Pakistan blast kills 3 US Marines, School kids, Taliban own up,

Islamic World News

Pakistan blast kills 3 US Marines, School kids, Taliban own up

Three US soldiers were among 10 people killed when a bomb blast hit a convoy near a school in north-west Pakistan.

Three schoolgirls were among the dead while 70 people, including another 63 schoolgirls and two US soldiers, were injured in the explosion in Lower Dir.

The US embassy said the military personnel had been training Pakistan's Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency.

Both governments deny large numbers of US troops are in Pakistan, where public opinion opposes their presence.

The US embassy in Islamabad confirmed in a statement three American military personnel were killed and two wounded in what it branded a "vicious terrorist bombing".

The Pakistani military and the government are both extremely sensitive about the strong US presence in their country and both appear to be saying different things to different audiences.

Officially the government says it is deeply concerned about increasing numbers of US diplomatic and aid staff who have appeared in the country since US President Barack Obama declared the country to be a top foreign policy priority.

The Pakistani authorities have on several occasions during the past five months arrested American officials - in Lahore and Peshawar - who were suspected of having incorrect paperwork.

But unofficially the government is believed to be relying on US effort and expertise to fight the Taliban.

The statement also said the Americans had been due to attend the inauguration of a girls' school recently renovated with US humanitarian assistance.

Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to AFP news agency.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan-blast-kills-3-us-marines,-school-kids,-taliban-own-up/islamic-world-news/d/2446

Obama names special envoy to the Muslim world, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Obama names special envoy to the Muslim world

In case you were out of the house Saturday doing errands and forgetting to get your special someone a sweet something for Valentine's Day, President Obama chose that day to make a surprise announcement.

The announcement came in a special video which he taped for the U.S.-Islamic World Conference meeting now in Qatar. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was there Sunday.

But it was Obama who announced, as a continuation of his determined outreach to the world's Muslim communities, the appointment of a special emissary to the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference that bills itself as the collective voice of the Muslim world.

He's Rashad Hussain, a deputy associate counsel, who, of course, has a Harvard degree. Obama, who spent his childhood in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has made....

...several such outreaches -- such as his special Hajj message here in November -- with special taped messages on Muslim holidays and his trip to and speech in Cairo last summer. So far, the gestures have gone unrequited.

The president said:

As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff, Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo. And as a hafiz of the Qur’an, he is a respected member of the American Muslim community.

One White House official called the move an "important part of the president's commitment to engaging Muslims around the world based on mutual respect and mutual interest."

Obama sends B team Biden to Canada's Vancouver Winter Olympics

Obama nears Day 400: What's happened to him?

http://newageislam.com/obama-names-special-envoy-to-the-muslim-world/islamic-world-news/d/2466

Did Obama Take His Eyes off the Palestine Ball?, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Did Obama Take His Eyes off the Palestine Ball?

By Daoud Kuttab

December 30, 2009

For a few minutes on Sunday I wondered what would have happened if I was reading rather than listening to US President Barack Obama's statement from Hawaii. The US president took time off his Christmas vacation to speak about the incident that occurred on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Had I not heard his voice and seen his picture, I would have thought that the speaker was none other than former US president George W. Bush. What has happened to Obama in less than one year?

Unlike any of his previous speeches, Obama spoke totally out of script by using the word "terrorism" three times in a statement that lasted only a few minutes. Until this incident, Obama had preferred to use the word "radical" or "extremist" rather than much more emotionally loaded terrorists and terrorism.

What made the statement sound more like a Bush speech rather than an Obama one was the reference to the aim of the anti-American attackers. Obama had the following to say: "Those plotting against us seek not only to undermine our security, but also the open society and the values that we cherish as Americans."

Obama clearly capitulated to forces on the right who have repeatedly described any attack against the US because of its foreign policy as attacks against America's "open society" and American "values".

What has happened to President Obama?

Is it simply that he was shocked that people around the world would dare attack America and American soil despite his own pro-world point of view? Is it that he is so angry that he is unable to realise that his own decision to ratchet up US presence in Afghanistan would inevitably produce anti-American violence?

http://newageislam.com/did-obama-take-his-eyes-off-the-palestine-ball?/war-on-terror/d/2316

Female Imams: Searching for American “nu ahongs”, Islam, Women and Feminism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam, Women and Feminism

Female Imams: Searching for American “nu ahongs”

A quiet Muslim community known as the Hui that has long been buried among China's Buddhist majority has recently been receiving attention for its nu ahong - female spiritual leaders. While the spotlight is new, the concept is not. As early as the late Ming dynasty (around the 17th century), the faithful set up Muslim schools catering exclusively to young females and by the arrival of the late Qing dynasty in the 19th century, these schools had transformed into mosques operated by and serving women. In the coming decades, the practice of female Imams, if you will, permeated all Chinese Muslim societies.

