Jeremy Scahill on the ‘expanding US war in Pakistan’.
Latest Updates: war on terror RSS
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thabet
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plimfix
Two revelations today. First, unbeknown to me and others, the much criticised Sufi Muslim Council — who claimed to have the support of the ’silent majority’ of British Muslims — were being funded by the UK government, under their anti-terrorism programme Prevent. Not much of surprise really, given the group’s vocal support for New Labour’s anti-terrorism policy. Second, they won’t be getting any funding in 2010. In respect of the latter revelation, as they say in my part of the world, there’ll be more laughers than criers.
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thabet
A killer above the law?
Nor is it surprising that the Ministry of Defence responds to the news with bland assurances that every effort is made to ensure that drones are used in compliance with the laws of war. There are “no reports” of civilian casualties, the ministry adds. If taken at face value, these are heartening assurances. But they also illustrate the heart of the problem: the use of killer drones is shrouded in secrecy, and the accountability mechanisms that apply to regular warfare are simply absent.
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willow
A disturbing report in Harper’s Magazine brings to light shocking new claims about the 2006 Guantanamo “suicides”. Bonus: signs of the Obama administration’s complicity in continuing the cover-up.
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plimfix
The British government’s Prevent anti-terrorism strategy has been educating young Muslims about ‘propaganda’. Only I wouldn’t call it education. I’d call it indoctrination. But perhaps that’s because I subscribe to Terry Pratchett’s ideals on education: build a library, and open the doors.
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aziz
Daniel Larison has a really important post discussing jihadism, anti-jihadism, and Palestine that is must-reading and really explains a lot about how people with sincere anti-jihadist sentiments are usually reflexively pro-Israeli. As someone myself who is critical of Israel but very much anti-hirabist, this is a very helpful analysis in understanding people who by all rights should be my allies but instead end up in oopposition to over a conflict that really has very little to do with our national security.
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aziz
The NYT goes inside Obama’s War on Terrorism. It’s essential reading and effectively answers the leftist complaint that Obama has not differentiated himself enough from Bush/lived up to promises about change. I think the operative phrase people are using is “change we can make believe in” – one that the article does a lot to refute.
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johnpi
Pakistanis to Clinton: War on terror is not our war.
After three days of encounters with America-bashing Pakistanis — who rejected her contention that the U.S. and Pakistan face a common enemy — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that “we’re not getting through.”
Amazing. The Pakistanis have spent years training and enabling extremist violence in Kashmir and Afghanistan to create “strategic depth” against India, and now its blowing up in their face. After America and the terrorists themselves, Pakistan owns the war on terror more than any other nation on the planet.
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thabet
A very interesting documentary by Rageh Omaar at Al-Jazeera about America’s ‘new frontline’ in the war on terror, which was opened in Africa when the Bush administration decided to topple the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia.
Omaar, Somali-born and a former BBC reporter, travelled the width of Africa from the Horn of Africa, crossing the pan-Sahel region, through to oil-rich West Africa. The documentary pins the blame directly on the Bush administration for the current troubles in Somalia, and for letting poor countries of the Sahel region use the war on terror as a cover to violently suppress localised problems (e.g. the Tuareg in Niger).
Omaar asks whether Barack Obama can or will change course by ending his documentary in Cameroon, contrasting the earlier positive moves (e.g. Obama’s support for a Somali politician ousted by the Bush-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia), with the negative activities such as the training received by a special forces group belonging to the Cameroonian president-dictator.
Unsurprisingly, there are lots of comments by those interviewed, including some local activists, that the US is only interested in resources of these states — the Sahel region has significant deposits of uranium, and West Africa has lots of oil and gas.
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aziz
Mainframes against Terror: IBM enlists in the fight against Al Qaeda.
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buzz
First president of Iran has an op/ed in the NY Times suggesting moderate Islam for Afghanistan and no surge.
PARIS — In Afghanistan, where young people have placed themselves on waiting lists to become suicide bombers, increasing the number of soldiers — whether U.S., NATO or Afghan (in order to “Afghanize” the war) — will prolong the conflict rather than end it.
The decades of violence and instability in Afghanistan require a deeper answer to a deeper problem. What the country needs is an interpretation of Islam that embraces freedom and human rights instead of violence and tribal oppression. Everything else is a Band-Aid.
The despotic and misogynist narratives of Islam that predominate now must be challenged by alternative interpretations of Islam. The argument that Afghanistan is “not ready” for democracy and only capable of authoritarian politics misses this point entirely and condemns Afghanistan to a permanent state of war.
