Terrorism

The CIA drone strike in North Waziristan yesterday killed 25 persons and targeted a high-level meeting of the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or TTP). It finally killed TTP leader Hakimu’llah Mahsoud of the large and important Mahsoud tribe in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of northern Pakistan. Mahsoud’s death by drone has been […]

Drones

Pakistani family testifies to empty room on Hill about US Drone that killed Granny

Juan Cole

Congressman Alan Grayson held a hearing on the Hill on Tuesday on civilian deaths in US drone strikes. A Pakistani family, the Ur Rahmans, testified on the death by drone of their grandmother while she was tending her garden. Nine-year-old Nabila Ur Rahman was injured in the strike that killed he grandmother. It was a […]

al-Qaeda

Sanders: Climate Change more Menacing than Terrorism (Germanos)

Juan Cole

Andrea Germanos writes at Commondreams.org: In a newly published interview, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasts the "unfettered capitalism" that has collapsed the middle class, and the corporate power fueling climate change, which poses a "far more serious problem than Al Qaeda." Sanders speaking about the government shutdown’s impacts. (Photo: AFGE/cc/flickr) Speaking with economics writer Jonathan […]

Drones

As Pakistan says US Drones killed 400 Civilians, UN Report Demands US Data (Ross)

Juan Cole

Alice K. Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: A report by a UN expert urges the US to ‘release its own data on the level of civilian casualties’ caused by drone strikes and attacks the lack of transparency surrounding CIA and US special forces drone operations. Ben Emmerson, a British barrister and UN […]

Drones

US Drone strikes Continue in Pakistan despite PM Nawaz Sharif’s UN Protest (Serle)

Juan Cole

Jack Serle writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism The CIA launched four attacks [on Pakistan in September] – the second most attacks in one month so far this year. At least 16 people were killed in these attacks – none of them reportedly a civilian. This was the ninth consecutive month without a confirmed […]

Afghanistan

Sakharov Prize-winner Malala Yousafazai Calls on US Gov’t to Conduct talks with Taliban (Queally)

Juan Cole

Malala Yousafzai has won the Sakharov Prize for free speech and human rights. Jon Queally writes at Commondreams.org: ” Malala Yousafzai, the sixteen-year-old girl shot in the head by Taliban members in her native Pakistan for speaking out for women's right to education, is calling out the U.S. government and her own for refusing to […]

Afghanistan

Militant Secularism in the Middle East?

Juan Cole

The youth organizations that made the 2011 revolutions were predominantly leftist or liberal. They revolted against seedy police states run by family cartels and their cronies. They had allies among labor unions and office workers. These movements demanded free, fair parliamentary elections as the next step. But the groups best organized to campaign, canvass and […]

al-Qaeda

Taliban on the Euphrates: Syria fighters Dump Moderate SNC, Aim for Fundamentalist State

Juan Cole

The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat [Life] reports that 14 bands of fighters in Syria have broken with the moderate Syrian National Council led by Ahmad al-Jarba and have repudiated its Free Syrian Army. The importance of this development should not be underestimated. It will throw a scare into Baghdad and Amman, and will provoke serious thought […]

Africa

Alshabab attack on Nairobi a Sign of Political Defeat

Juan Cole

The horrible attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi by members of the Alshabab terrorist group from neighboring Somalia is the act of a declining political movement that has lost enormous ground in recent years. When we see this sort of naked terror, it is important to know if an ascendant group is announcing itself […]