May 2007

After the talks, Iran starts talking
Iranian hardliners, reformists, conservatives and members of Parliament have all weighed in to assess the results of the dialogue between Iran and the United States over Iraq. Predictably, their views differ, ranging from optimism to cynicism. Going to "the diplomatic level proper" with the US will not be easy. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 31, '07)

Mission impossible: NATO's Afghan dilemma
The longer the US-led NATO alliance stays in Afghanistan, the more things appear to get worse, and the more people's expectations are lowered. NATO and the US are now being urged to decide what their real mission is - economic development or the hunt for al-Qaeda and the Taliban. - Philip Smucker (May 31, '07)

Afghan refugees sing Hekmatyar's tune
Mercurial Afghan warlord and politician par excellence Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is revered by thousands of refugees in camps in Pakistan. His recently revived newspaper hammers away at the Afghan government and its major supporter, the United States. It is unclear whether Hekmatyar still recruits fighters from the camps, but his popularity in them displays his capabilities. (May 31, '07)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The colossus of Baghdad
The United States' vast US$592 million "embassy" - 20-odd buildings on 42 hectares in Baghdad's Green Zone - is due to open in September. From the pool house (and tennis courts) to the recreation center and office space, it's a colossus of the modern world and a concrete-and-bricks symbol of the Bush administration's (fading) vision of a US-reordered Middle East. - Tom Engelhardt (May 30, '07)

Kurds drawn into Iraq's firing line
The recent clash between patrolling Kurdish militiamen in southwest Baghdad with members of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army appear to be an attempt to drag the Kurds into Iraq's sectarian conflict. Some blame the US military, others the Mahdi Army. For now, the Kurds are exercising extreme restraint. - Ali al-Fadhily (May 30, '07)

SPENGLER
Why Iran will fight,
not compromise
Massive inflation, even more massive unemployment especially among the nation's young, and official economic statistics so distressing that the president insists they are fabricated by his political enemies - that is the sad story of today's Iran. There are very few ways out of this mess, and the most likely scenario is a new Persian imperial adventure. (May 29, '07)

Now, that wasn't so bad ...
Even allowing for diplomatic obfuscation, the talks between the United States and Iran on Iraq appear to have made progress. The best course now is to adopt an experimental, trial-and-error approach to making the Iraqi government more stable and powerful. In the broader picture, though, Iran's "sphere of influence" politics and the United States' interventionist policies will continue to collide in the absence of a broad strategic agreement on regional matters. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 29, '07)

Bad blood spreads to Afghanistan's north
The killing of 13 followers of veteran ethnic Uzbek fighter and politician Rashid Dostum in northern Afghanistan has all the potential to open ethnic and tribal rivalries, especially as the Taliban insurgency spreads. In such a deteriorating security situation, Russia is already challenging the Washington-London axis that determines the contours of Afghanistan's "settlement". - M K Bhadrakumar (May 29, '07)

A Shi'ite storm in the making
Tensions over key political issues in Iraq, such as federalism and the distribution of oil, are paving the way for a major Shi'ite-on-Shi'ite conflict. On the one side is Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army, on the other Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and the Badr Organization. And in the middle lie Iran and the US. The best Washington can do to contain the clash is through the already fragile government. (May 29, '07)

Tehran ignores the bluff and bluster
On the eve of the Baghdad dialogue, the US has accused Iran of planning a major "summer offensive" in Iraq, details have been leaked of covert operations against Iran, and the US is strutting more naval stuff in the Persian Gulf. All the same, Washington is manifestly uneasy that it is being called on to negotiate from a position of weakness. The bottom line: Tehran knows the US needs its cooperation to extricate itself from the crisis in Iraq. - M K Bhadrakumar (May 25, '07)

Dialogue amid rattling sabers
Iran has shrugged off the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that it is still defiantly progressing with its uranium-enrichment program, insisting it is within its rights. At the same time, the "military option" against Iran remains firmly in the US spotlight, even though this simply poisons the environment for fruitful US-Iran dialogue. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 25, '07)

