The elimination of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden vindicates U.S. strategy in the region. It will be seen as a major success for the U.S. and show the world that America will remain committed to hunting down its enemies for as long it takes. The operation also highlights that Pakistan is truly at …
Today’s Wall Street Journal carries a stunning piece about a meeting that took place on April 16 in Kabul between Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The article asserts that Gilani sought to convince Karzai to break relations with the U.S. and instead seek an …
Pakistan is reportedly calling for a reduction in U.S. drone missile strikes against terrorists sheltering in its tribal border areas, greater transparency from the CIA regarding its counterterrorism activities inside Pakistan, and a reduction in U.S. military trainers in the country. Following a meeting in Washington between the director of …
The recently released Century Foundation International Task Force report on Afghanistan titled “Afghanistan: Negotiating Peace” usefully sketches out the myriad issues surrounding the challenges of seeking an Afghan peace settlement involving the Taliban. However, the report’s call for a “neutral international facilitator” harkens back to the 1990s, when the United …
After spending almost two months in a Lahore jail for killing two Pakistanis, CIA contractor Raymond Davis was released today, ending one of the most serious diplomatic standoffs between Islamabad and Washington in nine years of partnering in the fight against terrorism. Davis was set free after family members of …
Today’s murder of Pakistani Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti by religious extremists establishes a pattern of growing religious intolerance. It is undermining Pakistan’s struggling democracy by shutting down free speech and political expression in the name of a ruthless ideology disguised as religion. The murderers left pamphlets at the scene …
In the midst of a tense bilateral dispute between the U.S. and Pakistan over the case of Raymond Davis—an American Embassy employee who shot and killed two armed Pakistanis in what he claims was self-defense—civil society leaders from both countries met in Lahore, Pakistan, February 17-19. The initiative, dubbed the …
The U.S. on Monday officially removed export controls on several Indian space and defense-related organizations, signaling a new era in U.S.–India nonproliferation cooperation. By removing several subsidiaries of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and the Indian Space Research Organization from the Department of Commerce’s so-called “Entities List” barring export …
The international community has been shocked and sickened by reaction in Pakistan to the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer. Support for the Governor’s murderer was found not only within the religious parties but also from lawyers, parts of the media, and even some politicians from the mainstream political parties. …
In a twisted response to the devastating assassination of Pakistani Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, several hundred Pakistani clerics and so-called “scholars” signed a statement condoning the slaying and warning Pakistanis against grieving the death of the Governor. Adding insult to injury, several of the country’s clerics refused to lead funeral …