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Religion has become about power. The most abhorrent form of this violence, suicide bombing, is the direct result of the dominance of a religious interpretation that sanctifies violence. Unless this changes, religion in Afghanistan will continue to serve the fundamentalist powers and those who are nourished by the politics of fear.
What is required instead is a revival of the repressed traditions of Islamic thought and practice, such as the concept of “Tawhid.” This is a worldview that regards the whole of existence as a single form. The whole of existence is a single living and conscious organism, possessing will, intelligence, feeling and purpose. This encompassing existence is damaged by conflict and by separation from others.
There is a similar sentiment in the Washington Post. Instead of nation building, now the US should be in the business of Culture Building. Hmm…sounds vaguely familiar.
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buzz
As discussed previously, there is proof that the strategy of keeping Al-Qaeda “on their ass” as Bob Woodward mentioned on This Week, is working. A mixed strategy of diplomacy, hearts and minds battle, intel, special forces and tech. Should make Prez-Barack’s decision in Afghanistan a little easier. No surge will be my bet.
WASHINGTON — Eight years after 9/11, the specter of terrorism still haunts the United States. Just last week, F.B.I. agents were working double time to unravel the alarming case of a Denver airport shuttle driver accused of training with explosives in Pakistan and buying bomb-making chemicals. In Dallas, a young Jordanian was charged with trying to blow up a skyscraper; in Springfield, Ill., a prison parolee was arrested for trying to attack the local federal building. Meanwhile, the Obama administration struggled to decide whether sending many more troops to Afghanistan would be the best way to forestall a future attack.
But important as they were, those news reports masked a surprising and perhaps heartening long-term trend: Many students of terrorism believe that in important ways, Al Qaeda and its ideology of global jihad are in a pronounced decline — with its central leadership thrown off balance as operatives are increasingly picked off by missiles and manhunts and, more important, with its tactics discredited in public opinion across the Muslim world.
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aziz
I argue that 9-11 was indeed an outlier, and propose the idea we don’t need a war on terror per se anymore. Patr one of a series of posts on the “post 9-11″ world.
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buzz
Osama Bin Laden poked his head out of his cave again this fall indicating atleast 6 more months of Jihad. However, he also indicated there was a path towards truce: Screw Israel.
I’m on board.
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thabet
The White House comes up with new metrics to gauge the success of its
War on TerrorOverseas Contingency Operations:Administration officials are conducting what one called a “test run” of the metrics, comparing current numbers in a range of categories — including newly trained Afghan army recruits, Pakistani counterinsurgency missions and on-time delivery of promised U.S. resources — with baselines set earlier in the year. The results will be used to fine-tune the list before it is presented to Congress by Sept. 24.
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abunoor
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs used the term “War on Terror” at today’s Press Conference, although it had been previously indicated that this term would no longer be used.
Of course, the administration will still get credit from Muslims for not using the term even though they use it, just as they get credit for closing Guantanamo, even though Guantanamo is still open and more than 90 percent of the detainees who were there when Obama took office are still there.
Although it must be admitted that Obama always said he was going to escalate the war in Afghanistan during the campaign, its just that most of his supporters thought that was just his clever way of criticizing the Iraq war and didn’t believe he would really do it.
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buzz
US Afghan strategy ‘not working’
General Stanley McChrystal will liken the US military to a bull charging at a matador [the Taliban] – slightly weakened with each “cut” it receives.
Which is why we need a small footprint, long occupation and a fleet of drones that can rain hell at anytime. Unfortunately, if the US mil leaves, the taliban hillbillies come down from their caves and start ruining the average afghani’s life again with their bumpkin version of shariah.
BBC Source.
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johnpi
CNN dumped a half dozen stories today onto their website about Al Qaeda, Pakistan, Anjem Choudhary and Al Muhajiroun in America, the ‘Islamic Thinkers Society’ and other assorted hot buttons with this editor’s note:
This story is based on interrogation reports that form part of the prosecution case in the forthcoming trial of six Belgian citizens charged with participation in a terrorist group. Versions of those documents were obtained by CNN from the defense attorney of one of those suspects. The statement by Bryant Vinas was compiled from an interview he gave Belgian prosecutors in March in New York and was confirmed by U.S. prosecutors as authentic. The statement by Walid Othmani was given to French investigators and was authenticated by Belgian prosecutors.
Bryant Vinas is an American citizen who left the US to go fight jihad in September 2007 and was arrested in November 2008 in Peshawar. Somehow this guy seems to have gotten a lot of mileage with Al Qaeda during the time he was over there.
To access all the stories just scroll dow a little ways and you will see the hotlink box to the others on the left.