How Damascus can help US find its lost keys
The US administration is searching for solutions in Lebanon because there seemingly is no light in Iraq - the real place where it should be looking for its "lost keys". And the first place to go for help in its hunt is Damascus: Syria wants to be seen as part of the solution to the Middle East, rather than as part of the problem. - Sami Moubayed (May 25, '07)

Iraq's Sadrists follow Hezbollah's path
The ill-disciplined and fragmented Sadr movement in Iraq led by Muqtada al-Sadr is worlds apart from the iron-clad discipline and sophistication of Hezbollah, through which Iran exerts extensive influence in Lebanon. Despite these challenges, the Sadr movement can be used by Tehran to consolidate its influence in Iraq an d to manage hostilities with the United States. - Mahan Abedin (May 25, '07)

Sunni resistance warms to Muqtada
Talks between representatives of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Sunni leaders, including those of armed resistance factions, have produced early results. The aim is to create a Sunni-Shi'ite united front against both al-Qaeda and the US occupation. The fear is that Muqtada could still be drawn into a war of his own against the US. - Gareth Porter (May 24, '07)

A 'surge' in the wrong direction
The Bush administration is turning General David Petraeus, the US military commander in Iraq and a counterinsurgency specialist, into a figure of unquestionable perspicacity, a modern American military god, just to sell a dubious policy - the "surge". This even though the "surge" entails operational battle tactics and conditions that go against Petraeus' beliefs. - Julian Delasantellis (May 24, '07)

INTERVIEW
Resistance, not terror
The Grand Ayatollah Ahmed Alhasani al-Baghdadi
Baghdadi is one of Iraq's more outspoken Shi'ite clerics, against the occupation, against the United States' "puppet" government in Baghdad, and, surprisingly, against a "dumb devil" fellow grand ayatollah with whom he disagrees. Baghdadi differentiates between armed resistance and terrorism, and has softened his views to accommodate a timetable for US withdrawal, he tells Munthir Alkewther. (May 23, '07)

Lebanon battles a new demon
Militants from the recently formed Fatah al-Islam have emerged with guns blazing; they are now in their third day of fighting against the Lebanese Army. The al-Qaeda-inspired group has dramatically raised the stakes in Lebanon's parlous political landscape, threatening a complete breakdown of the country. And the Lebanese government's blaming Syria will not help matters. - Sami Moubayed (May 22, '07)

Mystery 'missings' haunt Pakistan
The death of Saud Memon, one of the key suspects in the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl, highlights the plight of Pakistan's hundreds of "missing" people. Despite Memon being at the top of a wanted list, officials never acknowledged that he had been in detention. The firebrand leaders of an influential mosque are now forcing the government's hand over others who are "missing". - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 22, '07)

Iran trumps N Korea in axis of fear
A new poll finds that Americans are frightened of nuclear holocaust, and many think two members of their president's erstwhile "axis of evil" are most likely to rain nukes on their heads. But while more than one-quarter think Pyongyang is America's greatest threat, Tehran is even scarier - and most don't believe the Bush administration is competent to handle crises overseas. - Donald Kirk (May 22, '07)

US-Iran talks: Looking beyond the limits
Beyond the "political psychology" and "symbolic politics" of next week's dialogue in Baghdad, one of Iran's main objectives is to make sure there is no substantive change of heart on the part of the Bush administration regarding the viability of the Shi'ite-led government in Iraq. Tehran is also mindful that no matter how much the agenda is limited to Iraq only, there is the potential for the talks to develop into broader, follow-up dialogue. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 21, '07)

SPENGLER
Those pesky puppies of war
Persians are chess players, and recent geopolitical setbacks and internal rivalries do not imply that the Iranians have abandoned the game. Real conflict, however, is not a chessboard - the pawns have an unpleasant tendency to move on their own. Trivialities have started devastating wars before, and may well do so again. (May 21, '07)

Deadly business in Afghanistan
Expectations of a new era in Afghanistan persuaded a number of Afghan-American businessmen to return to the country after the US-led invasion of 2001. In the southern city of Kandahar, the dream has turned sour, with resurgent Taliban and an indifferent government. But some, such as newspaper owner Mohammed Naseem, plan to stick it out. - Philip Smucker (May 21, '07)