Today the Hui, a traditional, unassuming community comprised largely of farmers, shopkeepers and craftsmen, continues to borrow from this egalitarian concept of both learned men and women piloting mosques. The Hui encourage their Muslim women to seek employment in mosques as nu ahong — the phrase is derived from the Persian word akhund, meaning “teacher.” Among these women are those who live in small apartments within the mosque or within an affiliated Muslim school and receive salaries, just as an Imam would, while a smaller number live with families and volunteer. Some nu ahong serve in mosques that are entirely separate from men’s mosques, but most cordon off and use rooms within men’s mosques.

In addition to presiding over nu si (women’s mosques), a nu ahong’s duties may include ritual guidance at marriages and funerals, preaching, resolving political and social disputes, and offering moral guidance and counseling. But perhaps her most important work, given how Islam values women as the first teachers of children, is that of educator of the Arabic language, the Qur'an and the Hadith.

http://newageislam.com/female-imams--searching-for-american-%E2%80%9Cnu-ahongs%E2%80%9D/islam,-women-and-feminism/d/2380

A culture of fear: Pankaj Mishra on the 'Eurabia-mongers', Muslims and Islamophobia, NewAgeIslam.com

Muslims and Islamophobia

A culture of fear: Pankaj Mishra on the 'Eurabia-mongers'

Is Europe about to be overrun by Muslims? A number of prominent European and American politicians and journalists seem to think so. The historian Niall Ferguson has predicted that "a youthful Muslim society to the south and east of the Mediterranean is poised to colonise - the term is not too strong - a senescent Europe". And according to Christopher Caldwell, an American columnist with the Financial Times, whom the Observer recently described as a "bracing, clear-eyed analyst of European pieties", Muslims are already "conquering Europe's cities, street by street". So what if Muslims account for only 3% to 4% of the EU's total population of 493 million? In his book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Can Europe Be the Same With Different People in It? - which was featured on Start the Week, excerpted in Prospect, commended as "morally serious" by the New York Times and has beguiled some liberal opinion-makers as well as rightwing blowhards - Caldwell writes: "Of course minorities can shape countries. They can conquer countries. There were probably fewer Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 than there are Islamists in Europe today."

http://newageislam.com/a-culture-of-fear--pankaj-mishra-on-the--eurabia-mongers--/muslims-and-islamophobia/d/1727

Obama to Muslims: Rhetoric and reality, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Obama to Muslims: Rhetoric and reality

Speaking then to the Palestinians he said that they must renounce violence in their turn, and offered the example of the (mostly) peaceful American civil rights movement that eventually saw a new dawn for Americans who were not white, a dawn which matured into the daylight in which he, a black American, now stands. He touched other hot-button issues - Iran and nuclear power, democracy (in particular the tendency of those who call loudly for it whilst out of power and then leave it by the wayside when they are in it), the rights of women, religious freedom and the lack of it in much of the Muslim world, globalization and modernity and the fears that can come with the sense that the rest of the world wants the Muslim world to blithely follow where it is being led. No American President has ever gone out of his way to reach out to the Muslim world in the way that President Obama has. We applaud that. But our applause is discreet rather than rapturous for these are as yet mere words. Were we ever to see all - or any - of them transition from rhetoric to reality then the applause would thunder across the world, and bring together the hands of every faith.

http://newageislam.com/obama-to-muslims--rhetoric-and-reality--/islam-and-the-west/d/1444

The Obama Presidency and the Muslims of America, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

The Obama Presidency and the Muslims of America

By: Waheeduddin Ahmed Ph.D.

One of the only two Muslim members of the Congress, Keith Ellison, was kept away from the company of the candidate lest the appearance of association may spoil the chances of election. Now, any misgivings among the Jewish electorate about the President-elect‘s favorable attitude towards Israel has been dispelled by the appointment of Rahm Emanuel, an ardent Zionist, as the Chief of Staff. In short, Barack Hussain Obama knows that in order to demonstrate his American-ness, he will have to run faster and faster from his Hussaini heritage and disown its barakah. The President-elect is, after all, a product of the system and is no revolutionary. We can’t have Che Guevaras running this country.

