Abbotabad Operation and our chance to redeem ourselves
By Yasser Latif Hamdani The Abbotabad Operation and the accompanying humiliation has given Pakistan another opportunity to redeem itself. … Read entire article »
The trajectory of peace
By Raza Rumi The dramatic events of the past few days have far-reaching repercussions on the future of global terrorism and US policy in Afghanistan and West Asia. Osama bin Laden may have been removed from the scene, but Al Qaeda lives as a hybrid conglomerate with formidable allies in Pakistan and elsewhere. Whilst a plethora of questions on Bin Laden’s capture and death remains unanswered, Pakistan has, once again, come under global scrutiny admittedly for the right reasons. Most Pakistanis are dumbfounded by the sudden discovery of Bin Laden virtually under the nose of the military and the mysterious way in which Operation Geronimo was carried out by the United States. Despite the hard talk, it is clear that the US-Pakistan relationship is not going to be majorly affected by the recent turn of … Read entire article »
Complicity or Incompetence: Which way the Wind is Blowing Now
By Raza Habib Raja .Ever since killing of Osama Bin Laden, the subsequent analysis has largely been dominated by the following question: Was Pakistani Intelligence apparatus guilty of complicity or incompetence? Now this question has so far been intensely debated in the Media, Western and Local, and various journalists, anchors and analysts have come up with their theories and “verdicts”. However much more interesting are policy and “informal” statements given by the US officials. Immediately after the death of Osama Bin Laden and till the time these sentences are being written, the “art” of diplomacy characterized by giving seemingly conflicting and confusing statements has been in full swing. It is hardly surprising as diplomacy has seldom been an art of “clarity” as it is a tool for ensuring realpolitik concerns … Read entire article »
Behind the Hunt for Bin Laden
By MARK MAZZETTI, HELENE COOPER and PETER BAKER Pete Souza/The White House President Obama and members of his national security team receiving an update on Sunday. A classified document in front of Hillary Rodham Clinton was blurred before this photo was released. More Photos » WASHINGTON — For years, the agonizing search for Osama bin Laden kept coming up empty. Then last July, Pakistanis working for the Central Intelligence Agency drove up behind a white Suzuki navigating the bustling streets near … Read entire article »
Osama bin Laden didn’t win, but he was ‘enormously successful’
By Ezra Klein Did Osama bin Laden win? No. Did he succeed? Well, America is still standing, and he isn’t. So why, when I called Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counterterrorism expert who specializes in al-Qaeda, did he tell me that “bin Laden has been enormously successful”? There’s no caliphate. There’s no sweeping sharia law. Didn’t we win this one in a clean knockout? Apparently not. Bin Laden, according to Gartenstein-Ross, had a strategy that we never bothered to understand, and thus that we never bothered to defend against. What he really wanted to do — and, more to the point, what he thought he could do — was bankrupt the United States of America. After all, he’d done the bankrupt-a-superpower thing before. And though it didn’t quite work out this time, it worked a … Read entire article »
Delivered from evil … to a minefield of law and consequence
By Ben Saul Was America’s killing of Osama Bin Laden lawful or an extrajudicial assassination? The answer depends on two key areas of international law: the law on the use of force, and international humanitarian law. Under the law on the use of force, it is prohibited to use military force on the territory of a foreign country except in self-defence against an “armed attack”. The US may plausibly argue that it is the victim of an … Read entire article »
Notes on the Death of Osama bin Laden
By Steve Coll No doubt there will be time to reflect more deeply about the news announced by President Obama last night. For now, I thought it might be useful to annotate some of the initial headlines. On where he was found: Abbottabad is essentially a military-cantonment city in Pakistan, in the hills to the north of the capital of Islamabad, in an area where much of the land is controlled or owned by the Pakistani Army and retired … Read entire article »
What Now for Pakistan and America
Usman Ahmad explores the future of Pak-American mismatch With Osama bin Laden dead many are left debating the future of the ‘war on terror’ and the impact this will have on the Islamist Jihad Movement. Closer to home, however, the question on everyone’s lips is what will now become of Pakistan. … Read entire article »
Bin Laden Is Dead: Momentous Development Which Should Give a Shut up Call to the Conspiracy Theorists
