In The News

Bhutto’s Return Brings Pakistani Politics to a Boil

Carlotta Gall October 31, 2007
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan, ready to run for office, force General Pervez Musharraf to share power and combat terrorism. Crowds of passionate supporters greeted her when she arrived in mid-October, along with a bomb blast that killed 140 people. Confusion and questions have emerged since her return to a country divided about its relationship with the US. Opponents...

Old Gripe Brings Turkey Face to Face With Iraq

Dilip Hiro October 22, 2007
After World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, world powers carved up the Middle East. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres would have partitioned Turkey and created an autonomous Kurdistan, but Turkish nationalists rejected that plan. The Treaty of Lausanne that followed in 1923 granted independence to Turkey, but not for Kurdistan – and ethnic Kurds instead are spread among Turkey, Iraq, Iran and...

Scarier than Bin Laden

Bruce Hoffman October 2, 2007
The most formidable nemesis for the US is Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to Bruce Hoffman, a professor of security studies. “Zawahiri is the superior strategist,” writes Hoffman, who credits the Al Qaeda leader for designating both “near” and “far” enemies for attack. The “near” enemies include corrupt regimes throughout the Muslim world, in power only with the support of “far” enemies such as the...

Armed Guards in Iraq Occupy a Legal Limbo

John M. Broder September 23, 2007
Providing extreme security measures for a few has become a problematic policy in Iraq. Iraqis complain about private-security contractors, particularly companies responsible for several shootings and injuries of Iraqi citizens. Early in the Iraq war, the US exempted armed contract guards from Iraqi law, and the Pentagon has not yet developed rules for security contractors, as so urged by the US...

Democratize or Disintegrate

Bahey Eldin Hassan September 20, 2007
Political drama born of the waves of pro-democratic and anti-democratic influences in the Middle East has created a breeding ground for terrorism, argues analyst Bahey Eldin Hassan. He argues that a wave of democratization has not swept through the Middle East because of a loss of US credibility and moral standing, following the difficult occupation of Iraq and troubling images of prison torture...

Disowned by Mentor, Bin Laden Seeks New Pastures

Fawaz A. Gerges September 19, 2007
Just before the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden released a new videotape, in which he adopts a neo-Marxist posture, suggesting that mortgage debt, global warming, growing wage inequality and other ills are a result of greed from multinational corporations and politics of the West. “The capitalist system seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations...

An Opportunity for Wall St. in China’s Surveillance Boom

Keith Bradsher September 17, 2007
Like other industries, surveillance is booming in China and attracting overseas investors. Hedge funds in the US profit by investing in firms that develop and apply high-tech internet censorship, face- and behavior-recognition software, and video feeds. Some Chinese firms, like China Security and Surveillance Technology and China Public Security Technology, incorporate in the US to attract...