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Pakistan's military sets Afghan terms
Pakistan's military establishment, taken fully onboard by the United States in
the efforts to find solutions for Afghanistan, has made clear that its
cooperation comes with strings attached. Any Indian role is to be restricted to
civilian development projects, and Pakistan will choose for itself who its
enemies are. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Feb 8,
'10)
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India-Pakistan thaw key to Afghan
peace
The prospect of the first high-level bilateral talks between India and Pakistan
since the 2008 Mumbai attack was raised by global powers when they endorsed a
United States-backed plan in London that seeks reconciliation with the Taliban
in Afghanistan. Washington sees the key to Kabul as lying in Islamabad, and the
key to Islamabad as lying in New Delhi. - Siddharth Srivastava
(Feb 8, '10)
Taliban go-betweens draw up road map
Plans drawn up by Taliban mediators for a political settlement in Afghanistan
encourage the insurgency's leaders and the government to reach agreement on key
issues, such as the withdrawal of all foreign troops and al-Qaeda. The reaction
of the United States to the plan and the vexed issue of a new constitution are
the biggest roadblocks, the mediators say. - Gareth Porter
(Feb 8, '10)
Dangerous steps in Iran's nuclear
dance
Just days after Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said Tehran's nuclear fuel
could be processed abroad, he ordered stockpiles of uranium to be enriched to a
high degree domestically. Tehran's dualistic diplomacy is designed to increase
Iran's bargaining ability in regards to a fuel deal, while proving a point to
hawks in the United States. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Feb 8, '10)
Israeli case for war with Syria -
and Lebanon
Threats may be escalating between Syria and Israel, but the chances of war
breaking out are very low: it would be too dangerous for Israel and too costly
for the Middle East. Nobody, though, can rule out another Israeli war in
Lebanon, where there is "unfinished" business to do. - Sami Moubayed
(Feb 8, '10)
Beijing beefs up cyber-warfare capacity
Research and development in Internet-based combat, including cyber-espionage,
is high on Beijing’s next five-year plan. Given that friction between the
United States and China will likely continue, if not worsen, over issues
including trade, Taiwan and Tibet, cutthroat competition along the information
superhighway could add a new dimension of instability. - Willy Lam
(Feb 8, '10)
If you really want to hear about
it ...
In anti-hero Holden Caulfield, American novelist J D Salinger, who died
last week at the age of 91, created a character the world instinctively
understood. Soviet Union authorities even put translations of The Catcher in the
Rye, which came out in 1951, in schools, unaware that the critique of
small-town values also fueled rebellious thought among teenagers behind the
Iron Curtain. - Nikola Krastev (Feb 8, '10)
Desperation fuels North Korea's leniency
 North
Korea's release of American missionary Robert Park comes as the debilitating
effects of a botched currency reform raises fears of famine and as a power
struggle erupts among Pyongyang's elite. With the North reportedly reeling from
rice riots and inner-party purges, Seoul and Washington see the perfect chance
to turn the screws on Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program. - Donald Kirk
(Feb 5, '10)
Okinawa call to shape new US-Japan era
Washington is pressuring Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to stick to a
2006 agreement on the relocation of US Marines stationed on Okinawa, saying
that any other call risks bilateral ties and Japan's national security. Even if
the dispute ends in compromise, Hatoyama's defiant stance may signal the end of
the asymmetric US-Japan alliance. - Axel Berkofsky
(Feb 5, '10)
Nepal trying to march in step
Nepal, striving for lasting peace after a decade of insurgency, has two
standing armies: a state-funded military and 20,000 Maoist combatants living in
United Nations-monitored camps. Divisions over how they should be integrated
into one force have the power to disrupt preparations for a new constitution
and even draw the involvement of neighbors. - Dhruba Adhikary
(Feb 5, '10)
 BOOK
REVIEW
Look who's come to dinner
Superfusion by Zachary Karabell
This insightful book examines the alternatives to fearing China's inevitable
rise as a super-economy and global political force and asks whether American
hostility to making room at the table for an upsetter of the old economic order
is more a reflection of its own lost confidence. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Feb 5, '10)
 CHAN
AKYA
Hair of Damocles' sword
United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's future in office might be
short, with a warning by Moody's Investors Service that the US is at risk of
losing its triple A credit rating giving more ammunition to critics of his
handling of the financial crisis. Whenever his successor takes over,
humiliating deals with China are likely to be part of a thankless work load.
