Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Taliban

How Pres. Obama's State of the Union Address Bears on Pakistan

President Barack Obama delivered his second State of the Union Address on Tuesday.  Foreign policy did not top the agenda. Instead, as expected, the speech was heavy on domestic policy–even as an important election has swung past American politics, there’s one just around the corner.  Indeed, foreign policy seemed to have sprung up in President […]

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Bring it down a notch CIA

The Islamabad station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency hastily departed from Pakistan last week after his cover was blown due to a suspected deliberate leak by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. This act is the latest evidence of the tense relationship between the two spy agencies. It is believed that his cover was blown in retaliation […]

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WikiLEADS…Who's Following Up?

The fact that government outrage continues to provide the international media with grist for its insatiable mill is one of the great ironies in this scenario: perturbed at the site’s revelation of embarrassing diplomatic discussions and fumblings–tales only mildly interesting to the average reader–government officials are now in the process of creating a better, and far more spectacular story over First Amendment rights and the ‘treasonable’ activities of a Dutch citizen accused of committing “sex by surprise” (in Sweden?).

Even worse, the official call from some quarters for draconian regulation of the internet has given Russia (which suggests nominating Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize) and China, a human-rights violator of mammoth proportion, opportunities to ‘prove’ to an already hostile world that when Washington suddenly finds itself looking out through wall-to-wall glass, this nation of stone-throwers is no better than anyplace else.

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Afghans Have Their Say

A new poll covering all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces was released today by The Washington Post, ABC News, the British Broadcasting Corp. and ARD television. Let’s go over some of the polls main findings: Afghans are more pessimistic about the direction of their country, less confident in the ability of the United States and its […]

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The Story of Reconciliation in Afghanistan: Describing the Three-Headed Beast

The news of reconciliation in Afghanistan is nothing less than three-headed Cerberus, internally conflicted and unruly.  One head: the Karzai story, pushed about in the major media outlets, that NATO is helping broker preliminary, testy, exchanges that might well precede a contested power-sharing agreement. The second, reported by the BBC is that the Taliban are […]

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The Missing Argument for Peace in Afghanistan: Decoupling the Taliban and Al Qaeda

I’d written earlier with some thoughts on how to cut apart the Taliban in Afghanistan from their Al Qaeda counterparts. Broadly, I’d argued that one needed to separate out the incentives and motivations (en bloc) of the Taliban from their foreign, multi-national, globalist counterparts.  Separated out– as hanafis (nationalist jihadis)  and salafis (globalist jihadis)– NATO […]

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Pakistan's Failure

The strangely bizarre and comical launch of Musharraf’s so called Muslim League (or whatever name he is using) forced me to examine Pakistan. And, believe me, this time; I really looked hard not only at today’s Pakistan but also at its short, but awfully tumultuous history. And, it is extremely distressing to realize that nothing, […]

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Poisonous Gas in Girls Schools: Taliban Policy

In the past two years there have been many (one is too many) reported cases of Afghan girls mysteriously falling ill at school. It was widely speculated that members of the Taliban were purposefully poisoning these girls in order to punish/intimidate them from getting an education. Sadly, recent tests have shown that in ten of […]

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ISI: Militants, Not India, Present Greatest Threat To Internal Security

ISI: Militants, Not India, Present Greatest Threat To Internal Security

A recent assessment by Pakistan’s top spy agency has concluded that Islamic militants pose a greater internal security threat to Pakistan than the Indian Army

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Murder of Aid Workers Likely Signals Shift in Taliban Strategy

The recent murders of the innocent and brave medical aid workers are heinous crimes against humanity.  In a troubling turn, this news heralds a new problem in Afghanistan: the murders were committed in Northern Afghanistan, long thought Northern Alliance territory where the Taliban owned no ground. The murders offer proof that the insurgency throughout Afghanistan […]

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President Zardari's Interview in Le Monde Directed Against Local Enemies

Its hard to imagine the stake-holder that he had in mind when President Asif Ali Zardari had his chat with a reporter for Le Monde. He is on record to have claimed: “The international community, to which Pakistan belongs, is losing the war against the Taliban. “This is above all because we have lost the […]

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A Picture of Retired Lt. General Hamid Gul's 2007 Arrest

A Picture of Retired Lt. General Hamid Gul's 2007 Arrest

A pen and ink and suminagashi print of the 2007 arrest of the retired general and former Director of Pakistan’s spy agency, Hamid Gul. Lt. Gen Gul is thought to have managed ISI’s coordination with the Afghan Taliban in order to develop strategic depth in Afghanistan to counter any Indian intervention in that country.

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ISI Aids Taliban: New Yorks Times cites WikiLeaks Report

In today’s New York Times reportage by Mark Mazzetti, Jane Perlez,  Eric Schmitt and Andrew W. Lehren has come crashing down on Pakistan.  Though broadly speaking the news is nothing new to anyone with an ear for politics in the region, the reportage offers documentary proof of ISI complicity with the Afghan Taliban.  It is […]

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Richard Haass Stepping Back

Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Bush administration national security leader, has come out with a sobering critique of the current war in Afghanistan. Off the bat, he discusses how the war has changed from one of necessity to know one of choice. Here’s Haass: The war being waged by […]

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Of Minerals and Strategy

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