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By Editor, on September 9th, 2011%
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Sep 5, 2011 (IPS) – When David Petraeus walks into the Central Intelligence Agency Tuesday, he will be taking over an organisation whose mission has changed in recent years from gathering and analysing intelligence to waging military campaigns through drone strikes in Pakistan, as well as in Yemen and Somalia.
But the transformation of the CIA did not simply follow the expansion of the drone war in Pakistan to its present level. CIA Director Michael Hayden lobbied hard for that expansion at a time when drone strikes seemed like a failed experiment. Continue reading CIA’s Push for Drone War Driven by Internal Needs
By Editor, on September 1st, 2011%
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Aug 31, 2011 (IPS) – In focusing entirely on the alleged links between four Hezbollah activists and the 2005 bombing that killed Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the indictment issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon earlier this month has continued the practice of the U.N investigation before it of refusing to acknowledge the much stronger evidence that an Al-Qaeda cell was responsible for the assassination. Continue reading Tribunal Concealed Evidence Al-Qaeda Cell Killed Hariri
By Editor, on August 30th, 2011%
Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Aug 29, 2011 (IPS) – The indictment of four men linked to Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri made public by the Special Tribunal on Lebanon Aug. 17 is questionable not because it is based on “circumstantial evidence”, but because that evidence is based on a flawed premise.
The evidence depends on a convoluted theory involving what the indictment calls “co-location” of personal mobile phones associated with five distinct networks said to be somehow connected with the plot to murder Hariri.
Continue reading Hariri Bombing Indictment Based on Flawed Premise
By Editor, on August 17th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
ISLAMABAD, Aug 16, 2011 (IPS) – Pakistani civilian and military leaders are insisting on an effective veto over which targets U.S. drone strikes hit, according to well-informed Pakistani military sources here.
The sources, who met with IPS on condition that they not be identified, said that such veto power over the conduct of the drone war is a central element in a new Pakistani demand for a formal government-to-government agreement on the terms under which the United States and Pakistan will cooperate against insurgents in Pakistan. Continue reading Why Pakistani Military Demands a Veto on Drone Strikes
By Editor, on July 28th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
KABUL, Jul 28, 2011 (IPS) – The Taliban leadership is ready to negotiate peace with the United States right now if Washington indicates its willingness to provide a timetable for complete withdrawal, according to a former Afghan prime minister who set up a secret meeting between a senior Taliban official and a U.S. general two years ago. Continue reading Ex-PM Says Taliban Offer Talks For Pullout Date
By Editor, on July 16th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Jul 14, 2011 (IPS) – The big question looming over U.S.-Iraqi negotiations on a U.S. military presence after 2011 is what game Shi’a leader Moqtada al-Sadr is playing on the issue.
U.S. officials regard Sadr as still resisting the U.S. military presence illegally and are demanding that Sadr call off his Promised Day Brigades completely.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s main point of contact with Sadr says Sadr is playing a double game and does not intend to obstruct the negotiations on a deal for the stationing of 10,000 or more U.S. troops from 2012 onward. Continue reading What Is Sadr’s Game on Future U.S. Troop Presence?
By Editor, on July 4th, 2011%
 U.S. Army soldiers air assault from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter into a village inside Jowlzak valley in Afghanistan's Parwan province on Feb. 3, 2011. By Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON, Jul 3, 2011 (IPS) – Data on attacks by armed opposition forces and U.S. combat casualties since the U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan was completed last summer provide clear evidence that the surge and the increase in targeted killings by Special Operations Forces have failed to break the momentum of the Taliban.
The Taliban and allied insurgent organisations launched 54 percent more attacks and killed or wounded 56 percent more U.S. troops over the nine months from last October through May than in the comparable period a year earlier, according to data collected by the U.S. Department of Defence and by the highly-respected Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO). Continue reading Despite Troop Surge, Taliban Attacks and U.S. Casualties Soared
By Editor, on June 24th, 2011%
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Jun 23, 2011 (IPS) – President Barack Obama’s speech announcing that the 33,000 “surge” troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn by “summer” 2012 indicates that he has given priority to the interests of the military and the Pentagon over concerns by key officials in his administration over the impact of the war’s costs on domestic socioeconomic needs. Continue reading Obama Leaves Door Open to Long-Term U.S. Afghan Combat
By Editor, on June 13th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Jun 12, 2011 (IPS) – During his intensive initial round of media interviews as commander in Afghanistan in August 2010, Gen. David Petraeus released figures to the news media that claimed spectacular success for raids by Special Operations Forces: in a 90-day period from May through July, SOF units had captured 1,355 rank and file Taliban, killed another 1,031, and killed or captured 365 middle or high-ranking Taliban.