What does all this indicate? It indicates that Muslims are a pariah in the United States, Obama or no-Bama .It took Collin Powell to put a finger on the pulse of the nation but the truth is that no cure is even being contemplated. The frenzy among Muslims about the election result will be short-lived and the Obamania will be soon cured with a bitter pill of reality.

The American elections are about winning and the governing is about surviving and getting re-elected. Obama or no-Bama, the biggest players in the politics and the economics of this country are the corporate interests of oil, pharmaceutical, banking and insurance companies, which preside over a system of serfdom, putting their vicegerents as elected official at the helm. The recent financial crisis has lifted the curtain on the scene of this neo-serfdom in which we saw, for once, the captives breaking loose and running hither and thither but make no mistake; they will soon be rounded up and put behind bars --- the bars of indifference and ignorance.

http://newageislam.com/the-obama-presidency-and-the-muslims-of-america--/islam-and-the-west/d/993

Terrorism in Pakistan, Celebrating Ramadan, jihadi style, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Terrorism in Pakistan, Celebrating Ramadan, jihadi style

By Muqtedar Khan

Ramadan mubarak?

In the month of Ramadan, when even frowning is undesirable, some Muslims with poisoned minds have chosen to murder and maim indiscriminately.

On September 6th, in the first week of Ramadan, two suicide bombers killed over 50 people in Peshawar, Pakistan. On September 13th, five bombs killed over 30 in New Delhi, India. On September 15th, a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a Ramadan fast breaking ceremony killing 22 people in Diyala, Iraq. On September 17th, a truck bomb and some militants attacked the US embassy in San'a, Yemen killing 16 people and on September 20th a massive truck bomb killed over 60 people in Islamabad, Pakistan.

All of these attacks have been conducted by people who call themselves "Jihadis", this they claim is their struggle in the path of God. One cannot imagine to what extent the minds and the hearts of these people have become poisoned that in the month of Ramadan when even frowning is undesirable, they chose to murder and maim indiscriminately. The most incomprehensible aspect of these atrocities is that a vast majority of their victims are the very people on whose behalf these wars are waged!

If they want to fight and die for God, they are welcome. There are over 200,000 American soldiers, in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are there specifically to oblige them. Why not go and fight them?

http://newageislam.com/terrorism-in-pakistan,-celebrating-ramadan,-jihadi-style/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/866

American Media Wake Up to 'Ugly Innuendo' on Islam, but only after Colin Powell’s intervention, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

American Media Wake Up to 'Ugly Innuendo' on Islam, but only after Colin Powell’s intervention

He told Tom Brokaw that he was troubled by what other Republicans, not McCain, had said: “‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

Powell got a note from Feroze Khan this week thanking him for telling the world that Muslim-Americans are as good as any others. But he also received more e-mails insisting that Obama is a Muslim and one calling him “unconstitutional and unbiblical” for daring to support a socialist. He got a mass e-mail from a man wanting to spread the word that Obama was reading a book about the end of America written by a fellow Muslim.

“Holy cow!” Powell thought. Upon checking Amazon.com, he saw that it was a reference to Fareed Zakaria, a Muslim who writes a Newsweek column and hosts a CNN foreign affairs show. His latest book is “The Post-American World.”

http://newageislam.com/american-media-wake-up-to--ugly-innuendo--on-islam,-but-only-after-colin-powell%E2%80%99s-intervention--/islamic-world-news/d/933

The rise (and fall?) of petro-states, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

The rise (and fall?) of petro-states

By Sreeram Chaulia

The Kremlin’s assertiveness and strident defence of national interests in the Putin era is ascribed to the boom in world prices of natural gas and oil, which Russia exports in abundance. Russia reaped direct dividends of the steep incline in fossil fuel prices by accumulating foreign exchange reserves to the tune of $560 billion by mid-2008. Indirectly, possession of the much-coveted strategic minerals enabled Russia to neutralise energy-hungry western European countries, particularly Germany, so that the ‘West’ was divided from taking an anti-Moscow foreign policy line.

