IPS Writers in the Blogosphere

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Testimonies of War: Surviving as refugees, dying at home

From On February 12, 2013 · Leave a Comment

By Noor Wali Sayeed Shinwarai

Noor Wali Sayeed Shinwarai writes for Killid, an independent Afghan media group in partnership with IPS. By distributing the testimonies of survivors of war crimes through print and radio, Killid strives for greater public awareness about people’s hopes and claims for justice, reconciliation and peace.   For this [...]

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The Mindlessness of War

From On January 11, 2013 · Leave a Comment

By Noor Wali Sheenwari
War has ripped apart a majority of families in Afghanistan. Those who were lucky migrated to the West. Uncle Ismail’s family lies buried in a graveyard in Nangarhar. What Follows is  a testimony**

One night bombs dropped from the sky, killing 16 members of Ismail’s family. “The war took [...]

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Kids flying kites in Kabul. Credit: Najibullah Musafer / Killid

“I Want to See the Murderers Punished”

From On January 11, 2013 · Leave a Comment

By Neelab Nassiri/ Killid
The Kabul sky is dotted with kites on summer evenings. For Mohammad Masoud Nassiri, 40, they bring back painful memories of the evening when his parents and sister were killed. Seconds before the blast he had let go his father’s hand to run after a falling kite. What follows [...]

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Iran: the Nuclear Dog that can’t Bark

From On January 7, 2013 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

By David Isenberg

Apart from death and taxes, one other thing has also appeared inevitable, at least for the past two decades: Iran will acquire a nuclear weapons capability.

Yet, despite all the near frantic demands for sanctions, clandestine action, sabotage, and outright military strikes to prevent Iran’s presumed inexorable march [...]

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David Petraeus and the Militarization of the CIA

From On November 14, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill injects some badly needed context into the media frenzy over David Petraeus’s CIA resignation by examining the four-star General’s legacy against the backdrop of an increasingly militarized intelligence agency:

As head of US Central Command in 2009, Petraeus issued execute orders that significantly broadened the ability [...]

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Unfinished Business Awaits Obama’s Second Term

From On November 8, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via IPS News

Several critical issues of unfinished business in the Middle East face President Barack Obama as he begins his second term. Washington must become more engaged come January because these issues will directly impact regional stability and security and U.S. interests and personnel in the region.

The issues include the Syrian [...]

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WaPo on the “disposition matrix,” the CIA’s next-generation kill list

From On October 27, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

The Washington Post‘s Greg Miller has begun a three-part series on the future of the Obama Administration’s counterterrorism drone strike program, which will include a “next-generation targeting list” (aka “kill list”) in the form of a “dipposition matrix”.

Though the White House, CIA, JSOC and ODNI declined comment requests, the article cites [...]

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Questions that would liven up tonight’s foreign policy debate

From On October 22, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

US foreign policy specialist Stephen Walt lists the top ten questions you won’t hear during tonight’s last presidential nominee debate. Iran will be a central focus, if not the most talked about issue, but we’re unlikely to hear serious discussion along these lines according to Walt:

8. The United States has [...]

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Is Iran the Greatest Threat?

From On October 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment

via Lobe Log

When national security has figured into the presidential nominees’ campaigns, the focus has been mostly on Iran. With that in mind Daniel Byman, the research director for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, asks whether Pakistan, North Korea, China, the Syrian crisis and major US domestic issues can [...]

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The Alliance from Hell

From On October 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment

How the U.S. and Pakistan Became the Dysfunctional Nuclear Family of International Relations

By Dilip Hiro

via Tom Dispatch

The United States and Pakistan are by now a classic example of a dysfunctional nuclear family (with an emphasis on “nuclear”). While the two governments and their peoples become more suspicious and resentful of [...]

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