NewsTrust - Terrorism - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

Who Created Major Hasan?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Robert Wright - Nov. 21 (Opinion) - seeing the fort hood shooting as an act of islamist terrorism is the first step toward seeing how misguided a hawkish approach to fighting terrorism has been.

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Things Not to Be Thankful For - Silverdome, Goldman Sachs & Congressional Recess

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Show - By Jon Stewart - Nov. 20 (Comedy News) - Detroit sells its Silverdome for less than a one-bedroom apartment, Goldman Sachs reports huge profits, and three congressmen warn New Yorkers of terrorism.

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Kerry: Afghan handoff may take 4-5 years

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

USA Today - Nov. 18 (Interview) - In the past year Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has become a more prominent force in Washington. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry offers a critical voice at a time when the United States is engaged in two wars abroad while facing myriad challenges on the international front. The Vietnam War veteran, who was his party's presidential candidate in 2004, recently has warned that though the cost of failure in Afghanistan would be substantial, Afghans must do the heavy lifting. He is pushing an initiative on climate change, tying it directly to national security. Kerry discussed these and other issues Tuesday with USA TODAY's editorial board. The following Q&A is adapted from that session and edited for length and clarity.

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The right's nonsensical arguments against trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York.

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Slate - By Dahlia Lithwick - Nov. 17 (Opinion) - Opposition to the Obama administration's plan to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his confederates in a federal court in New York City is hardening into two camps. One is concerned that we may be unwittingly playing into the terrorists' hands. The other is incensed that we already have. What both camps share, besides a kind of unhinged logic and complete disregard for the legal process, is an obsessive fascination with the accused. The result is a broad willingness to sacrifice our commitment to legal principles in favor of the symbolic satisfaction of crushing the hopes and dreams of a motley group of criminals.

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Renouncing Islamism: To the brink and back again

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - In the mosques across the city, I hear a fringe of young men talk dreamily of flocking to Afghanistan to "resist". Yet this whisper never has an immigrant accent. It shares my pronunciations, my cultural references, and my national anthem. Beneath the beards and the burqas, there is an English voice.

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The Right's textbook "surrender to terrorists"

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Nov. 15 (Opinion) - This is literally true: the Right's reaction to yesterday's announcement -- we're too afraid to allow trials and due process in our country -- is the textbook definition of "surrendering to terrorists." It's the same fear they've been spewing for years. As always, the Right's tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers. Indeed, it's hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.

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The three fallacies that have driven the war in Afghanistan

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Oct. 21 (Opinion) - A bloody escalation in the war is more likely to fuel jihadism than thwart it. If Obama is serious about undermining this vile fanatical movement, it would be much wiser to take the hundreds of billions he is currently squandering on chasing after a hundred fighters in the Afghan mountains and redeploy it. Spend it instead on beefing up policing and intelligence, and on building a network of schools across Pakistan and other flash-points in the Muslim world, so parents there have an alternative to the fanatical madrassahs that churn out bin Laden-fodder. The American people will be far safer if the world sees them building schools for Muslim kids instead of dropping bombs on them.

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Rebranding America

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:09:36 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 18 (Opinion) - President Obama reminds us that America is not just a country but an idea, a great idea about opportunity for all and responsibility to your fellow man.

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Right-Wing American Terrorists Issue YouTube Threat

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - There is no universally agreed-upon definition of the word "terrorism." As I've often said, the reason it's next to impossible to define the term is that everyone wants it to mean: 'violent acts in the pursuit of political goals with which I disagree.' That aside, most agree that attempting to influence public officials through a threat of violence is an act of terrorism.

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Still Not Tired

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Oct. 04 (Opinion) - Though we may be tired of this “war on terrorism,” the bad guys are not. They are getting even more creative.

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Al Qaeda's on its way out

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By C.M. Sennott - Sep. 30 (Opinion) - The image of Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan-born bus driver from Denver and now a terror suspect, embodies the complex truths of where we are right now in the struggle against terrorism.

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Obama’s Dick Cheney Moment

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Benjamin Wittes - Sep. 28 (Opinion) - His decision not to consult Congress on detentions represents a virtually wholesale adoption of Bush’s failed policies.

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Blackwater: Widening the rift

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Dawn - By Sana Saleem - Sep. 22 (Opinion) - Conspiracy theories have always had high currency in our part of the world and ritual cynicism towards America is quite usual. Recent reports claiming the presence of CIA’s contractual army – Blackwater – in Pakistan have bolstered concerns within the Pakistani public about US involvement in this country’s affairs. It’s high time, though, that the government came clean with the public about the extent of US involvement in this country’s security affairs.

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A culture war, literally

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

courier-journal.com - By Leonard Pitts - Sep. 17 (Opinion) - I don't know who coined the term “culture war” to describe our political divisions, but I'm reasonably sure he or she intended it only as a figure of speech It feels like something else in light of a new report from the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups. “Terror From the Right” is a listing of bombers, killers, would-be assassins and insurrectionists motivated by anger over abortion, gays, taxes, blacks, Muslims and illegal immigrants. Which raises an obvious fair and balanced question: What about terror from the left?