Afghan battle lines become blurred
While the West focused on the lawless borderlands of Pakistan's tribal agencies, the templates of the war in Afghanistan shifted - almost unnoticed. A war crimes amnesty passed by the Afghan parliament at the end of last year removed at a stroke one of the US's most powerful weapons. Now, with even such brutal characters as Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar allowed back into the fold, adversarial lines are being redrawn. It's no longer possible to identify "the enemy". - M K Bhadrakumar (May 18, '07)

Taliban turn their focus onto cities
A series of attacks in Kandahar city on Thursday marks a new turn in the Taliban's insurgency. While holding on to rural areas where they have already gained control, the Taliban, with help from collaborators in the Afghan administration, will step up attacks in towns and cities. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 18, '07)

The two 'kings' of Iran
There's talk in Iran of early elections to replace President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who is under increasing pressure from his former mentor, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The reformists are circling, but the real battle is between the two heavyweights. - Sami Moubayed (May 18, '07)

THE ROVING EYE
The second coming of Saladin
Political repression, social inequality and economic disaster across the Middle East are the consequences of decades of "divide and rule" imperialist meddling followed by rapacious rule by local elites. Yet the potential for unity in the Muslim world is not a chimera. Who will be the 21st century equivalent of Saladin, the greatest warrior of Islam? Such a one is needed to reunite the ummah. - Pepe Escobar (May 17, '07)

ASIA HAND
Widening the war in
southern Philippines
The Philippine Army's recent successes against Abu Sayyaf insurgents seem to have emboldened it to attack the Moro National Liberation Front, breaking a ceasefire and reasserting old government claims that the MNLF is secretly supporting Abu Sayyaf. Perhaps they are under pressure from Washington to produce higher body counts. - Shawn W Crispin (May 17, '07)

The Great Game moves south
The breakup of the Soviet Union and the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, rearranged the geopolitics of Central Asia. The US devoted unprecedented resources to the region. But a rejuvenated Russia is reclaiming some of its old turf, and Washington is looking south for support, using occupied Afghanistan as a bridge. But a lot depends on whether the US can stabilize Afghanistan. - Zorawar Daulet Singh (May 17, '07)

Opium in Afghanistan: A bad trip
The opium economy in Afghanistan is a key component of the counterinsurgency campaign, yet it remains one of the most difficult issues to tackle: the criminality of growing opium, farmers' economic needs, fundraising for the Taliban-led insurgency, and state complicity are all interlinked. (May 17, '07)

Al-Qaeda strikes at anti-Taliban spies
The suicide attack that killed more than 25 people in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday was a rapid and deadly response to the death of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, believed to have been betrayed in the hotel where the bombing took place. Al-Qaeda is after anti-Taliban spies with a vengeance. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 16, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
The true heart of darkness
Iraq is and will remain for years to come the real heart of darkness of the early 21st century. Forget about Russia or China; now, finally, the Bush administration, the military-industrial complex and assorted armchair warriors can finally be assured that the US has found an enemy for life. - Pepe Escobar (May 16, '07)

Commander's veto sank Gulf buildup
Admiral William Fallon, then the Bush administration's nominee to head Central Command, placed his job on the line in February by refusing to increase the number of aircraft carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three. By "putting the crazies back in the box", Fallon set the course for the United States' engagement, not intimidation, of Iran. - Gareth Porter (May 16, '07)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The case for imperial liquidation
The great American republic is in decline, just as surely as the Roman republic before it - and for many of the same reasons. But how to prevent the final downfall? Merely changing governments won't be enough; the entire imperial system, including the vast military-industrial-congressional complex, must be dismantled, at home and abroad. - Chalmers Johnson (May 16, '07)

Iran courts the US at Russia's expense
Moscow's efforts to make Europe dependent on Russia as its main energy provider undermine the United States' global strategy. This is where the resolution of the Iraq crisis and the possibility of detente between Iran and the US play a key role. Hence Washington's offer of direct talks with Iran in Baghdad, which Tehran has embraced, but at the expense of alienating Russia even further. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 15, '07)

