In another major blow to al-Qaeda, a U.S. drone strike last Monday in the North Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan killed the organization’s new number two commander, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. The successful strike demonstrates the importance of continuing the drone missile campaign along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan as a cornerstone of the mission to degrade and eventually defeat al-Qaeda. Pakistani officials and media outlets regularly criticize the drone missile strikes as a violation of Pakistani sovereignty. But the U.S. is highly unlikely to relent in its drone campaign since the …
U.S. media commentators acted with surprise about reports that Pakistani officials may have given the Chinese access to the downed helicopter left behind in Pakistan following the May 2 Osama bin Laden raid. What is more surprising is that some media outlets still refer to Pakistan as a U.S. “ally” in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan is neither an ally nor an enemy to the U.S.—rather, Pakistan has entirely different security objectives from the U.S. in Afghanistan and in fighting terrorists more broadly. The sooner U.S. policymakers come to grips …
India’s financial capital, Mumbai, experienced yet another terrorist attack today that initial estimates say killed at least 20. Terrorists detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in three separate locations of the city almost simultaneously. The first two blasts occurred at around 6:55 pm, one in a jewelry market and one in a business district in southern Mumbai. The third blast occurred around 7:05 pm in a crowded neighborhood in central Mumbai. This is the most significant terrorist attack in India since the three-day Mumbai shooting attacks in November 2008 that killed …
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New information revealing a Kashmir-focused militant group with links to Pakistani intelligence helped shield Osama bin Laden demonstrates why the U.S. must press Pakistani authorities to take a more comprehensive approach to fighting terrorism. Pakistan has long sought to distinguish between al-Qaeda and Kashmir-focused groups it allows to function openly in Pakistani society. However, the revelations about contacts between members of Harakat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Osama bin Laden show Pakistan’s segmented approach to terrorism has failed miserably. In fact, it contributed to the ability of the world’s most wanted terrorist to …
America was victorious in killing Osama Bin Laden but the war against terrorism wages on. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Vice-Chair of the House Republican Conference, traveled to Afghanistan just days after Bin Laden was killed and came away strengthened by a novel idea: empowering women in Afghanistan is an important step to winning the war on terror. “Empowering women is a key to our national security efforts to ensure that Afghanistan is not a haven for terrorists,” said McMorris Rodgers in an interview Friday afternoon. “Terrorists gain strength by …
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 the epicenter of global terrorism. The fact that the world’s most wanted terrorist was captured in a major Pakistani city 60 miles from the nation’s capital should silence those Pakistanis who rejected the idea of bin Laden being in the country as a western conspiracy. It …
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 alliance with Pakistan and China, both of which are not keen on the prospect of permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. has denied the veracity of the report, and the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson went …
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 Pakistan’s intelligence service, Shuja Pasha, and CIA Director Panetta on Monday, a Pakistani official told The Washington Post that the CIA must share more information about what it “wants and is doing” inside Pakistan, adding, “They have to stop mistrusting …
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 Nations (unsuccessfully) sought to stitch together an Afghan peace agreement between the warring mujahideen factions. The U.N. proved no match for the well-armed and Pakistani-supported Taliban, who successfully captured Kabul in 1996 and ruled Afghanistan until the U.S.-led invasion in …
