Thank you, Joshua Foust of Registan.net and The Conjecturer, for this very useful format.
Afghanistan and Pakistan:
–Jeff at the Peace Like a River blog talks about the UK's Operation Chakush in Helmand.
–My colleague Dan Graeber discusses UNAMA's new investigations of discovered mass graves in Afghanistan at the FPA War Crimes blog.
Hostage News:
–Four of Afghanistan's judges, were taken hostage ten days ago in Ghazni province; their bodies were found on Wednesday this week.
–The hostage from Germany, one of two German hostages kidnapped last month, had been previously reported in the news as dead from a heart attack. News recently released indicates that he died of gunshot wounds.
–A second South Korean hostage was killed of the 22 first seized on July 19th. So far the U.S. and ISAF forces have agreed not to attempt freeing the hostages by force.
U.S. Politics:
—Dateline, Camp David: President Karzai is due for an informal summit with Mr. Bush on August 5th and 6th.
—Registan.net has been covering the unhappy events concerning “friendly fire” and Pat Tillman, the football star who joined the U.S. Army Rangers in order to fight against terrorism. Yesterday, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denied any cover-up concerning Mr. Tillman's untimely death.
–Mr. Obama says, if made president, he would send more troops to Afghanistan, but would not entertain nuclear strikes against al-Qaeda strongholds. He did say he would send these troops also to Pakistan, if Pakistan could not guarantee military effectiveness against Taliban and al-Q training camps. Unsurprisingly, Pakistan warned against incursions into their territory.
Terrorism:
—In Transit to Afghanistan has made one solid post after another this week. In this post, the blog discusses dangers in Waziristan and the most-likely strategies that the U.S. should take against the terrorist havens in the region. Another post points us to terrorist expert Peter Bergen's newest analysis on Afghanistan's burgeoning insurgency.
Just a note: I was interviewed by Tracey-Kay Caldwell of BellaOnline and the Iraq Slogger blog on Iraq's oil law. Check it out!
Photos: BBC; Truthdig