Ever since fossil fuel prices inflated from 2004, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa saw their own versions of petro-states that turned into major regional powers to threaten American hegemony. Thanks to steady increases in the price of oil, Iran’s star rose astronomically in the most volatile area of the world. As the second largest producer of oil and natural gas, Iran could build its own web of alliances in Europe and the rest of Asia to counter the impending American and Israeli threats to its territorial integrity.

Flush with petro-dollars, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad matched American and Israeli belligerence with a scaled-up defiance that brought back memories of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The thawing of revolutionary anti-Americanism of the late 1990s when moderate Presidents like Mohammad Khatami were in power also coincided with artificially depressed world oil prices. When crude sold for less than $25 a barrel, Tehran had a scantier resource base on which to strengthen its military and diplomatic fortifications. By the time it peaked to $145 a barrel, Mr. Ahmadinejad could afford to be as hawkish as the Ayatollahs who supervise him.

http://newageislam.com/the-rise-(and-fall?)-of-petro-states--/islam-and-politics/d/942

Pakistan: US attack inside Pakistan - a wake-up call, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Pakistan: US attack inside Pakistan - a wake-up call

By Rasul Bakhsh Rais

September 09, 2008

The chaotic conditions in the tribal belt are well known: breakdown of the old socio-political order; inflow of foreign militants; and now the rise of the Pakistani brand of the Taliban movement with transnational links to likeminded groups in the region. With the militancy growing and American patience running out, Pakistan faces a complex security situation in the region that can have adverse spill-over effects for other areas of the country as well as Afghanistan. And while our security forces are battling the Taliban, suffering major losses, NATO and the US have not made things easier for us by regularly attacking targets inside our territory.

To begin with, American attacks on Pakistani villages indicate a lack of trust in the ability of Pakistani forces and the political will of the government to use force against the militants. They also go against the understanding between Washington and Islamabad on sharing responsibilities and tasks in combating terrorism, i.e. the US would help Pakistani forces build up their counterinsurgency capacity, but the actual fighting would be done by the Pakistani forces.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--us-attack-inside-pakistan---a-wake-up-call-/war-on-terror/d/720

The World Still Blames America for 9/11, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

The World Still Blames America for 9/11

By Michelle Malkin: Townhall.com Columnist

Friday, September 12, 2008

In 2006, the AQ flacks released tape of Osama bin Laden at an Afghan training camp with several of the 9/11 hijackers. "I ask you to pray for them and to ask God to make them successful, aim their shots well, set their feet strong and strengthen their hearts," bin Laden urged in the sicko promo. In April, another clip showed irate and aggrieved jihadi leader Ayman al-Zawahri lambasting Hezbollah for crediting Israel for the 9/11 attacks. "The purpose of this lie is clear -- (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he griped.

But to no avail. Maybe this is why FBI Most Wanted Terrorist Adam Yahiye Gadahn, the American-born Muslim convert turned al-Qaida publicist, has not been heard from in a while. He's been falling down on the job. Either that or those damned 9/11 Truther conspiracy nuts have surpassed the Islamic jihadis' recruitment efforts on YouTube. Time to hire a new viral violence marketing team.

So, who's stealing the bin Laden operation's thunder around the globe and getting all the blame (er, credit) for the September 11 terrorist attacks? The citizens of the world have cast their vote. Seven years after Mohamed Atta, Hani Hanjour and their Allahu Akbar-screaming team succeeded in slaughtering nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children, large numbers of our putative allies in the civilized world still blame America and Israel.

http://newageislam.com/the-world-still-blames-america-for-9/11/war-on-terror/d/723

Tariq Ali: Has the U.S. Invasion of Pakistan Begun?, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Tariq Ali: Has the U.S. Invasion of Pakistan Begun?

In Iraq, 146,000 American soldiers seem not to be going anywhere anytime soon, while in Afghanistan another 33,000 embattled American troops (and tens of thousands of NATO troops), suffering their highest casualties since the Taliban fell in 2001, are fighting a spreading insurgency backed by growing anger over foreign occupation. The disintegration seems to be proceeding apace in that country as the Taliban begins tothrottle the supply routes leading into the Afghan capital of Kabul, while the governor of a province just diedin an IED blast. "President" Hamid Karzai was long ago nicknamed "the mayor of Kabul." Today, that tag seems ever more appropriate as the influence of his corrupt government steadily weakens.

