War Glance
A broad plan to absorb Sunni Muslim militiamen who battled al-Qaida in Iraq into national security forces or government jobs is at risk of being derailed by lukewarm political support and limited funding, officials say.
Integrating the militias, known as the Sons of Iraq or Awakening Councils, is a key concern for Iraq's Sunni minority, which feels it has been squeezed out of power by the Shiite majority and ignored despite its role in fighting the insurgency. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is already struggling to show he can create an inclusive government after barely garnering enough support to keep his job.
Bleak outlook for plans to help Sons of Iraq
Pentagon ignores gloomy war view
Barack Obama is expected to claim solid progress in the war in Afghanistan tonight. The review will contradict far gloomier findings by his own intelligence agencies that the war cannot be won while Pakistan refuses to close militant safe havens.
The review is tipped to reaffirm a US-troop drawdown from July next year with a final handover to Afghan security forces in 2014 - a plan endorsed last month by NATO to allow coalition forces sufficient time to improve local military and law enforcement capacity.
Jailed Afghan Drug Lord Was Informer on U.S. Payroll
When Hajji Juma Khan was arrested and transported to New York to face charges under a new American narco-terrorism law in 2008, federal prosecutors described him as perhaps the biggest and most dangerous drug lord in Afghanistan, a shadowy figure who had helped keep the Taliban in business with a steady stream of money and weapons.
But what the government did not say was that Mr. Juma Khan was also a longtime American informer, who provided information about the Taliban, Afghan corruption and other drug traffickers.
Pakistanis protest civilian deaths in U.S. drone attacks
Victims of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan took to the streets for the first time here Friday, as a new report claims that there are significant numbers of civilian casualties from the strikes and a lawsuit seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from the CIA for those mistakenly injured or killed.
Fifteen people injured in the attacks or who claimed to have had family members killed in the bombardment appeared in public Friday and officially joined the $500 million lawsuit that began last month with just one claimant in the Pakistani courts.
Karzai brothers risk wrath of US over release of Taliban fighters
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his powerful brother are among a number of senior Afghan figures to be accused of ordering the release of high-ranking Taliban fighters so often that the insurgents now run a commission to secure their freedom.
According to Reuters news agency, the practice is so widespread as to counteract the deterrent effect of capture, and pits Mr Karzai and his coterie directly at odds with the Nato strategy in Afghanistan.
WikiLeaks: UK 'protected US interests' in Iraq War inquiry
The British Government gave secret assurances that it would “protect US interests” in the Iraq War inquiry, leaked diplomatic cables show. According to a communique released by the Wikileaks website, British officials warned the inquiry would attract a “feeding frenzy” when it started in earnest.
A dispatch sent by Ellen Tauscher, the US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, disclosed how Jon Day, the Ministry of Defence’s Director General for security policy, “promised that the UK had 'put measures in place to protect your [the US] interests’” during the inquiry.
'Rogue Afghan policeman' kills six Nato troops
Six Nato troops have been killed by a man wearing an Afghan police uniform during a training session in eastern Afghanistan.The man was also killed in the incident and a joint Afghan-Nato team is investigating, the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) announced in a short statement.
ISAF did not disclose the casualties' nationalities, in line with its policy, but Americans make up most of the foreign troops based in eastern Afghanistan, one of the worst flashpoints in the nine-year Taliban insurgency.
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