South Asia

Secretary of State John Kerry just made trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration’s two trophy states, in an attempt to shore up rapidly declining American influence in the two. In Afghanistan, the mood is turning against a US troop presence after 2014. In the last couple of weeks, President Hamid Karzai successfully insisted […]

Afghanistan

US Drone Campaign in Pakistan: Amazing Infographic (Serle)

Juan Cole

Jack Serle writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism Pitch Interactive have visualised every CIA drone strike and every casualty in Pakistan. A new interactive graphic, which uses the Bureau’s drone data, has brought a fresh perspective to the CIA’s nine-year drone campaign in Pakistan. A team of developers has pulled together every known drone […]

CIA

‘At least 400 civilians’ killed by US drone strikes: Pakistani Gov’t

Juan Cole

Alice K. Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: The Pakistani government estimates at least 400 civilians have been killed in drone strikes – a figure close to the Bureau’s own findings. In evidence to Ben Emmerson QC, UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that CIA drones […]

al-Qaeda

By the Numbers: US Drone Strikes on Pakistan “Illegal”

Juan Cole

The Guardian reports that Ben Emmerson, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, says that the Pakistani government has given no tacit consent to US drone strikes according to a search of government records. Therefore, he concludes, the strikes are likely illegal in international law. US drone strikes according to Pakistan government statistics: […]

Iran

Pakistan, Iran defy US Sanctions to Inaugurate Gas Pipeline

Juan Cole

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pakistani president Asaf Ali Zardari on Monday inaugurated a gas pipeline that will supply Pakistani cities with Iranian natural gas. The pipeline has been largely completed on the Iranian side, but Pakistan had problems getting the international financing to complete its leg, which will cost $1.5 billion. Iran is loaning […]

Pakistan

Pakistan: Violence against Christian Neighborhood rooted in Blasphemy Law, Union Contest

Juan Cole

On Sunday, Pakistani police rounded up 70 suspects in the mass arson attacks on Saturday on the Christian neighborhood of Joseph Colony on Noor Road in the Badami Bagh district. The incident has its origin in a misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which desperately needs to be repealed if the country is ever to make […]

Afghanistan

Two Bombings Kill 18 As Hagel Arrives in Afghanistan

Juan Cole

The Taliban appear to have strategized embarrassing new Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. As he arrived in Kabul on his first visit to Afghanistan, a suicide bomber on a bicycle detonated his payload in front of the Ministry of Defense, killing nine civilian bystanders. This was obviously a purely symbolic act, since it did no […]

Afghanistan

Overcoming Woman-Hatred in Afghanistan: 3 Stories

Juan Cole

In honor of International Women’s Day, here is a short documentary on women in Afghanistan, focusing on three women who have achieved something in recent years, after Taliban rule was overthrown. The Taliban state was perhaps the most misogynistic in world history, which is fancy way of saying that they absolute hate women.

Egypt

Muslim Opposition to the Muslim Religious Right Grows, from Egypt to Bangladesh

Juan Cole

The headlines this week were full of stories from the Muslim world about Muslims attacking the Muslim religious Right, whether the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the Jama’at-i Islami in Bangladesh. The rise of the religious Right in politics is producing a backlash throughout the region. Part of the backlash comes from secularists of Muslim […]