In the meantime, in Pakistan, a new war, no less unpredictable and unpalatable than the last two, develops, as American strikes fan the flames of Pakistani nationalism. Already the Pakistani military may have fired itsfirst warning shots at American troops. Part of the horror here is that much of the present nightmare in Afghanistan and Pakistan can be traced to the sorry U.S. relationship with Pakistan's military and its intelligence services back in the early 1980s. At that time, in its anti-Soviet jihad, the Reagan administration was, in conjunction with the Pakistanis, actively nurturing the forces that the Bush administration is now so intent on fighting. No one knows this story, this record, better than the Pakistani-born journalist and writer Tariq Ali.

http://newageislam.com/tariq-ali--has-the-u.s.-invasion-of-pakistan-begun?/war-on-terror/d/737

Is this the fruit of Yemen’s Deals with Jihadists, America wonders: 16 Are Killed in Attack on U.S. Embassy, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Is this the fruit of Yemen’s Deals with Jihadists, America wonders: 16 Are Killed in Attack on U.S. Embassy

By ROBERT F. WORTH

Published: September 17, 2008

Yemeni security officials and witnesses said the death toll was at least 16, including four bystanders, one of them an Indian woman. The other dead were six attackers and six security guards, the Yemeni officials said, speaking in return for anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Yemen’s official Saba news agency also reported that 16 people were killed.

Ryan Gliha, an embassy spokesman, said via e-mail that the attack took place at 9:15 a.m. The embassy would remain closed for now, he said, but gave no further details.

It was the deadliest attack in years on an American target in Yemen, a poor south Arabian country of 22 million where militants aligned with Al Qaeda have carried out a number of recent strikes.

The attack began when a car raced up to the heavily fortified embassy compound. Several attackers got out and began firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles at the guards who returned the fire, the Yemeni official said.

http://newageislam.com/is-this-the-fruit-of-yemen%E2%80%99s-deals-with-jihadists,-america-wonders--16-are-killed-in-attack-on-u.s.-embassy-/war-on-terror/d/738

Israel’s ‘no’ to Palestinians costing them a great deal, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Israel’s ‘no’ to Palestinians costing them a great deal

By S. Nihal Singh

Israelis are doing precisely that — expanding their illegal settlements on the West Bank and expropriating even more land on the fringes of the Wall that replicates the doomed apartheid experiment in South Africa. All that the energetic US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice can do in response is to murmur her displeasure in an undertone.

Palestinians themselves are hopelessly divided between the Fatah and Hamas factions, the latter controlling a Gaza Strip converted by Israel into a vast open-air prison. The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ rationale for continuing his make-believe talks with Mr Olmert on an illusory peace process is that the alternative would be war. Arab efforts at reconciling the two Palestinian factions have yielded little but recrimination.

The truth is that with Americans perennially handicapped by the clout of the American-Jewish lobby and the love of the Christian evangelical Right for Israel, no US administration can do much to resolve the problem. Mr Barack Obama, who flaunts his liberal credentials, was the first to pay homage to the Israeli lobby, promoting the dubious Israeli claim to an undivided Jerusalem as its capital.

http://newageislam.com/israel%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98no%E2%80%99-to-palestinians-costing-them-a-great-deal/islam-and-the-west/d/744

Islamabad diary: Confusion of the lambs, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Islamabad diary: Confusion of the lambs

By Ayaz Amir

Friday, September 19, 2008

et even as the Pakistan army, helpless against American pressure, is carrying out this operation---very much in line with an American-dictated agenda---the Americans have taken to carrying out missile strikes from Predator drones against targets in the tribal areas. Osama bin Laden may be the leading symbol of terror for the US. But for the embattled people of FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) the leading symbol of terror is the Predator drone and the Hellfire missiles streaming from its side.

This is a strange war we are caught in. The US is losing in Afghanistan and the Taliban, as all the evidence suggests, are getting stronger by the day. What happened to the Soviet army in the 1980s is what is happening to the US military 20 odd years later. Yet instead of doing a rethink about how it is fighting its Afghan war, the US is taking its anger out on Pakistan. Two hundred years of history have made the Afghans into a tough target. Our birth 61 years ago and our subsequent history have condemned us to be a soft target. Perhaps it is safe to predict that the more the going gets tough for the Americans in Afghanistan, the more they will take their ire out on Pakistan.

http://newageislam.com/islamabad-diary--confusion-of-the-lambs/islam-and-the-west/d/750

Reality check: Brinkmanship and trust deficit must end, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Reality check: Brinkmanship and trust deficit must end

By Shafqat Mahmood

Friday, September 19, 2008

This has put the Republicans in a difficult situation and as the fighting has intensified in Afghanistan, it has seemed to prove Obama right. This has prompted Bush to become more proactive and he has not only ordered transfer of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, he has also given the go ahead to attack targets in the Pakistani tribal area. It was as a consequence of this that an American Special Forces raid took place near Angoor Adda and there has been an increase in Predator missile strikes from the air.

