Hazaras are victims of the blame game in Afghanistan The Taliban persecute Hazaras, but this is ignored by the US as it doesn’t fit the script fed to them by their Afghan sycophants Kamran Mir Hazar guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 July 2010 14.00 BST Article history I remember it was 2006 when a former Kabul police chief, General Ali Shah Paktiawal, told local media that the police had detained a Hazara suicide bomber before he had a chance to detonate the bomb in front of Sarai Shahzada Exchange Market. The general appeared very pleased with himself as he posed in front … Continue reading Hazara Taliban?

The defective defectors The question of whether or not the Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri defected to the US is interesting but not unique Glenmore Trenear-Harvey guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 July 2010 17.00 BST Article history Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri returns to Tehran after claiming he was abducted by the CIA. Photograph: Raheb Homavandi/ReutersShahram Amiri the Iranian nuclear scientist “defector” has been welcomed back to Tehran from the US like a returning hero. He claims he had been abducted by the CIA while on a pilgrimage to Medina in Saudi Arabia. Not so, say the Americans: he had defected to … Continue reading Shahram Amiri – The defective defector?

What Bradley Wiggins could have taught Raoul Moat Throughout history, people have been afflicted by the self-pity that breeds violence. But there is another way Geoffrey Wheatcroft guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 July 2010 21.00 BST Article history Over the past week or so a phrase kept running through my mind: “The self-pity that breeds violence.” It was prompted by the miserable life and death of Raoul Moat; but the question goes much wider, and since his death a small culture war has opened up. Is it right to feel at all sorry for someone who has inflicted such cruelty on others? … Continue reading Bradley Wiggins and Raoul Moat

America’s secret army: how the ‘war on terror’ created a new industry Since 9/11, US intelligence numbers have gone through the roof – and the budget is three times as high Ed Pilkington in New York guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 July 2010 19.29 BST Article history Daniel Craig as James Bond. When Ian Fleming wrote his thrillers, spies lived in an exclusive world. In the US, there’s nearly 1 million. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/United ArtistsIn the cloak and dagger world of intelligence, the assumption fed by countless spy novels and TV dramas is that top-secret security clearance is restricted to an elite few … Continue reading America’s ‘war on terror’ industry

White House shifts Afghanistan strategy towards talks with Taliban Senior Washington officials tell the Guardian of a ‘change of mindset’ over the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 July 2010 17.28 BST Article history Any negotiations with the Taliban would be conducted largely in secret, through third parties, Washington sources reported. Illustration: Saeed Achakzai/ReutersThe Obama administration is revising its Afghanistan strategy to embrace the idea of negotiating with senior members of the Taliban through third parties – a policy to which it had previously been lukewarm. Negotiation with the Taliban has long … Continue reading Talks with Taliban underway?

<IT WORLD> Worms in the Apple By Martin J Young HUA HIN, Thailand – The silence was deafening, especially for those who had recently purchased an iPhone4 and were waiting for the manufacturer to admit that it did make mistakes and that it did not, after all, produce the best products on the planet. With Consumer Reports (the website of the non-profit Consumers Union organization founded in 1936) publicly failing to recommend the iPhone4, with analysts estimating the cost of a recall at US$1.5 billion and with Apple telling people to use a plastic cover on their new $300 handset, the … Continue reading Apple