Posted in Militancy on January 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
John Robb, whose blog is an essential read, offers a dependably bleak prediction: “The most likely existential security threat to the United States isn’t likely to originate from terrorists from southwest Asia or a hypothetical war with China. Instead, it will originate from Mexico’s open source insurgency.” Here’s why:
The Mexican state becomes hollow and unable [...]
Posted in Al-Qaeda, India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In a panel hosted by Counterterrorism Blog, CNAS Fellow and COIN guru David Kilcullen offers good insight on the Mumbai attacks:
On the tactics:
‘This was not some Islamic charity or some group working alone from the Deccan Mujahedeen: this has all the hallmarks of a Special Forces raid, closer to a commando or SBS raiding activity [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I think this much is clear:
Whoever the Mumbai attackers were, and whatever power they swore allegiance to, they weren’t acting on their own, and those who set things in motion had a larger strategic goal in mind: to relieve military pressure on the Taleban, al-Qaeda and other forces operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border, by provoking [...]
Posted in India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My Firefox tabs are buckling under a pile of first-class terrorism analysis, so, in the spirit of international co-operation, I thought I’d share:
“The Coming Urban Terror” — John Robb’s prophetic 2007 City Journal article on how the fabric of a modern metropolis unravels.
“Al Qaida’s strategy to puncture the war on terror” — A thoughtful new [...]
Posted in India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Researching a backgrounder on the Mumbai attacks, I exchanged emails with Wilson John, a Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based thinktank.
Although I’m what they used to call “an old India hand”, I haven’t paid much attention to the Subcontinent for quite some time, and a lot of what John told me came as [...]
Posted in India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on November 28, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Aryn Baker writes in Time:
The roots of Muslim rage run deep in India, nourished by a long-held sense of injustice over what many Indian Muslims believe is institutionalized discrimination against the country’s largest minority group. The disparities between Muslims, which make up 13.4% of the population, and India’s Hindu population, which hovers around 80%, are [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Human rights, Iraq, Militancy on August 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After flouting U.S. and international laws for nearly seven years, the United States, in a stunning anticlimax, yesterday convicted Osama bin Laden’s driver Salim Ahmed Hamdan of supporting terrorism.
I think it is a testament to the folly of Bush’s “war on terror” that after all the death and suffering and abuse of human rights, the [...]
Posted in Iraq, Militancy on August 4, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, I was drawn into a prolonged and painful argument over the question — to my mind solved five years ago, but apparently not to others — of Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties with al-Qaeda.
Thankfully the discussion ended shortly before midnight, but just in case discontent is still simmering out there, here’s something I’ve been meaning [...]
Posted in AQI, Iraq, Militancy on August 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center has published its fifth “Harmony Report” on the inner workings of al-Qaeda, this time its Iraqi variant, AQI. Based on the Sinjar Records and written in clear and concise language, it’s an extremely important paper everyone interested in Islamic terrorism should read. Some key findings:
There is a strong risk of [...]
Posted in AQI, Al-Qaeda, Iraq, Militancy on July 31, 2008 | 19 Comments »
For some weeks there have been reports that foreign jihadis are departing Iraq in increasing numbers to join their fellow believers in Afghanistan. According to The Washington Post, Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri himself has recently relocated. With security improving in Iraq, Americans with neocon leanings have predictably announced that “victory” is at [...]
