Standard Schaeffer, "'Al Qaeda Itself
Does Not Exist'," CounterPunch, June 21, 2003
Enver Masud, "Bin Laden Not Wanted
for 9/11," The Wisdom Fund, June 8, 2006
John Gray, "Control Oil and Water,
Control the World," Newsweek, March 30, 2008
Syed Saleem Shahzad, "Faceless Taliban Rule
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province ," Asia Times, January 29,
2009
John Barry and Evan Thomas, "Afghanistan:
Obama's Vietnam," Newsweek, January 9, 2009
[Even before the attacks of September 11, 2001, its leaders were formulating
a response to what they saw as the reptilian encroachment of the West on the
oil and gas lands of Central Asia, especially in the Caspian Sea region. To
be specific, in June 2001, its leaders joined with Russia's to form the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization. . . .
Meanwhile, as the Obama administration tries to sort out its Iranian,
Afghan, and Central Asian policies, Beijing continues to dream of a secure,
fast-flowing, energy version of the old Silk Road, extending from the
Caspian Basin (the energy-rich Stans plus Iran and Russia) to Xinjiang
province, its Far West.
The SCO has expanded its aims and scope since 2001. Today, Iran, India, and
Pakistan enjoy "observer status" in an organization that increasingly aims
to control and protect not just regional energy supplies, but Pipelineistan
in every direction. This is, of course, the role the Washington ruling elite
would like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to play across
Eurasia. Given that Russia and China expect the SCO to play a similar role
across Asia, clashes of various sorts are inevitable.--Pepe Escobar, "Liquid
War: Welcome to Pipelineistan," Asia Times, March 25, 2009]
[He said American strategy must relate directly to the threat posed to the
Americans by al-Qaeda and its allies - who, he reminded his listeners, were
behind the 9/11 attacks on American soil eight years ago.--John Barry and
Evan Thomas, "Afghan
leader welcomes US review," BBC News, March 28, 2009
Robert Naiman, "Afghanistan:
The four Questions," truthout.org, March 28, 2009
[The initial surge will add 17,000 troops to the 36,000 already there. Then,
later this year, there is to be a second troop surge of another 17,000 or
so.--Jim Hightower, "Obama
to Bring More Mercenaries to Afghanistan - Sound Familiar?,"
alternet.org, March 28, 2009]
[ . . . the U.S. seems to be in the process of trading in a limited war in a
mountainous, poverty-stricken country of 27 million people for one in an
advanced nation of 167 million, with a crumbling economy, rising extremism,
advancing corruption, and a large military armed with nuclear weapons. Worse
yet, the war in Pakistan seems to be expanding inexorably (and in tandem
with American war planning) from the tribal borderlands ever closer to the
heart of the country.--Tom Engelhardt, "The Great Afghan
Bailout," tomdispatch.com, March 29, 2009]
[Taliban insurgents rejected on Wednesday a U.S. offer of "honourable
reconciliation" as a "lunatic idea" and said the withdrawal of foreign
troops was the only way to end the war in Afghanistan.--Sayed Salahuddin, "Taliban
say U.S. reconciliation offer 'lunatic'," Reuters, April 1, 2009]
[Top experts on Afghanistan and Pakistan's troubled tribal areas agree that
President Barack Obama's new strategy for the region is a recipe for
disaster from Islamabad's point of view. They lament that short-sighted
people at the helm of affairs are jubilant over the $1.5 billion yearly
reward for implementation of the plan.--Ansar Abbasi, "Obama
plan seen as disastrous for Pakistan," thenews.com, April 3, 2009]
[ . . . there have been longstanding plans for a pipeline from Turkmenistan
in Central Asia to India, which would go - TAPI, it's called: Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, India.
Now, that's of significance to the United States for a number of reasons.
For one thing, if it - it would run right through Afghanistan and through
Kandahar province, one of the most conflicted areas. If it was established,
it would, for one thing, reduce the reliance of the Central Asian states on
Russia. So it would weaken their role. But more significant, it would bypass
Iran. I mean, India needs energy, and the natural source is Iran. And, in
fact, they're discussing an Iran-to-India pipeline. But if you could get
natural gas flowing from Central Asia to India, avoiding Iran, that would
support the US policy, which is now very clear - in Obama's case, it's been
made more concrete - of forming an alliance of regional states to oppose
Iran.--"Noam Chomsky
on US Expansion of Afghan Occupation, the Uses of NATO,"
democracynow.org, April 3, 2009]
[Decades after the British Empire, "Europe" tries to (re)occupy the Hindu
Kush. Afghanistan is NATO's first war outside Europe and first ground war
ever. It involves all 26 members (now 28; Albania and Croatia were finally
admitted) plus 12 "partners", including five European nations that used to
be neutral: Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland.--Pepe
Escobar, "Globocop
versus the TermiNATO," Asia Times, April 4, 2009
[As many as one million people have fled their homes in the Tribal Areas to
escape attacks by the unmanned spy planes as well as bombings by the
Pakistani army. In Bajaur agency entire villages have been flattened by
Pakistani troops under growing American pressure to act against Al-Qaeda
militants, who have made the area their base.--Daud Khattakin and Christina
Lamb, "Thousands flee bomb attacks by US drones," Sunday Times,
April 5, 2009]
Amir Mir, "60 drone
hits kill 14 al-Qaeda men, 687 civilians," Sunday Times, April 10,
2009
[A growing number of U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials
have concluded that there's little hope of preventing nuclear-armed Pakistan
from disintegrating into fiefdoms controlled by Islamist warlords and
terrorists, posing the a greater threat to the U.S. than Afghanistan's
terrorist haven did before 9/11.--Jonathan S. Landay, "U.S. experts:
Pakistan on course to become Islamist state," McClatchy Newspapers,
April 16, 2009]
[Given the Taliban's limited interest in issues outside the "AfPak" region,
if they came to power again now, they would be highly unlikely to host
provocative terrorist groups whose actions could lead to another outside
intervention.--John Mueller, "How Dangerous Are the Taliban? Why
Afghanistan Is the Wrong War," Foreign Affairs, April 15, 2009
Pamela Constable, "After Reaching Deal in North, Islamists Aim to
Install Religious Law Nationwide," Washington Post, April 20, 2009
[President Obama . . . By catapulting drone attacks on FATA villages, he's
pushing militants further east into Pakistan proper, and the US escalation
has so far had the effect of uniting the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistan
Taliban, and various pro-Taliban militias into a unified fighting force.
We're also providing recruiting posters for Pakistani
fundamentalists.--Robert Dreyfuss, "Talibanistan
in Pakistan," Nation, April 21, 2009]
Ewen MacAskill and Mark Tran, "US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians,"
Guardian, May 6, 2009
S. Amjad Hussain, "Pakistan paying for
fallout," toledoblade.com, July 7, 2014