Country Intelligence and Analysis
A fierce controversy is raging in the United States over plans to build an Islamic community and outreach centre, including a mosque, in Lower Manhattan, several blocks from “Ground Zero” – the site where the World Trade Centre stood when it was attacked on September 11, 2001. The controversy started when the Cordoba Initiative, led…
Ex-spies ponder N. Korean missile sale to Taliban CIA-supplied Stinger missiles proved to be a game-changer for mujaheddinAccording to one of the intelligence reports obtained by WikiLeaks, one of the Afghan insurgency’s most powerful figures, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, traveled to North Korea in 2005 with a top aide to Osama bin Laden and purchased ground-to-air missiles….
Mikhail Khodorkovsky sits in a defendant’s cage in a Moscow courtroom in this June 16, 2004 file photo. In a lengthy interview published in this week’s issue of SPIEGEL, he argues: “I was not a rober baron in the past, just as I’m not a martyr today.” SPIEGEL interview, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 47, the former Russian…
Sajjan Gohel, International Security Director for the London-based Asia-Pacific Foundation. STORY HIGHLIGHTS * UK engagement with Pakistan part of recognition of the country’s importance * West depends on Pakistani intelligence but ISI, military still have links to Afghan Taliban * Pakistani military sees Afghanistan in terms of its “strategic depth” * Concern also that Pakistan…
No war likely on Lebanon-Israel border – for now Photo released by Hizbollah’s press office on Thursday shows the Shiite Party Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah (3rd right) meeting in Beirut with Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser for international issues to Iran’s Supreme Religious Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (AFP photo) By Rana Moussaoui Agence France-Presse…
Supermodel Naomi Campbell testified at the war crimes trial today of former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor that she accepted a gift of uncut, dirty stones — possible “blood diamonds” — after attending a 1997 dinner with the dictator at Nelson Mandela’s home in South Africa. But Campbell stopped short of calling the stones diamonds, and…
By Alexander Hotz Why WikiLeaks and the Mainstream Media Still Need Each Other Alexander Hotz is a freelance multimedia journalist and public radio junkie based in New York City. Currently he teaches digital media at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Follow Alex on Twitter at @hotzington. The July 25th release of 92,000 military documents…