Continue reading Ninety Percent of Petraeus’s Captured “Taliban” Were Civilians
By Editor, on June 7th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Jun 7, 2011 (IPS) – Al-Qaeda strategists have been assisting the Taliban fight against U.S.-NATO forces in Afghanistan because they believe that foreign occupation has been the biggest factor in generating Muslim support for uprisings against their governments, according to the just-published book by Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistani journalist whose body was found in a canal outside Islamabad last week with evidence of having been tortured. Continue reading Slain Writer’s Book Says US-NATO War Served Al-Qaeda Strategy
By Editor, on May 31st, 2011%
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, May 31, 2011 (IPS) – The leaked reports over the past two weeks of a series of meetings between U.S. officials and a Taliban figure close to leader Mullah Omar seemed to point to real progress toward a negotiated settlement of the war in Afghanistan.
But in fact the talks are part of a Barack Obama administration strategy aimed at putting pressure on the Taliban leadership in part by dividing it from Pakistan as well as bolstering Obama’s domestic support for the war.
Senior administration officials hope to use the talks to sow suspicion between the Taliban and their main ally, thus weakening the Taliban resolve to negotiate on a peace settlement only if the United States offers a timetable for troop withdrawal. Continue reading U.S. Uses Peace Talks to Divide Taliban from Pakistan
By Editor, on May 26th, 2011%
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2011 (IPS) – The unilateral U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden created a spike in mutual recriminations between U.S. and Pakistani politicians, but their fundamental conflict of interest over Afghanistan was already driving the two countries toward serious confrontation.
The pivotal event in relations between the Barack Obama administration and Pakistan was the decision by Obama to escalate the war in Afghanistan in 2009, despite the knowledge that Pakistan was committed to supporting the Taliban insurgents as a strategic policy in its conflict with India. Continue reading Obama Troop Surge Decision Ignored Pak-Taliban Ties
By Editor, on May 10th, 2011%
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2011 (IPS) – Barack Obama and top administration officials have taken advantage of the killing of Osama bin Laden to establish a new narrative suggesting the event will pave the way for negotiations with the Taliban for peace in Afghanistan.
That good news message, reported by Washington . . . → Read More: After Bin Laden Hit, U.S. Aides Raise Dubious Hopes for Peace
By Editor, on May 5th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2011 (IPS) – When George W. Bush rejected a Taliban offer to have Osama bin Laden tried by a moderate group of Islamic states in mid- October 2001, he gave up the only opportunity the United States would have to end bin Laden’s terrorist career for the . . . → Read More: U.S. Refusal of 2001 Taliban Offer Gave bin Laden a Free Pass
By Editor, on April 28th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Apr 26, 2011 (IPS) – Starting in late 2005, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan began turning detainees over to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), despite its well-known reputation for torture.
Interviews with former U.S. and NATO diplomats and other evidence now available show that United States and . . . → Read More: Why U.S. and NATO Fed Detainees to Afghan Torture System
By Editor, on April 22nd, 2011%
By: Gareth Porter
Thursday April 21, 2011
Last week Barack Obama announced that he wants to cut $400 billion in military spending and said he would work Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs on a “fundamental review” of U.S. “military missions, capabilities and our role in a changing world” before . . . → Read More: The Obama-Gates Maneuver on Military Spending
By Editor, on April 14th, 2011%
Analysis by Gareth Porter * 
WASHINGTON, Apr 13, 2011 (IPS) – The Pakistani military’s recent demands on the United States to curb drone strikes and reduce the number of U.S. spies operating in Pakistan, which have raised tensions between the two countries to a new high, were a response to U.S. military and intelligence programmes that had gone well beyond what the Pakistanis had agreed to in past years. Continue reading Pakistan Moves to Curb More Aggressive U.S. Drone Strikes, Spying
By Editor, on April 7th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Apr 6, 2011 (IPS) – President Barack Obama has given his approval to a Pentagon plan to station U.S. combat troops in Iraq beyond 2011, provided that Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki officially requests it, according to U.S. and Iraqi sources.
But both U.S. and Iraqi officials acknowledge that Maliki may . . . → Read More: Maliki’s Doubts Threaten Post-2011 Troop Presence Plan
By Editor, on March 29th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Mar 28, 2011 (IPS) – The announcement by U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defence Michele Flournoy in Congressional testimony Mar. 15 that the United States would continue to carry out “counter-terrorism operations” from “joint bases” in Afghanistan well beyond 2014 signaled that President Barack Obama has given up the negotiating flexibility . . . → Read More: Long-term Afghan Presence Likely to Derail Peace Talks
By Editor, on March 18th, 2011%
By Gareth Porter and Shah Noori*
WASHINGTON/KABUL, Mar 17, 2011 (IPS) – The number of civilians killed in U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids last year was probably several times higher than the figure of 80 people cited in the U.N. report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan published last week, an IPS investigation has . . . → Read More: U.N. Reported Only a Fraction of Civilian Deaths from U.S. Raids
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