are forged with foreign Islamist
elements, senior officials warn that it is
Bangkok that will feel the pain. -
David
Fullbrook (May 4,
'04)
SPENGLER Has
Islam become the issue? Until now,
neo-conservatives have carefully toed the White
House line that "this is a war against
terrorism, not against Islam". But now, as
Washington's visions for Iraq's future vanish
like a desert mirage, this line is in danger of
being crossed, with Islam itself becoming the
issue. The neo-cons have already fired the first
salvo. (May 3, '04)
The dehumanizing nature of
occupation The seeds of prisoner abuse
in Iraq were sown in the very act of invasion
and occupation of the country. The manifestation
of Iraqi anger through acts of resistance and
insurgency to the occupation was bound to create
an equally brutal response from the occupying
forces. - Ehsan
Ahrari (May 3,
'04)
EDITORIAL Who let the dogs
out? The fact that war is
horrible seems to have come as a nasty shock to
US television viewers. Why? (May
3, '04)
Staying the course - but
which one? With UN special envoy
Lakhdar Brahimi's influence on the rise in Iraq,
US neo-conservatives are increasingly being
sidelined with regard to major decisions. But
whether this will save Washington's minimum
goals for the region is another matter. -
Jim Lobe
(May 3, '04)
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