IRAQ
Man Held is Not Leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq - Freeman and Sabah, Washington Post
US Military Denies Iraq Report of al-Qaida Arrest - Associated Press
Leader of al-Qaida in Iraq Has Not Been Captured - Voice of America
Iraq al-Qaeda Chief Not Captured - BBC News
US Military Denies al Masri in Custody - Bill Roggio, The Long War Journal
Shiite Militias Seize Beirut Neighborhoods - Worth and Bakri, New York Times
Coalition Soldiers Kill Six Enemy Fighters, Capture Weapons Caches - AFPS
19 Shiite Extremists Killed in Iraq - Associated Press
Troops Kill 25 Militants in Baghdad - Reuters
US Special Forces Fighting Inside Sadr City - Bill Roggio, The Long War Journal
Iraq Prepares for Baghdad Exodus - Clive Myrie, BBC News
Brigade Leaves Iraq Region Secure, Revitalized - Kristen Noel, AFPS
Contractor in Shooting Case Makes Comeback - James Risen, New York Times
Sometimes It's What You Don't Say - Dr. iRack, Abu Muqawama
Winning Anbar: Diplomacy with a Gun - Herschel Smith, The Captain's Journal
Of Macedonia and Mesopotamia - Phillip Carter, Intel Dump
Iraq Status Report - Iraq Status Report
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS
Mission Requires More NATO, International Support - Gerry Gilmore, AFPS
Cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley - Associated Press
Protesters Clash with Police in East Afghanistan - Reuters
Comin' Round the Mountain - Dymphna, Gates of Vienna
IRAN
Countering Iran - Reuel Marc Gerecht, Weekly Standard opinion
Iran Shouts “Nuclear Apartheid” - Gordon Chang, Contentions
What’s ElBaradei Up To? - Emanuele Ottolenghi, Contentions
THE LONG WAR
FBI, ATF Battle for Control Of Cases - Jerry Markon, Washington Post
An Anatomy of Surrender - Bruce Bawler, City Journal
Does the US Need the UN to Fight Terror? - Drew Kumpf, Foreign Policy
Jihad and US Intelligence Resources - Jeffrey Imm, Counterterrorism
Resource Tradeoffs and the War on Ideas - Marc Lynch, Abu Aardvark
Crack of Dawn? - Jules Crittenden, Forward Movement
The J Word - Jennifer Rubin, Contentions
Guantanamo Detainees Spead Word to Boycott Trials - Associated Press
Needed Testimony - Washington Post editorial
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
A Navy Man Looks Out for the Army - Anna Mulrine, US News and World Report
Military Considering New Cremation Policies - Associated Press
AFRICA
New Signs of Zimbabwe Attacks as Mbeki Arrives - Celia Dugger, New York Times
Somali Militants Raid Police Base - BBC News
Somali Peace Talks to Open in Djibouti - Voice of America
Attacks on Aid Staff Hinder Work in South Sudan - Reuters
Zambia Seizes 'Chiluba Millions' - BBC News
Burundi 'Rebel' Arrests Condemned - BBC News
WFP Worker Killed in North Kenya - Reuters
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Evolves - J. Peter Pham, The Tank
AMERICAS
Chavez Agreed to Arm Rebels - Carter and Gentile, Washington Times
Files Show Ties of Venezuela-Colombia Rebels - Reuters
Colombia Shows New Rebel Documents - Associated Press
Mexico to Continue War on Organized Crime - Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
Drug Violence, Mexico Vows to Fight Back - James McKinley, New York Times
Mexico Blames Gangs for Killing Top Cop - Associated Press
Second Police Shooting in Mexico - BBC News
Taking the War to the Mexican State, 4GW Style - Mark Safranski, ZenPundit
A Murder in Mexico - Douglas Farah, Counterterrorism
Bad Omens in Latin America - Douglas Farah, Counterterrorism
Haiti's PM Nominee Sees No Quick Fixes - Associated Press
ASIA PACIFIC
Burma Clears US Aircraft To Deliver Relief - Kazmin and Lynch, Washington Post
Burma Seizes UN Food, Blocks Foreign Experts - Seth Mydans, New York Times
Burma: 'I Stopped Counting the Bodies' - Kenneth Denby, London Times
UN Launches Appeal as Burma Refuses Aid - London Daily Telegraph
Burma Exports Rice as Cyclone Victims Struggle - Los Angeles Times
Burmese Junta Seizes UN Relief Aid - The Australian
Burma Warned Over Cyclone Delays - BBC News
UN Halts Burma Aid in Seizure Row - BBC News
Burma Presses on with Voting - Richard Ehrlich, Washington Times
Is it Time to Invade Burma? - Romesh Ratnesar, Time
Burma's Blockade - Washington Post editorial
Kick Burma Out of the UN - Wall Street Journal editorial
The Case for Invading Burma - Shawn Crispin, Asia Times opinion
Burma: No News Is Bad News - Roby Alampay, New York Times opinion
Time to Invade Burma? - Gordon Chang, Contentions
Re: Time to Invade Burma? - Abe Greenwald, Contentions
US Welcomes N. Korea Nuclear Move - BBC News
Malaysian Peacekeepers Leave Philippines - Associated Press
Malaysia Begins Pullout of Philippine Monitors - Reuters