By Raza Habib Raja In a dramatic development, the President of United States has announced that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. For years the Al Qaida leader had proven to be elusive target and often escaped narrowly. Although road to defeat terrorism is pretty long and many miles still need to be covered, but this is nevertheless an extremely important development. It has a huge symbolic significance and also should debunk all the fancy conspiracy theories. The US authoritiesare in possession of the body and they are likely to conduct the full DNA test . While this is a positive development but at the same time has given rise to concerns that militants would retaliate against US personnel particularly those working in Pakistan and in the Islamic countries. The successful operation is … Read entire article »
War Without Footprints
If Pakistan wants fewer U.S. agents on the ground, it should tolerate American drones. By William Saletan A U.S. Predator droneWar is spreading across the Muslim world. U.S. forces are in Iraq. They’re in Afghanistan. They’re helping NATO in Libya. Even the United Nations—the United Nations!—is fighting in the Ivory Coast. But one war has been going on quietly all along. It’s quiet because the Americans fighting it aren’t in the place where it’s being fought. That place … Read entire article »
Thank you Twitter for Raymond Davis
Tariq Bashir I remember reading Andrew Marr’s My Trade a few years back where he charts the history of print and electronic media from the early days of Fleet Street to today’s 24/7 news channels where the whole nitty gritty of a story is laid threadbare by the ever sniffing, ruthless present day hack. “Gathering and giving news is big business”, enthused Marr in his excellent expose`. He did not mention Twitter as it had not exploded into the kind of revolution it has blossomed into today, such is the furious pace at which web based interaction is cruising forward. When Raymond Davis hit the headlines across the world the Pakistani electronic media still in its infancy and certainly not out of its proverbial nappies as far as ranting and raving and … Read entire article »
America’s Pakistan
By Muhammad Asim The recent request made by Pakistan for the withdrawal of hundreds of US CIA agents and contracts from the country and the cessation of drone strikes comes as another sound bite as the innocent Pakistanis continue to be killed by America. With the latest plea supposedly originating from General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani himself, 335 personnel are being asked to leave the country – a figure said to represent anywhere between 25-40% of the number of foreign spies and fighter in the country. This request was relayed by General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, DG ISI, at a meeting with CIA director Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen in Washington. Such apparent shows of independence and strength have been seen before by the sceptical Pakistani public … Read entire article »
Pakistan’s Geopolitical Dilemma China Or US: Viewpoint From Pakistan – Analysis
Written by: Eurasia Review By Khan A. Sufyan The dynamic nature of geo-political environment is transitioning from American efforts to retain its uni-polarity to a stage where the emerging competitors and challengers are moving to a position of asserting their influence. This is likely to result in geo-economic, geo-political and geo-strategic changes, realignments and re-assertions, in certain regions which are likely to play important, if not pivotal roles in the future. These are high-stake political games … Read entire article »
Bye, Bye, Raymond
By Dr. Niaz Murtaza Raymond Davis, released by the Lahore court on payment of blood money, was taken by helicopter to the airport and then flown immediately to Afghanistan. There, he will go through another round of grilling, this time by the CIA, to get him to reveal what, if anything, he revealed during his earlier round of grilling, that time by the ISI. He will then fly to the States to face some sort of criminal investigation by the Department of Defense system. In essence, the case has been decided by a thin coat of varnish of the rule of law serving as the icing on a cake baked in the furnace of realpolitik. The better course of action would have been following international law and resolving disputes about it through … Read entire article »
The Davis Release: Are We Jealous or Angry?
By Ali Usman Qasmi General Zia-ul-Haq must be grinning in his grave (literally) for coming to the rescue of the Americans even after his death. It was during the Zia regime that the ‘Islamic provision’ of Diyat was added to the Pakistan Penal Code. Ever since its promulgation, numerous men accused of murdering female members of their household have escaped punishment simply because other male members of the family – who happen to be the legal heirs of the ‘shameless’ female victim bringing dishonour to the family – pardon their male kin for performing the heroic act. In a recently published research article, renowned expert of Pakistan’s Shariat Laws Tahir Wasti has argued that despite there being specific provisions in the Islamic jurisprudence for the prosecution of criminals by State even if the … Read entire article »
Recent Comments