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Fear was no excuse to condone torture

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miami Herald - By Charles C. Krulak, Joseph P. Hoar - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - In the fear that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Americans were told that defeating Al Qaeda would require us to ``take off the gloves.'' As a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, we knew that was a recipe for disaster. But we never imagined that we would feel duty-bound to publicly denounce a vice president of the United States, a man who has served our country for many years. In light of the irresponsible statements recently made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, however, we feel we must repudiate his dangerous ideas -- and his scare tactics.

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A Journalist in Limbo

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By D. Jeffrey Hirschberg - Sep. 14 (Opinion) - On the front lines of the battle against extremism, in places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, fiercely dedicated journalists risk their lives every day to report accurate news to audiences besieged by terrorist violence and propaganda. Rahman Bunairee, a 33-year-old reporter for the U.S.-government-funded Voice of America (VOA), is one of those journalists. His reporting from Pakistan on Taliban atrocities long ago made him a target

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At OpEdNews: Under the Cloak of Questionable Premise

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - By Robert Johnson - Sep. 11 (Editorial) - This short list scratches the surface of serious doubt. With discretion, hard information and solid leads can be gleaned from the Web and databases like NexisLexis. But until there is arm’s-length inquiry with powers to subpoena and indict and a mandate to uphold the rule of law, what really happened on 9/11 is left to folklore, and state skullduggery stays armed with a vague and powerful excuse.

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A Stable Pakistan Needs a Stable Afghanistan

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Frederick W. Kagan - Sep. 05 (Opinion) - Critics of the war have suggested we should draw down our troops and force Pakistan to play a larger role in eliminating radical extremists. American concerns about al Qaeda and Taliban operating from Pakistani bases have led to the conventional wisdom that Pakistan matters to the U.S. because of what it could do to help—or hurt—in Afghanistan. The conventional wisdom is wrong as usual.

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Pakistan’s Disappeared Victims: An Interview With Amina Masood Janjua

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mystified Justice - By Sana Saleem - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - Amina represents the families of over 650 missing people of Pakistan. Those gone without a trace. Dragged out of their houses and hustled into waiting vans while their families watched terrified. Hundreds have joined ranks among the disappeared victims of Pakistan leaving loved ones appalled and helpless.

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From My Lai to Lockerbie

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tomgram - By Nick Turse - Aug. 30 (Opinion) - Now, a new administration is in power and it has decided to investigate CIA interrogations -- but only those acts by Agency operatives (and its private contractors) that went beyond the bounds of Bush administration extremity, beyond the bounds, that is, of that administration's pretzled definitions of what was not torture. The rest gets a pass.

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Afghanistan's Sham Vote

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jean MacKenzie - Aug. 26 (Opinion) - The dust had barely settled on the Afghan elections before the U.S. government, the United Nations and the European Union were hailing them as a success, commending voters for their heroism and election workers for their relative efficiency. This would be laughable if it were not such a great shame.

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Is half a torture investigation better than none at all?

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Dahlia Lithwick - Aug. 26 (Opinion) - Holder has fallen prey to the sort of magical legal thinking that seeps through the whole CIA report: the presumption that if there's a legal memo, it must be legal.

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Afghan Elections: Bad And Ugly

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Ian Bremmer - Aug. 26 (Opinion) - While the fact that the elections were held is a positive development, the end result is likely to lack legitimacy. President Hamid Karzai probably gained more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round of the elections, which means that a second round is not needed, but there is a perception that he overcompensated for his declining popularity by engaging in wide-scale rigging and manipulation.

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Lockerbie: Has an innocent man been locked up?

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Review - By Tom Gross - Aug. 20 (Opinion) - there are serious concerns that he is innocent. Indeed there are those in Israeli intelligence and the CIA who have long believed that Libya was not behind the attack, and it was actually carried out by the PLO splinter group the PFLP-GC, acting on Iran’s orders. They believe that the Lockerbie bomb timing devices were manufactured in a PFLP-GC workshop on the outskirts of Damascus.

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Obama Defends Afghanistan War; Campaigning Wraps up with Karzai calling on Warlords

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Aug. 18 (Opinion) - President Barack Obama on Monday. Ironically, as Obama spoke. Others have pointed out that Bush?s handlers would never have allowed any such thing. Hell, they unconstitutionally designated ?protest zones.? Anyway, about Afghanistan 1. Obama reiterated his pledge to get the US out of Iraq: "And we will remove all our troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. And for America, the Iraq war will end." 2. He has a new strategy in Afghanistan, announced last March. He makes three points about it: 1. "This strategy recognizes that al Qaeda and its allies had moved their base to the remote, tribal areas of Pakistan" . . . and 2. "This strategy acknowledges that military power alone will not win this war—that we also need diplomacy and development ...

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