By Thalif Deen NEW YORK – Russia has stolen a march over the United States in the multimillion-dollar arms market in cash-strapped Yemen, whose weapons purchases are being funded mostly by neighboring Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni armed forces, currently undergoing an ambitious modernization program worth an estimated $4 billion US, are equipped with weapons largely from Russia, China, Ukraine, eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics. With the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day by a Nigerian student, reportedly trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen, the administration of President Barack Obama has pledged to double Yemen’s military and … Continue reading Russia, China keep toehold in Yemen

By David Moon On Christmas Day in the skies above Detroit, quick-acting passengers and crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 along with a welcome piece of luck foiled Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab’s bid to win al-Qaeda’s version of immortality. The fallout, fortunately not flaming shards of aluminum, is political and bureaucratic in nature. As US President Barack Obama, for the second time addressing this subject, acknowledged, “A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable … There were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together.” The substance … Continue reading Anwar al-Awlaki: Translator of jihad

By Gareth Porter WASHINGTON – New revelations about two documents leaked to The Times of London to show that Iran is working on a “nuclear trigger” mechanism have further undermined the credibility of the document the newspaper had presented as evidence of a continuing Iranian nuclear-weapons program. A columnist for The Times has acknowledged that the two-page Farsi document published by the newspaper last month was not a photocopy but an expurgated and retyped version of the original document. A translation of a second Farsi document also published by The Times, moreover, contradicts the newspaper’s claim that it shows the  … Continue reading More doubts over Iran’s ‘nuclear trigger’

By Uthman al-Mukhtar RAMADI – Residents of Iraq’s al-Anbar province are alarmed at the upsurge in violence in the region, which culminated in last week’s bombings in Ramadi and includes dozens of assassinations in recent months. Two suicide bombers struck inside the provincial government compound on December 30, killing 30 people and injuring more than 100, including the governor, Qassim al-Fahdawi. A provincial council member and three senior security officials were among those killed in the blasts, security and hospital officials reported. The group known as the Islamic State of Iraq, linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the bombings on … Continue reading Fear grips Iraq’s Anbar after bombings

By Michael T Klare As the second decade of the 21st century begins, we find ourselves at one of those relatively rare moments in history when major power shifts become visible to all. If the first decade of the century witnessed profound changes, the world of 2009 nonetheless looked at least somewhat like the world of 1999 in certain fundamental respects: the United States remained the world’s paramount military power, the dollar remained the world’s dominant currency, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization remained its foremost military alliance, to name just three. By the end of the second decade of … Continue reading The blowback effect, 2020 – Power Shifts

Zubair Torwali It is said that each child at the government primary schools will get a certain amount of food items for some years. The reason behind this is of course to tempt them to enrol, and discourage dropping out. This may be counter-productive as many parents would send their children to schools to get the ration only A complete rehabilitation of terrorism and counter terrorism hit areas of Pakistan, particularly the scenic valley of Swat, will probably take years if not decades but, nevertheless, a thorough and speedy initiative needs to be launched immediately. To demand an immediate rehabilitation … Continue reading Rehabilitation of Swat