This phase will continue until November 4, the date of the American presidential election, despite serious protests from the Pakistani side. It is indeed ironic that on the day that American military chief, Admiral Mullen, was giving assurances to the Pakistani leadership, another drone in Waziristan killed seven people. This just proves that until the American election is over, the Bush administration will continue with these attacks just to show the American electorate how tough the Republicans are on national security.

http://newageislam.com/reality-check--brinkmanship-and-trust-deficit-must-end/islam-and-the-west/d/753

Pakistan: The new frontline in US 'war on terror', War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Pakistan: The new frontline in US 'war on terror'

Anti-American feelings are high in Pakistan

The newly-elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said the Taleban has "the upper hand" and he has vowed he will defeat the Islamic militants.

His task is complicated by the differing nature of the insurgency in different tribal areas. Al-Qaeda is thought to be most active in North Waziristan and Bajaur.

The Pakistan Taleban meanwhile has control of most of South Waziristan and is using its base there to launch suicide attacks throughout Pakistan.

Strategic

In Kurram tribal agency the Islamic militants are mostly motivated by sectarian divisions between Sunnis and Shias, whilst in Khyber tribal agency there are criminal gangs posing as Islamists as well as an intra-Sunni sectarian dispute.

Although it is relatively peaceful at the moment, Khyber is probably the most strategically significant of all the tribal areas.

It has the historic trade route that leads from the Pakistani city of Peshawar, through the Khyber Pass, and on to Kabul in Afghanistan.

Today it is a vital supply line used to transport 85% of the fuel used by the Western forces in Afghanistan.

Earlier this week the Pakistani authorities were forced to close the road for a few hours amidst warnings of imminent Taleban attacks.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--the-new-frontline-in-us--war-on-terror-/war-on-terror/d/771

THE SURGE: How much of a success?, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

THE SURGE: How much of a success?

By Andy Zelleke and Robert Dujarric

Published: July 31, 2008

Arguments in its favour have focused on the reduction of violence. Various metrics, from Americans killed to the number of corpses dumped at local morgues, are advanced to validate its success. But this line of thought confuses stability with American interests. Stability in allied countries is, of course, highly desirable and strategically significant. But is it clear that the government in Baghdad will remain an American ally after the military leaves, whether that's in 16 months, two years, or five years?

The fever-pitched debate over judgment and the surge has ducked the single most critical issue: whether the Maliki government - undoubtedly now more effective in carrying out a government's business as a result of the larger American troop presence - and its likely Shiite successors will prove to be strong allies of the United States and bulwarks against Tehran. If not, then the surge will have served Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's and Tehran's strategic interests - but not those of the United States.

http://newageislam.com/the-surge--how-much-of-a-success?/islam-and-the-west/d/360

If you are an Iraqi, how do I kill thee?, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

If you are an Iraqi, how do I kill thee?

By Ramesh Thakur

All of this has been evident with respect to the Iraq War. Much as Senator John McCain might want to trumpet his support for the successful surge (itself an Orwellian euphemism for escalation), the United States press has largely given him a free pass on his statements in the lead-up to the war in which he bought into the neocons’ fantasies of how short the war would be, how few the casualties, and how little it would cost the American taxpayer. On the economic costs, people like Paul Krugman in his New York Times column and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz have done much to highlight the magnitude of the true figures.

With respect to the numbers of Iraqi civilians killed and wounded in the aftermath of the 2003 war and the ensuing insurgency, however, the Bush administration has largely got away with little or no international accountability. The American public has been left dazed and confused with a maze of claims, counter-claims and disinformation campaigns where often if the statistics are damning, the methodology is criticised and the motives of the scientists are questioned. Some of the tactics to discredit the studies’ findings and their authors are lifted straight from the old (and enduringly relevant) ‘Yes Minister’ and ‘Yes Prime Minister’ television series.

http://newageislam.com/if-you-are-an-iraqi,-how-do-i-kill-thee?/islam-and-the-west/d/371