Document details 'US' plan to sink Hamas
An explosive document, purporting to be a Jordanian government translation of a US intelligence document, outlines a plan to undermine Hamas and hand full power to Fatah in upcoming Palestinian elections. Should President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah agree to such a plan, he would be complicit in undermining his own national-unity government. The Jordanian authorities have acted quickly to suppress the story. - Mark Perry and Paul Woodward (May 15, '07)

Maliki fluffs his lines
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has missed another opportunity for reconciliation in Iraq by opting to fill seats in his cabinet vacated by the Sadrists with non-secular Shi'ites. Sunnis see this as another slap in the face. With Maliki facing a tight US deadline to sort out the country or lose his job, the Sunnis are poised to hasten his departure. - Sami Moubayed (May 15, '07)

RED ZONE ROVING
The 'dirty thieves' of Sadr City
Once the jewel of the Middle East, al-Mustansariya University struggles on amid the chaos of Baghdad. Students hold out for a  worthless degree in the hope it will help them find jobs outside Iraq. With the Mehdi Army providing "security", the student body now consists mostly Shi'ites from Sadr City. Nobody fails examinations: that would be more than a teacher's life is worth. - Pepe Escobar (May 15, '07)

Pakistani opposition tastes blood
With Pakistan's judicial crisis spiraling into a fullblown political campaign against him, President General Pervez Musharraf has decided to fight fire with fire on the streets of Karachi. The scores dead and hundreds injured in clashes between Pashtun-based opposition parties and the pro-government Muttehida Qaumi Movement could mark a bitter turning point.  - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 14, '07) 

Dadullah's death hits Taliban The death of feared Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah at the hands of US-led forces is unquestionably a setback for the insurgency in Afghanistan, at least in the short term. Under Dadullah, the Taliban had captured large swaths of the southwest. The recently sidelined Jalaluddin Haqqani - with his plan for 30,000 suicide bombers - could be back in favor. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 14, '07) British fight a subtle war Unlike some Western contingents in Afghanistan, the British are not making an all-out effort to seek and destroy Taliban. Instead, they have adopted a unique approach that addresses nuances of the insurgency and values the art of persuasion over the use of bullets and bombs. The Taliban are likely to outlast them, though. - Philip Smucker (May 14, '07)

SPENGLER
The Koranic quotations trap
Islam-bashing, whether justified or not, is a waste of time. Critics may well argue that the Koran is an incoherent muddle, and scholars may avoid the entire issue because of threats of violence from fanatics, but the argument is beside the point. A religion is not a text but a life. (May 14, '07)

Pakistan running out of options
With anti-government sentiment in Pakistan reaching boiling point over a judicial crisis, President General Pervez Musharraf and his Washington allies are looking for a way out. The favored option is an alliance with former premier Benazir Bhutto. But she has no control over the military, let alone the Taliban or al-Qaeda. And even the top leaders in her party are opposed to such an alliance. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 11, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
'The cultivation of life'
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, despite what many believe, does not have the "privilege" to issue a religious decree that could bring the US occupation in Iraq to an abrupt end. Rather, leading Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Mohammed al-Roubaie tells Pepe Escobar, people should be more spiritual. It's as simple as that. (May 11, '07)

TURNING THE SCREWS ON IRAN Neo-cons drive divestment campaign US neo-conservatives are leading a divestment campaign against Iran. Potentially at stake are billions of dollars controlled by state pension funds and other institutional investors that have invested money in companies - based mostly in Europe and Asia - that operate in Iran. "Terror's lobbyists" are fighting back. - Jim Lobe (May 11, '07) Europeans look to temper US pressure With the US warning of a third round of UN sanctions if Iran does not stop uranium enrichment, European leaders find themselves in a spot. They have to support the sanctions, yet at the same time find a way to kick-start negotiations with Tehran to end the current lose-lose game being played. - Trita Parsi (May 11, '07)

