From the brand-new Pew poll of international attitudes (PDF), just released half an hour ago:
Among Muslim publics – except in Indonesia where Obama lived for several years as a child – the modest levels of confidence and approval observed in 2009 have slipped markedly. In Egypt the percentage of
Something that couldn’t fit into my piece yesterday but bears mentioning: Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia, told a Senate panel that al-Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan numbered in the “double digits.”
In a somewhat heated exchange with Sen. Lindsey Graham More…
Seriously, that’s the gist of a panel next week at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
The peace-building think tank wants to explore the lessons of SMS-based relief campaigns for victims of the Haiti earthquake and Pakistani military push against Taliban insurgents for the Afghanistan conflict. Both were heavily promoted More…
“We will destroy al-Qaeda.”
That’s how John Brennan capped his presentation Wednesday morning on counterterrorism’s role in the forthcoming National Security Strategy, and the often intense White House senior counterterrorism adviser smiled a bit as he said it. His exploration of the administration’s pathway for getting there was mostly familiar. More…
ProPublica has a fascinating piece about how Shahzad’s cooperation with his interrogators (curse you, law enforcement approach to terrorism! Your success only further proves we must gut you!) led the Pakistanis to arrest an Army major who was apparently a key contact between the Times Square car bomb suspect More…
It’s really the last sentence of the two-paragraph joint statement emerging from national security adviser Jim Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta’s visit to Pakistan that’s important. “President Zardari noted that Pakistan desires a long-term, multifaceted, and durable relationship with the United States which no incident should be able More…
From a U.S. Central Command press release:
The United States government delivered two Bell 412 EP helicopters to the Government of Pakistan today to assist the Pakistan military in its counterinsurgency efforts.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michael Nagata handed over the helicopters to Brig. Gen. Tippu Karim, 101 Army
Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) seemed pretty animated on Monday afternoon when he spoke to a bunch of us reporters after receiving an intelligence briefing on would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. He lit into Attorney General Eric Holder for what he characterized as a public misrepresentation of the relationship More…
The New York Times has a good overview of the tone of this week’s Washington visit by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai: an end to nearly 18 months of very public pressure, doubts and the occasional insult, and the beginning of an embrace. Why?
“Two things are happening,” said Richard Fontaine,
Both Eli Lake and Greg Miller report that President Obama personally asked Steve Kappes last year to remain the CIA’s deputy director. Kappes’ boss, Leon Panetta, announced yesterday that Kappes will be retiring next month. Under the Kappes Continuity — he ascended to deputy director in More…
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