Hugh Tomlinson in Dubai and Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem The Times (Reuters) Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room Six suspects in the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai entered the country using British passports, it emerged yesterday. Police in the Gulf state announced that they were hunting for 11 suspects, including a woman, for the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas commander, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20. Six of these suspects were travelling on British passports and three were carrying Irish passports, including the woman. The … Continue reading ‘Mossad assassination squad used British passports’

Saudi Arabia by the Numbers To achieve an accurate measurement of Saudi public opinion, pollsters must pull some tricks out of their sleeves to overcome the roadblocks thrown up by one of the Middle East’s most conservative societies. BY DAVID POLLOCK The very concept of public opinion in highly secretive Saudi Arabia is almost an oxymoron. Hard data are difficult to come by, and even rarer is information about controversial and strategically critical current issues: views about military action against Iran, corruption and the state of civil liberties within the kingdom, religious extremism and al Qaeda, and donations to other … Continue reading Saudi public opinion

The Akbar Zeb story: too good to be true Posted By David Kenner I wrote last week about Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Canada Akbar Zeb’s reported rejection as ambassador to Saudi Arabia due to the unfortunate Arabic translation of his name as “biggest dick.” Alas, the story turns out to be false: Mr. Zeb has responded, saying that the press reports are nothing more than “a practical joke someone played on the Internet.” Zeb denies that he was ever considered for an ambassadorial position in Saudi Arabia; lending credence to his account, he has only been stationed in Ottawa for … Continue reading Ambassador Akbar Zeb and Arabs

By Syed Saleem Shahzad ISLAMABAD – Asia Times Online has received a message from top guerrilla commander Ilyas Kashmiri, whose 313 Brigade is an operational arm of al-Qaeda. The message arrived on Monday morning, shortly after the deadly weekend bombing of the German Bakery in the western Indian city of Pune. The message does not specifically claim responsibility for the bombing, but implies the Brigade’s involvement. The text of the emailed message reads, in rough translation: “We warned the international community to play their role in getting the Kashmiris their right of self-determination and preventing India from committing brutalities in … Continue reading Al-Qaeda chief delivers a warning

Dawn Editorial A pragmatic approach is needed to make young minds realise their potential as productive members of society. — File Photo Every now and then we get stark reminders of just how miserable the plight of education is in Pakistan. The Sindh Assembly was told during question hour on Friday that Jacobabad was the province’s least literate district, with only a third of its population able to read and write. Though the news is depressing, it should prompt us to think about what can be done to set things right. There is much that is wrong with Pakistan’s system … Continue reading Menace of illiteracy and Mullahism

By Ahmad Faruqui Azad Kashmir’s future is as murky today as it was in 1947. — File Photo by AFP Azad Kashmir was created within two months of Pakistan’s independence with high expectations. Nestled in the mountainous western region that abuts the vale of Kashmir, it forms an archer’s bow that is about 100 miles long and about 20-40 miles wide. The Pakistani security elite hoped that an arrow fired from the bow would bring about the instant liberation of the vale of Kashmir from Indian occupation. The first arrow was fired almost within days of creation. It plunged the … Continue reading Azad Kashmir today?

Jawed Naqvi No one is asking Home Minister P. Chidambaram to resign because of the Pune attack, but must he indulge in legal casuistry and deny that the attack in Pune was avoidable and therefore constituted a security breach? – File photo CATCHING the once-a-week flight from Delhi to Karachi last Monday, I overheard a riveting exchange between the immigration officer who was handling my Indian passport and a worried man who rushed to speak to him in a hurry, I suspect, after seeing my bearded profile from a distance. In my banterish way I engaged both of them in … Continue reading Only Indians killed, so no security breached?

Posted by Nadeem F. Paracha  The day President Asif Zardari supposedly unleashed yet another round of the so-called clash between the judiciary and the executive – nay, an ‘independent judiciary’ and a ‘tainted, corrupt executive’ – I rushed home to catch the action on television. You see, the impact and the action that accompanies most ‘political crises’ in Pakistan these days is hardly ever found on the streets of the country; instead, all the hoopla in this respect takes place on TV screens, with most local news channels shifting into the usual hyperbolic, melodramatic mode, screaming bloody apocalypse! As my … Continue reading Clashing and massaging egos whilst Pakistan burns

Bad romance In Pakistan, we hate often, and easily. A friend recently posted a YouTube link for the trailer of a new documentary and Sundance Film Festival entry titled Bhutto on Facebook. The trailer opens with these words: “From one of the most dangerous places on earth… a land where women didn’t matter… comes the story of a woman with the courage to accept her destiny.” The clip draws from interviews of Benazir Bhutto on international television and with private reporters, shots of her from the 1980s, and glimpses of Z.A. Bhutto and her brothers. Young Pakistanis – at home, … Continue reading In Pakistan, we hate often, and easily.

The Islamists Are Not Coming BY CHARLES KURZMAN, IJLAL NAQVI  Do Muslims automatically vote Islamic? That’s the concern conjured up by strongmen from Tunis to Tashkent, and plenty of Western experts agree. They point to the political victories of Islamic parties in Egypt, Palestine, and Turkey in recent years and warn that more elections across the Islamic world could turn power over to anti-democratic fundamentalists. But these victories turn out to be exceptions, not the political rule. When we examined results from parliamentary elections in all Muslim societies, we found a very different pattern: Given the choice, voters tend to … Continue reading Religious parties in the Muslim world are hardly the juggernauts they’ve been made out to be.