Opium clouds before an Afghan storm
Both NATO and the Taliban have promised the world major military offensives, but as yet the battlefield in southern Afghanistan remains a twilight zone of cloak-and-dagger assassinations and limited clashes. Politicians in Kabul have raised the stakes by calling once again for dialogue with the Taliban. But NATO is braced for a fight against a rag-tag insurgency that is fast morphing, with much help from the poppy fields, into a 21st-century guerrilla movement. - Philip Smucker (May 10, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
Leave, or we will behead you
Dora was a prosperous, middle-class neighborhood of Baghdad near the Tigris, with a large Christian population. Now it's a favorite stomping ground of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and a vortex of ethnic and confessional cleansing. The few remaining Christians have a simple choice: either convert to Islam or pay a US$1,600 fee. Even then, the chances of being killed are high. - Pepe Escobar (May 10, '07)

Iraq's own Pentagon (news)papers
A US government report details the elaborate public relations effort that was to accompany the invasion of Iraq. Much of the project now seems hopelessly naive: "Having professional US-trained Iraqi media teams immediately in place to portray a new Iraq (by Iraqis for Iraqis) with hopes for a prosperous, democratic future will have a profound psychological and political impact on the Iraqi people." - Jim Lobe (May 10, '07)

ASIA HAND Point of no return for southern Thailand Southern Thailand's three-year-old conflict is veering in a dangerous new direction. The government has established a number of loosely regulated militias and, in response, ethnic Malay Muslim insurgent groups have started attacking the economic lifelines of urban districts in an intensified effort to empty the restive region of ethnic Thai and Sino-Thai Buddhists. - Shawn W Crispin (May 10, '07) BOOK REVIEW Arm thy neighbor Militia Redux by Desmond Ball and David Scott Mathieson Paramilitaries flourished in Thailand in the 1960s, when the government felt under threat by communist forces. The old threats are history, but the paramilitaries remain, with new mandates - to help maintain security along the still-volatile Thailand-Myanmar border and, more controversially, to suppress insurgency in the Muslim-dominated southern provinces. This book is an impressively detailed account of these forces. - Bertil Lintner (May 10, '07)

Asian ports still open to terror
Shipping companies have countered the potential economic disaster of a terror attack on shipping in the congested straits of Malacca and Hormuz by strengthening hulls and instituting protective measures on board vessels. But they have been less successful in changing the culture of complacency in ports, making attacks ever more likely. - Alan Boyd (May 10, '07)

A war guaranteed to damage a superpower
Four years ago, the US claimed that Saddam Hussein was backing al-Qaeda. Now it says the fervently anti-Iranian Sunni insurgents are being equipped by Iran, and attempts to kidnap senior Iranian officials in Iraq. In this fantasy world, constructed to impress American voters, in which failures are sold as successes, it is impossible to devise sensible policies. Iraq has now joined the list of small wars that inflict extraordinary damage on the occupiers. - Patrick Cockburn (May 9, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
Inside Sadr City
The almost 3 million people in Sadr City, an immense Shi'ite slum in eastern Baghdad of ramshackle one-story buildings covered with dust, exude a resignation born of sadness. But at least they feel safe, Hussein al-Motery of the municipality tells Pepe Escobar. Unless, of course, Amrika attempts the Pentagon dream of smashing the place into submission. (May 9, '07)

COMMENT
Zugzwang, or, White to play and lose
Allen Quicke reports on a chess match being played in Baghdad between the forces of Good and Evil. (May 9, '07)

SPEAKING FREELY
Iran pulls the rug from Afghan refugees
Iran's sudden decision to deport Afghan refugees - 44,000 in the past few weeks alone - places unbearable strain on Afghanistan's already limited resources. The move also serves as a sharp reminder of Iran's destabilizing ability in its neighbor's affairs. - Haroun Mir (May 9, '07)

Al-Qaeda message aimed at US living rooms
The latest videotaped interview of al-Qaeda deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahiri is al-Qaeda's most sophisticated and nuanced attempt yet to bedevil US domestic politics. And it highlights the long-standing fascination that al-Qaeda and many other Islamist groups have with the position of black Americans in US society, and the access they could provide al-Qaeda. - Michael Scheuer (May 9, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
Back to 'Saddam without a mustache'
The true measure of the overwhelming Iraqi tragedy is that people in Baghdad are now yearning for an ersatz Saddam Hussein. For many, former premier Iyad Allawi is just such a man. "We have cooperation with all national groups," Allawi's spokesman tells Pepe Escobar. What he does not say is that Allawi also has the support of the US. (May 8, '07)