Mr. Hu’s Peaceable Visit to Tokyo - New York Times editorial
EUROPE
Soviet-Style Display of Might Fills Red Square - Peter Finn, Washington Post
Russia Parades Military Might - C.J. Chivers, New York Times
Medvedev Flexes Muscle with V-Day Display - Tony Halpin, London Times
In Russia, Nostalgia for Soviet Era - Megan Stack, Los Angeles Times
Russia Puts on a Soviet Show of Might - Adrian Blomfield, London Daily Telegraph
Tanks Rejoin Moscow V-Day Parade - BBC News
Medvedev Atop the Russian Bear - Washington Times editorial
Georgia in Jeopardy - Wall Street Journal editorial
Turkish Military Says it Killed 20 PKK Fighters - Reuters
Turkish Military: 19 Kurdish Rebels Killed in Airstrikes - Associated Press
Election in Serbia May Cripple Hunt for Gen. Ratko Mladic - Associated Press
MIDDLE EAST
Hezbollah Gunmen Seize Beirut Neighborhoods - Alia Ibrahim, Washington Post
Hezbollah Storms to Success in W. Beirut - Nicholas Blanford, London Times
Hezbollah Moves to Control of W. Beirut - Daragahi and Rafei, Los Angeles Times
Barricading Beirut - Rana Fil, Newsweek
Hezbollah Fighters Sweep Over Much of Beirut's Muslim Sector - Associated Press
Fighting in Beirut Threatens Administration Priority - Robin Wright, Washington Post
Cabinet Condemns Hezbollah 'Coup' - BBC News
Battle for Beirut - London Times editorial
Flames Lick at Lebanon - Boston Globe editorial
Time for an Insurgency inside Lebanon - Westhawk, Westhawk
Hezbollah’s Beirut’s Blitz - Walid Phares, Counterterrorism
Q&A on Lebanon & Hezbollah - Abu Muqawama, Abu Muqawama
Lebanon's Crisis Not Really a Sunni-Shia Crisis - Marc Lynch, Abu Aardvark
The Lesson of Lebanon - Noah Pollak, Contentions
Things Get Worse in Lebanon - David Hazony, Contentions
Attack from Gaza Kills 1, Israeli Retaliation Kills 5 - Associated Press
The Myth Of Occupied Gaza - Rivkin and Casey, Washington Post opinion
Israel Readying for a Post-Olmert Era - Ethan Bronner, New York Times
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Obstacles - Wahid and A'la, Wall Street Journal opinion
Assad’s “Full Reciprocity” - Emanuele Ottolenghi, Contentions
Re: Assad’s “Full Reciprocity” - Eric Tager, Contentions
SOUTH ASIA
Army's Chief Liaison to Pakistan Pulled - Tyson and Tate, Washington Post
Pakistan Opposes US Military Aide - BBC News
Tainted by Torture - Phillip Carter, Intel Dump
Foe of Musharraf Is Released in Pakistan - Salmon Masood, New York Times
Pakistan Coalition Fails to Break Judges Deadlock - Reuters
Pakistan PM Takes Control of Spies - Bruce Loudon, The Australian
Sri Lanka Holds Vote in Liberated East - Associated Press
Bombing on Eve of Sri Lanka Polls - BBC News
Tamil Tigers Sink Ship on Polling Day - BBC News
Sri Lanka Election Draws Complaints - Associated Press
WORLD
The Rise of the Rest - Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek
Ethanol Cause of Food Crisis 'Flat-out Wrong' - Sands and Dinan, Washington Times
The Economics of Sex Trafficking - Chris Blattman, Chris Blattman
RECOMMENDED READING
Recommended Reading - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner
The Pakistan Security Research Unit - Will Hartley, Insurgency Research Group
Iraq Status Report - Iraq Status Report
UK CT & COIN Features - Will Hartley, Insurgency Research Group
EVENTS OF INTEREST
13 May 2008 - After the Iraqi Offensive: An Address by Colonel H. R. McMaster (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. The government of Iraq has made great strides both militarily and politically over the past year and a half. After dramatically reducing al Qaeda in Iraq’s operational capability, the Iraqi Security Forces have successfully undertaken operations to reclaim segments of Basra and Sadr City from Shiite extremist elements. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al Maliki has won increasing support from the major Sunni, Kurdish, and Shiite blocs due to his leadership in this offensive. Moreover, in a sign of bottom-up reconciliation, nearly 90 percent of Sunnis polled declared their intention to participate in the October provincial elections. How will Iraqi political dynamics evolve as operations against Shiite extremists continue? How will the security situation in Iraq evolve as the July drawdown in U.S. forces approaches? How have recent events in Iraq influenced our understanding of nation-building strategy? Having recently returned from working with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus in Iraq, Colonel H. R. McMaster will address these and other questions at AEI on May 13. Following his address, Michèle Flournoy of the Center for a New American Security and AEI’s Thomas Donnelly will join Colonel McMaster for a discussion of these issues.
