India steals a march on the high seas By Sudha Ramachandran BANGALORE – India’s first indigenously designed and manufactured stealth frigate, commissioned late last month, sees the country join an elite of just eight nations that have built warships with naval stealth technology – it’s also a likely boost for New Delhi’s hopes to establish a warship-building industry. The 6,200-tonne Indian Naval Ship (INS) Shivalik, commissioned into the navy by Defense Minister A K Antony in Mumbai on April 29, is the world’s largest stealth ship. Despite it weight and size, Shivalik will be able to tiptoe through the high … Continue reading India’s first indigenously designed and manufactured stealth frigate

THE ROVING EYE The American Taliban are coming By Pepe Escobar Intricate shadowplay surrounds the (failed) smoking sports utility vehicle Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. Earlier in 2010, the Central Intelligence Agency warned al-Qaeda might try an attack inside the US “within the next six months”. It did happen – like clockwork – with the added bonus that the alleged perpetrators are even more convenient than al-Qaeda. United States Attorney General Eric Holder is now sure “the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack. We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it and that … Continue reading The American Taliban are coming? Or are they already here?

Karzai in the lion’s den By Heather Maher WASHINGTON – Afghan President Hamid Karzai has arrived in Washington with an entourage that includes 12 cabinet ministers and several other high ranking officials from his government. Beginning on Tuesday and for the next three days, Karzai will spend several hours in meetings with top administration officials, most notably Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. The rest of his team will sit down to talks with their counterparts in the US government to discuss cooperation on everything from education and health to employment and agriculture. The visit comes at … Continue reading Karzai in the lion’s den?

Doubts grow on McChrystal’s war plan By Gareth Porter WASHINGTON – Although General Stanley McChrystal’s plan for wresting the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar from the Taliban is still in its early stages of implementation, there are already signs that the setbacks and obstacles it has experienced have raised serious doubts among top military officials in Washington about whether the plan of the commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan is going to work. Skepticism about McChrystal’s ambitious aims was implicit in the way the Pentagon report on the war, issued April 26, assessed the progress of … Continue reading McChrystal’s war plan – does he have one?

By Syed Saleem Shahzad ISLAMABAD – The approval given to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by the administration of President Barack Obama to expand drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions is on face value a declaration of war by the US inside Pakistan. The move comes at a time when Pakistan is trying to win some breathing space to delay an all-out operation in North Waziristan, home to powerful militant groups and an al-Qaeda headquarters. The CIA was given authority on Wednesday to expand strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles against low-level combatants, even if their identities are not … Continue reading US takes the war into Pakistan