(Feb 5, '10)
US fires off new warning in Pakistan
With its biggest drone attack to date in 
Pakistan - nine unmanned vehicles firing 19 missiles in one evening - the
United States has underscored its invigorated desire to wipe out Taliban and
al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the Pakistan and Afghanistan border areas. The efforts
are backed by a new intelligence-gathering network tapping into Afghan
tribesmen. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Feb 4, '10)
Iran launches new phase in nuclear
crisis
Tehran's acceptance of a "fuel-for-fuel" deal that would defuse concern over
its nuclear program comes as the United States announces plans to encircle Iran
and introduce tougher new sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iran says its
gesture is an unclenching of its fist, while skeptics dismiss it as a ploy to
buy time and garner international support. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Feb 4, '10)
THE ROVING EYE
Staring at the abyss
On Indonesia's tropical island of Bali, everything is about sekala and niskala,
ritual and the occult. In the United States, the Pentagon has its occult as it
continues its descent into the ghostly abyss of its "long war". When President
Obama visits Indonesia next month, he'd do well to do some soul-searching on
Bali if he is to avoid being permanently engulfed by hungry ghosts. - Pepe
Escobar (Feb 4, '10)
Dalai Lama firm on Obama meeting
A United States rebuttal of warnings from China against the Dalai Lama meeting
Barack Obama adds to the growing list of tensions between Washington and
Beijing. The issue has spilled over into talks between Beijing and envoys of
the Dalai Lama, who stressed that a meeting between the Tibetan spiritual
leader and the US president was a tradition unbroken since 1991, one of the
envoys tells Asia Times Online. - Saransh Sehgal
(Feb 4, '10)
Shanghai wishing on a fading
Disney star
China's financial center, Shanghai, may be losing its warm, fuzzy feelings over
getting the third Disneyland theme park in Asia, scheduled to open in 2014. As
the city’s politicians look south to the magic kingdom in Hong Kong, where the
reality of losses mock the expectations of a bonanza for the economy, they see
a warning of what their dreams may bring about. - Olivia Chung
(Feb 4, '10)
Anwar trial another black eye
for Malaysia
To many, Anwar Ibrahim is not the only defendant in the dock in a sodomy trial
that is the talk of Malaysia. Amid explicit language and allegations, everyone
from the prime minister and the political establishment to the police and
judiciary itself could be dragged through the mud if, as in Anwar's first
trial, the courtroom drama turns into a high-stakes soap opera stretching out
for months. - Anil Netto (Feb 4, '10)
India's awards lose honorable luster
India's highest civilian awards are increasingly being distributed to those who
have friends in positions of power. Adding to a string of questionable choices
in recent times, this year's top award-winners include a former militiaman and
an alleged crook. - Sudha Ramachandran (Feb
4, '10)
US's strike threat catches China off
guard
The United States' plans for a "Prompt Global Strike" system that could launch
a conventional weapons attack on anywhere in the world within an hour are
unsettling China. The US combat strategy has traditionally relied on nuclear
might, and this change is seen by Beijing as a maneuver in America's quest for
domination of the world and of space. - Peter J Brown
(Feb 3, '10)
Pakistani Taliban has its work cut
out
If Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, did indeed
die in a United States drone attack last week, there is a ready replacement for
him in a young battle-hardened commander with a set agenda: to continue the
relationship that Mehsud's group forged with al-Qaeda as a component of its
regional plans. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Feb 3,
'10)
US ups the ante in Iran nuclear
game
By expanding its missile defense systems in the Persian Gulf, the United States
is sending its strongest message yet to Iran over the stalemate in talks over
Tehran's nuclear program. The move can also be seen as a sign that
neo-conservative voices are being heard in Washington. - Mohammed A Salih
(Feb 3, '10)
Obama expectations revised in
Indonesia
Confirmation that United States President Barack Obama will make a much-awaited
visit to his childhood home of Indonesia has had a mixed reception. Fading
hopes that Obama will upgrade Jakarta's strategic importance in Washington
mirror discontent with Indonesia's own president, raising doubts whether
Obama's visit will benefit the Indonesian leader. - Sara Schonhardt
(Feb 3, '10)
South Korea marks a painful centenary
Northeast China, March 26, 1910. 