15 May 2008 - Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. In Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press, May 2008), AEI scholars Thomas Donnelly and Frederick W. Kagan pose a series of urgent questions for policymakers: What is the strategic role of American ground forces? What missions will these forces undertake in the future? What is the nature of land warfare in the twenty-first century? What qualities are necessary to succeed on the battlefields of the Long War? What is the ideal size and configuration of the force--and how much will it cost? On Thursday, May 15, Donnelly, Kagan, and Kathleen Hicks of the Center for Strategic and International Studies will discuss these and other questions about the size, shape, and costs of the land forces the United States will require in the years ahead.
4-5 June 208 - 2008 Joint Symposium - Strategic Re-Assessment: From Long-Range Planning to Future Strategy and Forces (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Institute for National Strategic Studies, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and US Joint Forces Command. Fundamental to the development and implementation of a successful future defense posture is a foundation comprised of a well-reasoned assessment of the future security environment, a clear understanding of the “realm of the possible” for and limitations of military forces, and an understanding of the nation’s security objectives. Developing an appropriate assessment of the future security environment is not something done in a vacuum as it is impossible to fully separate purely military or national security issues from other elements of the national and global environment. This is particularly true for the United States. Technical innovation and adaptation, the rise and decline of other actors on the international stage, domestic politics, globalization and its effects on trade, migration, communications, and the power of nonstate actors all, bear heavily on any security assessment. There is no shortage of assessments of the future security environment. In the last decade, National Defense University itself has produced several, most recently, Strategic Challenges – America’s Global Security Agenda. The objectives of this symposium are to examine some of these strategic assessments, to review our success at incorporating their key elements into strategic and operational plans, and to propose ways to institutionalize best practices into the process for future force development and joint force planning. We will explore these issues through a series of panel discussions and keynote addresses. Featured speakers will include military officers, government officials, and experts from research institutes.
17-19 June 208 - 3rd Annual North American Security Colloquium: Wars Without Borders (Public Event). Kingston, Ontario. Sponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, Queen's Centre for International Relations, and Defence Management Studies at Queen's University, and the Canadian 'Forces' Land Doctrine and Training System. The conflicts today in Iraq and in Afghanistan are examples of what some leading scholars and many commanders have termed “continuous wars among the people.” This type of conflict is developing or occurring in other regions of the world, in Africa and in Latin America for example. In many of these situations traditional and legal borders no longer define or contain the conflict, nor do obvious sovereign entities control belligerents. International commitments to control these conflicts necessarily demand complex, multi-dimensional diplomatic, military, police, and humanitarian responses. What has been learned about such conflicts from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan may to some degree be transferable to conflicts in other regions. Assuming that the international community may well face future operations characterized by regional, borderless “wars among the people”, the centres at Queen’s University and their partners propose convening a distinguished group of approximately 200 experts from academic, military, governmental, and international institutions to examine how best to prepare commanders, military units and governments to plan for and conduct complex, multi-dimensional stability campaigns in this new environment.
16-18 September 2008 - The U.S. Army and the Interagency Process: A Historical Perspective (Public Event - Conference / Call for Papers). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Sponsored by the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute. The symposium will include a variety of guest speakers, panel sessions, and general discussions. This symposium will explore the partnership between the U.S. Army and government agencies in attaining national goals and objectives in peace and war within a historical context. Separate international topics may be presented. The symposium will also examine current issues, dilemmas, problems, trends, and practices associated with U.S. Army operations requiring close interagency cooperation.