US eyes still on the Iraqi prize
Since the invasion of Iraq, US officials have melded economic and military policy into a single fatal brew, driven by dreams of controlling the country's fabulous potential oil wealth. The key "benchmark", therefore, that the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki must pass is passage of a new oil law forced on it by the Bush administration. Widespread opposition to the law, though, could result in escalating conflict that leaves the oil out of the United States' reach. - Michael Schwartz (May 8, '07)

Iran rises to its missile defense
Tehran has laughed off suggestions that the United States' plans to install interceptor missiles in Eastern Europe are a response to a danger from Iran. Tehran, though, might be underestimating the new winds in the sail of US-European Union relations, given the right-wing drift of European politics in Germany and France. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 8, '07)

Damascus moves to center stage
With Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem meeting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, relations between the two countries have been turned on their head. The United States' anti-Syria rhetoric is being replaced by the grudging acceptance that Damascus, in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, has a lot to offer on Iraq. - Sami Moubayed (May 7, '07)

Why Iran spurned a US handshake
It wasn't because of a Russian violinist in a red dress that Iran refused to "bump" into the US during the conference on Iraq. All the same, Washington was deprived of a chance to express its disapproval personally of Iran's uranium-enrichment activities. And the Iranians left their own message. If the US officially asks for talks with Iran, they will be considered. But these will have to be formal talks, not an exchange on the sidelines of a diplomatic event. - M K Bhadrakumar (May 7, '07)

SPENGLER
Are the Arabs already extinct?
Adonis, the only Arabic writer to make the Nobel Prize short list, claims that the Arabs, like the Sumerians and Greeks before them, are extinct, for their culture "no longer has a creative capacity, and the capacity to change its world". He thus helps explain the remarkable willingness of Arabs to kill themselves to inflict harm on their enemies. (May 7, '07)

An assault on the way Pakistan is ruled
What began as a simple judicial crisis has been transformed into one aimed at the jugular of the Pakistani military establishment. The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has become a catalyst for myriad forces to combine to challenge the oligarchy that has for so many decades dictated the country's politics. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 7, '07)

US holds Iranians as bargaining chips
The five Iranians seized by US troops in Iraq in January were said to be endangering the lives of US soldiers in the country. On the contrary, the United States' refusal to release the captives indicates that they are being held as bargaining chips in the administration's effort to get Iran to use its influence with Iraqi Shi'ites to help stabilize the situation in Iraq. Iran is having none of it. - Gareth Porter (May 4, '07)

A careful look before a US leap
Should it be attacked by the US or the Israelis, Iran's main and probably most effective response may well prove to be military action of a different sort - retaliation by the widespread use of terrorism, assassination and sabotage. Deep-cover networks across the world might already be in place for this eventuality. - Richard M Bennett (May 4, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
The man who might save Iraq
Sheikh Abdul Satter Abu Risha doesn't mince his words. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, now his bitter enemy, "has abused our traditions and generosity" and, he alleges, they even "take drugs". The Sunni leader tells Pepe Escobar about the powerful coalition of tribes in al-Anbar province he heads, with visions even of a Sunni coalition fighting alongside a predominantly Shi'ite Iraqi government against Salafi jihadi terror. (May 4, '07)

BOOK REVIEW
The longest jihad
India, Pakistan and the Secret Jihad by Praveen Swami
When people think of jihad, their minds go back as far as, say, the anti-Soviet resistance movement in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Yet journalist Praveen Swami traces the jihad against India's control over Kashmir and Jammu back to partition in 1949. Anyone wanting to know the parameters of the "long war" against militant Islam need look no further. - Sreeram Chaulia (May 4, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
What Muqtada wants
All that the Sadrists want is a timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq, says Nasr al-Roubaie, Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's top man in government. This struggle, he tells Pepe Escobar, is both "peaceful and armed", and there is a possibility of an Iraqi shadow cabinet being formed uniting Sadrists and Sunni nationalists. But whatever happens, Muqtada remains the kingmaker. (May 3, '07)

