Afghanistan Confirmation: US Withdrawing July 2011 Date for Withdrawal (Youssef)

The Obama administration has decided to begin publicly walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the war in Afghanistan in an effort to de-emphasize President Barack Obama's pledge that he'd begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.

The new policy will be on display next week during a conference of NATO countries in Lisbon, Portugal, where the administration hopes to introduce a timeline that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014, the year when Afghan President Hamid Karzai once said Afghan troops could provide their own security.

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Pakistan: More than 70 Killed in Friday's Mosque Bombing (Cole)

Juan Cole summarises the developments yesterday in Pakistan:

The Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan) bombed two mosques in Pakistan’s Pashtun northwest on Friday, killing over 70 persons and wounding many others. CSM argues that one of the bombings, in Dara Adam Khel, was a reprisal against the Akhurwal tribe for opposing the Taliban and allying with the Pakistani army. Dara Adam Khel is a picturesque village renowned for its’ blacksmiths’ ability to handcraft rifles and other weaponry.

The Tariq Afridi faction of the Pakistani Taliban had been pushed out of Dara Adam Khel by the Pakistani government, which the Akhurwal tribe supported in this endeavor. But they had only been pushed out to the mountainous environs of the city, and can clearly come back in and wreak havoc.

Aljazeera English has video.

Terrorism: Taking Apart the British Warnings of a "Mumbai-Style" Attack

Earlier this week the British media was in a tizzy over a BBC story that some British police were getting military style training with automatic weapons to deal with a Mumbai-style assault on a UK urban centre.

The alleged existence of such a plot is, of course, why the US government warned its citizens not to go to Europe and why the British government warned its citizens not to go to France and why the French government warned its citizens not to go to the United Kingdom (actually, in the latter case, the warning came supposedly in retaliation for the British warning about travelling to France: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose). There’s also a suggestion that the warnings conveniently provided a justification for even more drone attacks being carried out in Pakistan by the Obama administration.

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Afghanistan Analysis: US Military Asserting Dominance over White House Again?

Last week, the White House announced that National Security Advisor James Jones would be replaced later this month by the current deputy advisor, Tom Donilon.

Jones, a retired Marine General, had been wounded in a number of bureaucratic encounters over 20 months. Notable amongst these was his attempt to limit the military's demands for more and more US troops in Afghanistan. It was Jones, for example, who carried the message to Kabul in summer 2009 that the President would ask, "WTF?", if his commanders asked for another escalation, only months after getting additional forces. Yet by December, that same President was agreeing to another injection of 30,000 soldiers.

Well before that incident, the military had set out its tactics of briefing the press against White House attempts to check a bolstered intervention. So it was intriguing to see what happened 72 hours after Donilon, who is also seen by many as a sceptic of the ramped-up military effort, was named as Jones' successor.

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Pakistan: More Questions About A Closed Border and Burning Tankers (Fair)

why haven't attacks on the supply line to Afghanistan been more common? It's reasonable to argue that a dedicated and sensible insurgent would target these trucks along the way from Karachi to Torkham or to Chaman in Pakistan and from Torkham or Chaman to their final destinations within Afghanistan. This would be simple to do as the Pakistani security forces do not protect those privately-owned trucks and much of the route in Afghanistan winds through narrow mountain passes.

The answer is simple: trucking mafias and organized criminal and insurgent networks are all making money off of this system. The system of payoffs is elaborate yet elegant. Pashtuns dominate the trucking mafia in Pakistan and represent enormous financial interests in the fundamental integrity of the supply line system. The drivers and their companies must pay off Pakistani police and any other relevant government officials to secure "safe" passage and to resolve any "paperwork complexities."

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The Unending War on Terror: Who Are the Men Left in Guantanamo? (Worthington)

Of the 13 men whose stories are described in this chapter, only one has had a ruling on his habeas corpus petition, and, although successful, that ruling was overturned on appeal in July this year. One other man, the last Tajik in Guantánamo, was cleared for release before a judge could rule on his petition, and, of the rest, two are Afghans, two are Saudis (who were cleared for release under the Bush administration), and the rest are Yemenis. As with the Yemenis discussed in other articles, it is certain that some are amongst the 58 Yemenis cleared for release by President Obama’s Guantánamo Review Task Force, who are only held because of the President’s unprincipled moratorium on releasing any Yemenis, which he announced in January.

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"It's Just Not Cricket": The Sports Betting Scandal Engulfing England and Pakistan (Haddigan)

On Monday the English cricket team played Pakistan in a one-day international at Lords, the spiritual home of the game. Not all was gentlemanly in the sport of gentlemen, however: a verbal and physical scuffle was sparked when an England player allegedly asked a Pakistani opponent how much he hoped to make from illegal betting on the game.

The incident escalated an already-tense situation. Three Pakistani players had been withdrawn from the tour of England after claims that "no-balls" had been bowled to pay off on large "spot bets". The chairman of Pakistan cricket subsequently claimed that English players had deliberately lost a game, escalating a scandal over match-fixing that threatens to tarnish the sport.

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