A Korean nationalist is executed for pumping four bullets into Hirobumi Ito,
architect of the Meiji Restoration and Japan's colonial administrator for
Korea. The shots fired by Ahn Jung-geun ushered in a 35-year Japanese
occupation of Korea marked by killings, "comfort women" and a merciless
"Japanization". They also rang out across Northeast Asia, raising questions of
Pan-Asian unity that remain unanswered to this day. - Ronan Thomas
(Feb 2, '10)
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David P
Goldman
(Feb 5, '10)
The drop in the unemployment rate to 9.7% is an artifact of seasonal
adjustment.
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Karachi
grinds to a
halt after fatal blasts
Pakistan's efforts to rein in its fiscal deficit were dealt a further blow when
business in Karachi, the country's commercial center, struggling to recover
from a bomb attack last December, ground to a halt again at the weekend after
two more blasts killed at least 30 people. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider
Hainan fears real-estate bubbles
- again
Money has flooded into the Chinese province of Hainan in the few weeks since
the central government said it should become an international tourist resort.
The sub-tropical island's attractions could certainly lure visitors, but
residents with a sense of history already fear a property crash might come
first. - Stephen Wong
Obama prolongs
the pain
President Barack Obama's record, including his 2010 budget proposal, indicates
that had he, and not George W Bush, been elected eight years earlier, his
legacy would be about the same as the one he inherited. His budget also means a
grim inheritance for the next generation of US citizens. - Hossein Askari
and Noureddine Krichene
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The beginning of the end?
The recent tumult in some European debt markets has reignited global crisis
fears, and other straws in the market winds do little to allay these concerns.
Do the US dollar's rally and commodities' downturn indicate deflation? Have the
Chinese become serious about reining in financial excess? In short, is the sum
of the various recent pullbacks the pause that refreshes - or is it the
beginning of the end for global reflation?
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
FROM THE BLOG
Poor weather gauge
The drop in the United States unemployment rate is an artifact of seasonal
adjustment - a step that in present circumstances is rather like seasonally
adjusting rainfall patterns during Noah's flood. - David Goldman
MARKET RAP
Friday blues come up trumps
End-of-week trading brought sell-offs across the region, with the largest
weekly declines in more than two months. Yet few indexes are technically highly
oversold, and further downward moves can be expected.
(Feb 5, '10)
R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week's markets.
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"Cricket - A 'sport' where pussies wear mattresses on their legs." - Jim the
Moron
"Gridiron - a game played by mattresses, period. ... But back to the cricket,
where India and South Africa are vying for the top world ranking. Any Indian
readers out there? What do you think of [South African captain Graeme] Smith's
declaration? ... Smith's declarations have proved largely unsuccessful lately
and I believe expose a lack of killer instinct." - aquicke
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From Our Mailbox
[Re 30-second
warnings, February 5] When a country takes great offense over a
pro-life ad but finds joy in almost naked women parading their bodies and
"farting clowns", then we are in trouble.
Ysais A Martinez
Pennsylvania, USA
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ATol Specials
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By Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Jan '09) |
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VIDEO
Taliban's new breed of leader
(May '08) |
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The
Gates
Inheritance
By
Roger Morris
(June '07) |
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark
Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar '06)
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China:
The
Impossible
Revolution
By
Francesco Sisci
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The Coming
Trade War
By Henry C K Liu
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A series
by Henry C K Liu
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Sinoroving
Pepe Escobar in China
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Money, Power
and
Modern Art
A series by Henry C K Liu
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Andre Gunder Frank on Uncle Sam and his
shrinking dollar
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By Pepe Escobar with
photographs by Kevin Nortz
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the US 3rd
Armored Cavalry in western Iraq
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