COMMENT: WikiLeaks fiasco —Ali K Chishti Although the WikiLeaks fiasco is embarrassing for both the US and Pakistan, as it reflects the mistrust between the two closest allies in the war on terror, without each other’s support they cannot win the war on terror WikiLeaks, a Swedish whistleblower project, consists of activist journalists who have previously leaked videos and articles embarrassing the US government. Only a couple of days back, it leaked more than 90,000 top secret documents of the US military, consisting of cables, internal memos and e-mails sent out to various Department of Defence (DoD) officials related to … Continue reading WikiLeaks fiasco

COMMENT: The road to perdition —Dr Mohammad Taqi In the Obama lexicon, the word victory does not exist in the Afghan context. Indications are there that the Pakistani security establishment has been outsourced the effort to tame the Taliban to allow the US a face-saving withdrawal “All praise is for the Almighty who bestowed sovereignty upon the army, then made the people subservient to the army and the army subservient to its own interests” — Justice Rustam Kiyani. In his three-minute address announcing a three-year extension in the service term of General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani — … Continue reading The road to perdition

AN ATOL INVESTIGATION Iranian spy still a teasing enigma By Mahan Abedin More than 10 days after his return to Iran, Shahram Amiri remains an enigma with many wondering whether he was “kidnapped” by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as he now claims, or whether he was a spy who got cold feet, or even whether he was an Iranian “double-agent” from the very outset. After a lengthy investigation involving interviews and conversations with scores of knowledgeable sources in Iran, Asia Times Online can now reveal some of the essential background features of the case. However, the central … Continue reading Shahram Amiri – Iranian spy still a teasing enigma

By M K Bhadrakumar The Greeks have a saying that the past is the vista that lies ahead while the future lurks furtively. The improbable symbolism sums up the Indian perspective on the announcement by the Pakistani civilian leadership last Thursday to extend the term of army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani for another three years. Quite clearly, the Barack Obama administration is pleased with the work Kiani is doing and he is now assured of a term lasting until November 2013 – until the date Afghan President Hamid Karzai has penciled in for the foreign military occupation of his … Continue reading India has limited Afghan options

Pakistani students prefer guns to books By Syed Saleem Shahzad ISLAMABAD – Several hundred students in the southern port city of Karachi have left the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), Pakistan’s largest student union, to join al-Qaeda training camps in the North Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, Asia Times Online has learned. The IJT is an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the country’s premier Islamic party. “This is true. They now have their own camp in North Waziristan and it is purely the work of the late Dr Arshad Waheed that such a huge number of people are joining … Continue reading Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba joins al-Qaeda?

By Spengler The 92,000 American classified military documents released by WikiLeaks add to the evidence that Pakistan’s intelligence service backs the Taliban, to the point of helping the Taliban plan assassinations of American and Afghan officials. This raises the question: Who covered up a scandalous arrangement known to everyone with a casual acquaintance of the situation? The answer is the same as in Agatha Christie’s 1934 mystery about murder on the Orient Express, that is, everybody: former United States president George W Bush and vice president Dick Cheney, current US President Barack Obama and Vice // <![CDATA[// <![CDATA[ //<![CDATA[ var … Continue reading Murder on the Khyber Pass express

By Gareth Porter WASHINGTON – The 92,000 reports on the war in Afghanistan made public by the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks, and reported on Monday by selected international publications, offer no major revelations that are entirely new, as did the Pentagon Papers to which they are inevitably being compared. But they increase the political pressure on a war policy that has already suffered a precipitous loss of credibility this year by highlighting contradictions between the official assumptions of the strategy and the realities shown in the documents – especially in regard to Pakistan’s role in the war. Unlike the Pentagon Papers, … Continue reading Leaks make war policy vulnerable

By Syed Saleem Shahzad ISLAMABAD – Some of the 92,000 American classified military documents released by WikiLeaks at the weekend point to Pakistan’s intelligence service backing the Taliban, an issue that has been seized on by the international media, although Islamabad’s ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani said the release consisted of “unprocessed” reports from the field. Pakistan overtly supported the Taliban while they were in power in Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001 when they were forced out by the US-led invasion. Islamabad then signed onto the US’s “war on terror” and committed to fighting the Taliban insurgency. However, … Continue reading Pakistan has its own battle to fight

By George Friedman On Sunday, The New York Times and two other newspapers published summaries and excerpts of tens of thousands of documents leaked to a website known as WikiLeaks. The documents comprise a vast array of material concerning the war in Afghanistan. They range from tactical reports from small unit operations to broader strategic analyses of politico-military relations between the United States and Pakistan. It appears to be an extraordinary collection. Tactical intelligence on firefights is intermingled with reports on confrontations between senior US and Pakistani officials in which lists of Pakistani operatives in Afghanistan are handed over to … Continue reading Thousands of reasons to leave