Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing. Other commanders in chief have presided over wars with far higher casualty counts. But no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals. The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force.
In Yemen, for instance, the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command pursue the same adversary with nearly identical aircraft. But they alternate taking the lead on strikes to exploit their separate authorities, and they maintain separate kill lists that overlap but don’t match. CIA and military strikes this fall killed three U.S. citizens, two of whom were suspected al-Qaeda operatives. Sen. Drone war’s evolution Yemen convergence Divided oversight.
Mullah Omar: Last Man Standing. Osama bin Laden is dead, but his close ally and Taliban chief Mullah Omar still complicates the future of Afghanistan. Anti-terrorism officials around the world last year chalked up some stellar success stories, capturing or killing a number of high-profile Islamic terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. Chief among them was obviously Osama bin Laden. But others included Omar Patek, the last of Jemaah Islamiyah’s senior leaders, who was arrested in Pakistan last January in the same town that bin Laden was captured in. But one man has eluded everyone for more than a decade. Since the September 11, 2001, strikes on New York and Washington, Mullah Mohammad Omar – the self-styled Imam and Taliban chief – has ranked among the world’s most wanted, alongside bin Laden who Omar for years helped harbor. The truth was, though, that the one-eyed cleric wasn’t actually on that list. The Perils of Journalism in Pakistan: Living in Fear of Intelligence Agents - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International.
Hamid Mir leans back in his office chair, staring at his moblie phone. "Afraid? Am I afraid? " he asks. He shakes his head back and forth. "It would be a lie to say no. " Since nearly midnight on Tuesday evening, his life has been turned upside down. His Blackberry rings, indicating he has received a text message. "I have not seen a real bastard than you. Mir, 45, is one of Pakistan's most famous journalists. Some say Mir sympathizes with the Taliban, while others believe he is a CIA agent, an Israeli spy or that he supports India.
Threat From Within But in Pakistan, the truth is risky. "In recent years colleagues were mainly the victims of terror attacks by separatist groups or radical parties," Mir says. Over the last year, however, the source of threats has altered dramatically. The affair in which Ijaz is wrapped up has rocked Pakistan. 'Living Dangerously' Mir's show about the intelligence service boss has been rebroadcasted a number of times on Geo TV.
Blossoming Media Industry. Editorial: CIA agents in Pakistan by Najam Sethi. These are difficult times for professional journalists in Pakistan. Eleven were killed last year in the line of duty. They were either caught in the crossfire of ethnic or extremist violence or targeted and eliminated by state and non-state groups for their political views. Saleem Shehzad, for example, was abducted, tortured and killed last year and a commission of inquiry is still floundering in murky waters. He had exposed the infiltration of the armed forces by elements affiliated with Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Several journalists from Balochistan have been killed by non-state vigilantes sponsored by state agencies, others have fled to Europe or USA because they had sympathies with the nationalist cause in the province. Some from Karachi have taken refuge abroad because they were threatened by ethnic or sectarian groups or parties.
Now an insidious campaign is afoot to target senior journalists who question the wisdom of the security establishment on a host of thorny issues. India's Maoists Going Urban? Naxalites reportedly switching their attack to India’s cities India’s Naxalite rebels, for years bottled up in the poverty-stricken middle and eastern regions of the country, have forged a new strategy to infiltrate into India’s premier industrial hubs, intelligence officials say.
According to the Union Home Ministry, the Maoists have formulated a major change in strategy designed to further expand out to target India’s commercial areas including the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, the country’s commercial capital of Mumbai and the diamond hubs of Surat and Vadodara. The intelligence officials say the new strategy is to zero in on the country’s vulnerable industrial pockets. Large numbers of ultras have been reported to have been apprehended and interrogated in Maharashtra recently, including 10 Maoists from West Bengal in the southern city of Pune. They were said to be masquerading as casual laborers in different industrial units. However, one benefit has accrued to the government. Banyan: The daughter’s return. Growing up in Kashmir, by Karan Vaid. Rollover images for slideshow controls Growing up in Kashmir The Idea of Kashmir in an average Indian’s mind is that of a paradise laid waste by the ill intentions and actions of unscrupulous individuals backed by a foreign power and supported by a section of the local population.
What interested me was what people my age were doing, where were they hanging out, what were their aspirations, were they like me? Were they very different? I visited the nearest (and oldest) snooker “club”, and I found it filled with young college and unemployed youth at 12pm on a Tuesday afternoon. They told me how hopeless the situation is. Most of them live with family. “Things have improved…but not fast enough!” After three weeks, my fourth visit to this region comes to an end. Photographer: Karan Vaid Camera: Nikon D3s Website: obscuredmuse.wordpress.com / www.karanvaid.com.