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johnpi
Daniel Patrick Boyd.
The local Muslim community in North Carolina is responding to the arrests of seven in that state on terrorism charges.
Sabrina Boyd, whose husband and two sons are among the seven who have been arrested says in a statement read at this press conference:
The charges have not been substantiated. We are an ordinary family. We have a right to justice, and believe that justice will prevail. We are decent people who care about other human beings. Just because something is said in the media does not make it so. I have raised my sons to be good people, and we are a good family.
Indictments always seem factual, and their appearance, but to rush to judgment is not a part of the process. And we kindly ask for our right to defense on the charges alleged on our family.
Spokesperson described Sabrina Boyd’s concerns further:
The news has repeatedly spoken about her husband’s time in Afghanistan. He was there fighting against the Soviets with the full backing of the United States government. She does not want Afghanistan to be used to connect him with any kind of terrorism.
In the subsequent Q and A with reporters, the spokesperson, who knows the Boyd family is asked a series of insinuating questions about Boyd’s beliefs (“Were you surprised?”), and about the allegation in the indictment that Boyd believed it was his religious obligation to engage in violence. The spokes person flat-out reject the assertion, saying that “there is no Islamic leader and no Islamic community in this country that would back that.” The government and media are also playing up Boyd’s opposition to US government policy in Afghanistan, and to the Israeli occupation. By the standard of being troubled by US government policies in these places, I’m a suspect! Message to US Muslims: STFU.
The spokesperson also refuted as untrue the allegation of the US attorney that Boyd had stopped attending Friday prayer to hold meetings in his home instead because he differed with the moderates in his local mosque. Boyd and his family never stopped attending Jumaah at local mosques.
There’s also a news report from one of the local TV stations, “Accused terrorist led contradictory life,” that begins with the classic crime story cliche, “Neighbors say he was a quiet man.” It’s interesting to watch this after watching the full video of the news conference to see what actually made it onto the 6 o’clock news…
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johnpi
Seven arrested in North Carolina, accused of military-style training at home and plotting “violent jihad” through a series of terror attacks abroad, federal authorities said Monday. Authorities are focusing on the “leader,” one Daniel Patrick Boyd.
Officials said the group was led by Daniel Patrick Boyd, a married 39-year-old who lived in an unassuming lakeside home in a rural area south of Raleigh, where he and his family walked their dog and operated a drywall business. But two decades ago, Boyd, who is a U.S. citizen, trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan and fought against the Soviets for three years before returning to the United States.
An indictment released Monday does not detail any specific terrorist plans or targets overseas, although it claims some of the defendants traveled to Israel in 2007 with the intent of waging “violent jihad” and returned home without success.
One JAFI (“Just Another F******* Islamophobe”) website I saw was trying to draw some kind of specious link to North Carolina state Senator Larry Shaw who is a director of CAIR.
Of course, such a story could not be produced without our friends at the FBI dropping the “enemies living among us” fearmonger, salted with evocative verbiage about secret Muslim terrorists that “fester” while “honing” their morbid skills. From the FBI’s press release:
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johnpi
Muslims in the media/summer reading selection – Former Salon editor’s new book “Zeitoun,” on a Syrian Muslim immigrant’s experience of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath.
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thabet
The United Nations has released a new report on accountability for human rights abuses by the United States, focusing mostly on transgressions during the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror. In a word, accountability in the U.S. has been “deplorable.”
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thabet
How the Obama administration has re-branded America’s War on Terror as a Pakistani war.
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shahed
My interview with Reza Aslan is up at altmuslim.com.
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thabet
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thabet
Condoleezza Rice approved the use of torture.
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thabet
Book review of Reza Aslan’s How To Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror.
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thabet
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thabet
Two generally positive reviews of Mahmood Mamdani’s Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror.
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Kawthar
FBI informant steps out of the closet:
The claim by Craig Monteilh, a 46-year-old Irvine resident, that he had been sent by the FBI to infiltrate several Orange County mosques could affect the government’s case against Ahmadullah Sais Niazi. His allegations highlight recurring issues about the use of informants by law enforcement agencies and have fanned long-held fears by some Muslim leaders about religious profiling.
Monteilh said in interviews that he had alerted the FBI to Niazi after meeting him at the Islamic Center of Irvine in November 2006 and spending eight months with him. Monteilh said he called himself Farouk Al-Aziz and posed as a Syrian-French American in search of his Islamic roots. Monteilh told the FBI that Niazi befriended him and began to lecture him about jihad, gave him lessons in bomb-making and discussed plots to blow up Orange County landmarks.
