Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh on Tuesday backed off his earlier support for the US raid into Syria. He said that the Iraqi constitution forbids third parties to use Iraq as a staging ground for attacks on other countries. It is not clear whether Dabbagh was just issuing a pro forma condemnation or whether the […]
Contacts begin with Taliban DPs Suffer in Camps
AFP reports: “Pakistani and Afghan officials and tribal leaders agreed Tuesday to make contact with Taliban militants in an attempt to end the raging insurgent violence along their porous border. The declaration came after two days of talks in Islamabad aimed at finding a lasting solution to the unrest which has wracked the region since […]
The hypocrisy of the ‘One-Party Rule’ Gambit
The McCain campaign is now warning against “one party rule” if Obama is elected president at at time when there will likely be a Democratic landslide in the House and the Senate. Well, first of all, having one party in control of the White House and Congress could have the benefit of allowing them to […]
US: Raid Targetted al-Qaeda Facilitator; May Complicate Security Agreement with Iraq
US government sources maintained on Monday that the cross-border raid into Syria that left 8 dead had succeeded in killing “Abu al-Ghadiyah” (Badran al-Mazidi) of Mosul, a member of the fundamentalist vigilante group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (originally called “Monotheism and Holy War” but more recently “The Islamic State of Iraq”). Al-Zarqawi was killed in […]
Middle East Press Negative on US Attack on Syrian Soil.
The USG Open Source Center surveys the Middle Eastern press reaction to the US raid on Abu al-Kamal in Syria, finding it mostly negative and based on Syrian reports. Lesson: If the US had just gotten word out about its side of the story more quickly and effectively, it might have blunted the generally negative […]
The hypocrisiy of the ‘One-Party Rule’ Gambit
Ooops, typo in title. Go here for “The Hypocrisy of the ‘One Party Rule’ Gambit”
Two Daring Attacks on US Troops in Afghanistan
In Baghlan in northern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two US troops while meeting at a local police station. Baghlan, a center of sugar beet production, is largely Tajik (Sunni Persian-speakers) but has a Pushtun minority, some of whom are anti-American and anti-Karzai government. In November of 2007, Taliban there hit a sugar factory during […]
More on Syria Raid
More on the US raid on a house in Syria: The LAT wonders if the attack will derail US-Syrian steps toward rapprochement. Syrian officials are complaining that the raid, which left 8 Syrians dead, was ‘irrational’ and contravened international law. Other Syrian denunciations are given in Arabic by al-Sharq al-Awsat. Farmhouse raided in Abu Kamal […]
Pakistani Military Takes Towns in Bajaur; If this is So Central to US Security, Why isn’t it News? US Strike Kills 20 in S. Waziristan
Although both candidates tie the resurgence of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan to US domestic security, I personally have difficulty understanding exactly how that works. The September 11, 2001, attacks on the US were planned by Arab expatriates in Hamburg, Germany, and Pushtun tribespeople had almost nothing to do with them (did the Taliban […]
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