Afghanistan

Putin: victory to NATO in Afghanistan!

Vladimir Putin called upon NATO to stay in Afghanistan until it has prevailed over the insurgency. He spoke at the inauguration of a new NATO transit hub at Ulyanovsk.

Afghanistan

The true tragedy of Alex Cockburn’s passing…

…is that it happened before he was repudiated by the American left. Cockburn spewed hateful Islamophobic racism to justify the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the ’80s—of precisely the kind we all decry in neocons today.

Afghanistan

Pakistan NATO resupply deal: house of mirrors

To grease the deal allowing NATO to resupply the Afghan operation through Pakistan, the US pledged Islamabad $1.2 billion in “counterterrorism” aid—even as Pakistan’s intelligence services are accused of aiding the Taliban.

Afghanistan

Pakistan: deadly blast at Sufi shrine

Three people, including two children, were killed when a bomb planted in a donkey cart exploded at the Panj Peer shrine in Peshawar, as worshippers gathered for a weekly ritual honoring Sufi saints buried there.

Afghanistan

Pakistan: doctor who helped CIA not convicted for ties to US

Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the US government find Osama bin Laden was convicted last week for his association to a militant group in Pakistan, not for his ties to the US Central Intelligence Agency, as was originally reported.

Afghanistan

Tribal jurisdiction at issue in Pakistan treason case

John McCain’s demand that Pakistan pardon Dr. Shakeel Afridi, convicted of treason for helping the CIA locate Osama bin Laden, may not even be possible. Afridi was tried by a tribal court where Islamabad is constitutionally barred from interfering.

Afghanistan

NATO summit and “shadow summit” both betray Afghan women

As NATO chiefs in Chicago broached negotiations with the Taliban, Amnesty International convened a “Shadow Summit” where women’s groups rejected the idea—while supporting the US/NATO occupation that collaborates with fundamentalist warlords.

Afghanistan

Anti-war roots of Mother’s Day: forgotten history

Julia Ward Howe conceived the holiday as an anti-war statement in 1870, in response to the Franco-Prussian carnage. But the pacifists who rescue this legacy from oblivion unfortunately engage in their own historical revisionism…