The ISI: America’s favourite scapegoat by Sahar Habib Ghazi First, a freelance reporter brings down America’s top general in Afghanistan with a damning article in the iconic pop-culture Rolling Stone magazine. Now, thousands of classified military documents are published on to the Internet through a website called WikiLeaks allegedly through a US soldier who had a change in conscience. Both stories have the makings of a future Hollywood film. But most importantly, both stories reveal an Afghan War that is going very wrong. Sadly, coverage in the US, of arguably the two biggest scoops of the year, can only be … Continue reading ISI – America’s favourite scapegoat

Hizb ut Tahrir is not a gateway to terrorism, claims Whitehall report The Government has opened the way for official links with Muslim extremists after civil servants said radical groups could be a “safety valve” for those tempted by terrorism. By Andrew Gilligan Published: 7:30AM BST 25 Jul 2010 telegraph.co.uk Hizb ut-tahrir members chant slogans as they take part in an anti-US protest in Lahore Photo: AFP/GETTY The groups specifically named – in documents leaked to The Sunday Telegraph – include al-Muhajiroun, which has praised 9/11 as “magnificent” and Hizb ut Tahrir, which wants to turn Britain into an Islamic … Continue reading Hizb ut Tahrir – not a gateway to terrorism – Whitehall

COMMENT:Social media Web 2.0—Aliya Anjum Social media is a game of innovation and creativity requiring fecundity of the mind. It has no place for me-too products, which the Pakistani corporate sector thrives on The internet is perhaps the only equitable tool of globalisation. Only in a virtual world are people truly the citizens of the world with no borders. Global migration barely represents two percent of the world population, essentially an alarming brain drain. Globalisation has a heavy tilt towards the global North (popularly called ‘the West’). In a world where globalisation is synonymous with McDonaldisation, social media, or Web … Continue reading Web 2.0

VIEW:US decline is China’s opportunity — II—S P Seth There is a wide chasm between rural and urban China in terms of incomes and socially, creating a lot of resentment and protests in different parts of China. There are reportedly more than 100,000 cases of protests and demonstrations in China annually Although China was hit by the global financial crisis with a significant fall in its exports, the situation has largely been retrieved. Even though western economies are in bad shape, they have no real options except to buy cheap goods from China. Therefore, the US and European countries have … Continue reading US decline is China’s opportunity

No Secrets Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency. by Raffi Khatchadourian June 7, 2010 Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, oversees a populist intelligence network. Digitally altered photograph by Phillip Toledano. Related Links Video: Raffi Khatchadourian discusses the WikiLeaks video of a killing in Baghdad. Keywords WikiLeaks; Julian Paul Assange; Internet; Iraq War; Video; Confidential Documents; Intelligence The house on Grettisgata Street, in Reykjavik, is a century old, small and white, situated just a few streets from the North Atlantic. The shifting northerly winds can suddenly bring ice and snow to the city, even in springtime, and when they do a … Continue reading Julian Assange

The Opposites Game: All the Strangeness of Our American World in One Article Monday 26 July 2010 by: Tom Engelhardt  |  TomDispatch | Op-Ed (Photo: Esparta; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t) Have you ever thought about just how strange this country’s version of normal truly is? Let me make my point with a single, hardly noticed Washington Post news story that’s been on my mind for a while. It represents the sort of reporting that, in our world, zips by with next to no reaction, despite the true weirdness buried in it. The piece by … Continue reading All the Strangeness of Our American World in One Article

Summary 25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related details. The document collection is available on a dedicated webpage. The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces’ activities. The reports do not generally cover … Continue reading Wikileaks – Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010

Will Youmans Takes on Loony Pamela Geller Posted on 26 July 2010 by Mooneye of loonwatch.com Pamela “The Looniest Blogger Ever” Geller was on The Alyona Show (Russia TV) with Palestinian Muslim Rapper, Will Youmans. Pamela was her usual shrill conspiratorial self. This must have been her worst nightmare: a Palestinian, Muslim and a rapper! The nice thing about this episode was that at least someone was challenging Pamela, and I bet if Will had more information on her (read our site Will) he would have completely obliterated her. Continue reading Will Youmans vs Pamela Geller

VIEW: US decline is China’s opportunity — I —S P Seth While the US has been busy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war against terrorism in general, China has steadily built up its image as an emerging superpower While terrorism continues to hog the limelight as an international issue, there is much more happening in the world that is not receiving due attention. One is the progressive decline of the US’s power in global affairs. Indeed, there is a correlation between the two. The 9/11 tragedy in 2001 was also the beginning of the US war on terrorism, leading … Continue reading US decline is China’s opportunity

COMMENT: The Pakistani-American conundrum —Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain Most of the Pakistani-Americans watch Bollywood movies, have their parties catered by Indian food places, buy their children’s jewellery and clothes from Indian jewellers and outfitters when the time to marry them off comes and yet strive for some semblance of a Pakistani culture Recently there have been some questions raised in the US about the ‘Pakistaniat’ of certain events at the Association of Physicians of Pakistani-descent of North America (APPNA) convention held in Dallas, Texas earlier this month. This convention is probably the largest gathering of Pakistani-Americans and visiting Pakistanis in … Continue reading The Pakistani-American conundrum