Conferencing Iraq's future
Much of the attention at the Iraq security conference now under way in Egypt will be on the interaction between Iran and the US, and over Tehran's concerns that it might be ambushed by the US over its nuclear program. But Iraq is the core issue, and Iran has the opportunity to emphasize its pivotal role in defining that country's future. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 3, '07)

The week that transformed Turkey
For the first time in the 85-year history of the Turkish republic, a ruling political party has stood up to the military's claim to the role of political arbiter. At the same time, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is avoiding outright confrontation with the military. Having called early parliamentary polls, Erdogan can strengthen his position, but the underlying tension will not disappear overnight. The uncertainty diminishes Turkey's ability to play an effective role in the stabilization of Iraq and the turbulent region. - M K Bhadrakumar (May 3, '07)

The plane that won't die ... or fly
It's called the Osprey, but unlike the formidable bird of prey after which it's named, the V-22 helicopter-plane has trouble getting off the ground, let alone helping the US Marine Corps win the war in Iraq - which it is supposed to start doing in September. (May 3, '07)

Portrait of a jihadi leader
To many ordinary Muslims, Hamid bin Abdallah al-Ali is a devout Kuwaiti cleric and gifted poet and educator. Yet his own government banned his activities, and the US has branded him a supporter and financier of global terror. His dense religious rhetoric, typical of Salafi clerics, more than anything prevents the West from understanding the importance of his message of extremist jihad. (May 3, '07)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The clock ticks for thee
With the arrival of the fourth anniversary of President George W Bush's appearance on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln against the backdrop of a "Mission Accomplished" banner, the Bush administration points out that the president never used those words. He didn't: he said the "mission continues". All that's needed is just a little more time ... - Tom Engelhardt (May 3, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
Masri: Dead or alive, the terror continues
News that Abu al-Masri, the Egyptian-born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, had been killed was greeted ecstatically in the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad. The joy might be premature, as the death has not been confirmed. And true or not, it will make no difference. A thousand Masris are waiting in the wings, and al-Qaeda's strategy of non-stop bombings to keep inciting Sunnis to attack Shi'ites won't change. - Pepe Escobar   (May 2, '07)

Iran plays the Azerbaijan card
The US once intervened to stop Josef Stalin from annexing Iran's Azerbaijan region. Now Washington is stoking Azeri dreams of unification as part of its undeclared psy-war with Iran. But two can play that game, as Tehran pointedly reminds Baku that it was once part of the Persian Empire and not to count on any serious help from the Athenians - er, Americans. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (May 2, '07)

Fighting the global insurgency
The latest State Department findings show that current US tactics are having no decisive impact in the "war on terror". Considering that police have caught more terrorists than have been killed or captured by military means, it appears that Washington should put more resources into training and coordinating with local agencies and less into conventional war fighting. - Alan Boyd (May 2, '07)

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
ATol's "Roving Eye", Pepe Escobar, is back in Iraq and in the Red Zone - that is, everything outside "Fortress USA", the Green Zone. This is the first of his unembedded, non-Kevlar-protected, bodyguardless reports.
Baghdad up close and personal
Having dodged a bullet but not arrest by the Mehdi Army militia, Escobar witnesses the grand-scale mayhem and the minutiae of misery of Baghdad. In the deadly daily embrace of the Red Zone, the surreal overlaps Hollywood-style special effects while ethnic cleansing proceeds neighborhood by neighborhood and the bereaved are told to visit the market to find the missing limbs of their dead. (May 1, '07)

Philippines: Fanning the flames of war
When it comes to reporting the "war on terror" in the southern Philippines, the Manila media have abandoned the tenets of objective journalism. Their unquestioning repetition of the military's propaganda is pushing the island of Mindanao closer to another all-out war. - Herbert Docena (May 1, '07)

Anger over 'Taliban' deaths
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan insists that the 136 killed by US and Afghan forces in operations over three days in the Zerkoh Valley in the western province of Herat were Taliban insurgents. Thousands of people who took to the streets in the area believe that many of the dead are civilians. (May 1, '07)

April 2007