IRAQ

Marines, Interpreters Among Those Killed - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post

Three US Marines and two interpreters were among scores of people killed Thursday in two bombings in predominantly Sunni provinces in Iraq, the US military said. US officials have confirmed the death of 13 Americans killed in Iraq this week. Nine of them were attacked while attending meetings with Iraqis. The Marines were killed after a bomb exploded inside a building where they were meeting with local leaders in Anbar province, in western Iraq.

Bombings Kill at Least 30; Three Marines Dead - Alissa Rubin, New York Times

Two insurgent bomb blasts struck at pro-American Iraqi targets in Anbar province just west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday, and the police said at least 30 people were killed and 80 wounded. Iraqi police officials said three American Marines were among the dead in the Anbar attack, which came just as the American military command was preparing to hand control of the province, once considered the hotbed of the insurgency, over to Iraqi forces.

American Military Presence - Fouad Ajami, US News & World Report opinion

From the time america struck into Iraq in 2003, Iraqis have exhibited this great, persistent contradiction: the need for the foreign power's help and protection and an overweening pride that has made them bristle at their dependence. The debate now taking place about a "status of forces" agreement and a security arrangement with the United States puts this Iraqi ambivalence into sharp focus. More than 80 countries have such arrangements with the United States, but Iraq has never been a "normal" country. It has a history of brittle nationalism, and such an accord will have to be reached against the background of the country's factionalism and of its place in its neighborhood.

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS

UN Finds Afghan Opium Trade Rising - Colum Lynch, Washington Post

Afghan opium poppy cultivation grew 17 percent last year, continuing a six-year expansion of the country's drug trade and increasing its share of global opium production to more than 92 percent, according to the 2008 World Drug Report, released Thursday by the United Nations. Afghanistan's emergence as the world's largest supplier of opium and heroin represents a serious setback to US policy in the region. The opium trade has soared since the US-led 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, which had eradicated almost all of the country's opium poppies. The proceeds from the illicit trade are helping finance a resurgent Taliban that is battling US and allied troops.

3 Police Officials Fired Over Prison Break - Faiez and King, Los Angeles Times

The Afghan government announced Thursday that it had fired three senior police officials in the southern province of Kandahar, two weeks after the Taliban staged a spectacular prison break that freed hundreds of militants. Insurgents freed in the June 13 assault on Kandahar's main jail quickly joined ranks with local Taliban fighters and briefly overran part of a strategic district close to the city. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization had to rush in hundreds of troops last week to flush them out.

Pakistani Militants Execute 2 Alleged Spies - Habibullah Khan, Washington Times

Pakistani militants publicly executed two Afghans before thousands of cheering supporters Friday, saying the men spied for US forces and helped orchestrate a suspected US missile strike that killed 14 people last month. The brazenness of the execution, in which one man was decapitated and the other shot in front of 5,000 people in the Bajur region, underscored the power of the local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Pakistan Denies Role in Attack - Candace Rondeaux, Washington Post

Pakistan on Thursday sharply denied that its powerful intelligence agency was behind an attempt to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai in April, saying the accusations by Afghan officials were politically motivated. Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said the allegations against the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, were "untrue and baseless."

IRAN

Iran Fights Scourge of Addiction - Nazila Fathi, New York Times

More than a million Iranians are addicted to some form of opium, heroin or other opium derivative, according to the government, and some estimates run as high as 10 million. In a country where the discussion of some social and cultural issues, like homosexuality, can be all but taboo, drug addiction has been widely acknowledged as a serious problem. It is talked about openly in schools and on television. Posters have encouraged people to think of addiction as a disease and to seek treatment.

THE LONG WAR

We're Winning War on Terror - Gerard Baker, Times of London opinion

If only our political leaders and opinion-formers displayed even a hint of the defiant resilience that carried Marshal Foch to victory at the Battle of the Marne. But these days timorous defeatism is on the march. In Britain setbacks in the Afghan war are greeted as harbingers of inevitable defeat. In America, large swaths of the political class continues to insist Iraq is a lost cause. The consensus in much of the West is that the War on Terror is unwinnable. And yet the evidence is now overwhelming that on all fronts, despite inevitable losses from time to time, it is we who are advancing and the enemy who is in retreat.

Warfare, Lawfare, & Jawfare - Clifford May, National Review opinion

It turns out that war in the 21st century is not just about killing bad guys. In Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus has demonstrated that to win modern battles soldiers must do more than attack enemies - they also must make friends. It is our local allies who have been able to distinguish - in a way no computer, drone, or satellite can - between loyal Iraqis on the one hand, and al-Qaeda terrorists and Iranian agents on the other. In addition to warfare, there is lawfare: the rules and regulations that govern the fighting. Last week, after much controversy and delay, the House finally passed a bill to restore to our spy agencies the authority they need if they are to have any chance of keeping tabs on terrorists abroad. The bad news: Last week, the Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, granted to unlawful combatants at Guantanamo the right to challenge their detention in federal court. Honorable POWs have never enjoyed such constitutional protections.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Training Hones Marines' Visual Skills - Jim Michaels, USA Today

Faced with an alarming increase in sniper attacks in Iraq, Marine commanders in late 2006 began looking for ways to turn the tables on an elusive enemy. Among the experts they consulted: a renowned African big game hunter and a former big city cop. The result is the combat hunter program, an experiment in training Marines to fight insurgents by making the Marines as wily as the enemy they face. The training combines outdoor skills culled from hunting and tracking with the street smarts developed by police and Marines who grew up in cities.

PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES

Feds Raid Blackwater Armory - Mike Baker, Washington Times

Federal agents raided Blackwater Worldwide this week as part of an investigation into whether the private security company sidestepped federal laws prohibiting the private purchase of automatic assault rifles, the company said Thursday. Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched Blackwater's armory at its corporate headquarters in Moyock on Tuesday as part of the investigation. Court documents show that agents seized 22 guns as evidence from a vault dedicated to county authorities.

AFRICA

Mugabe Insists Vote to Be Held - Alan Cowell, New York Times

As President Robert Mugabe continued to insist that Friday’s runoff presidential election would proceed despite intensifying international condemnation, a picture emerged of the circumstances under which Zimbabweans would be forced to go to the polls, and what they might face if they resisted. Voting is set to begin at 7 a.m. Friday. Many Zimbabweans expect to be rounded up, taken to the polls and, if they are unable to read or do not understand how to vote, they will be “assisted” by a police officer who has already voted publicly in front of a senior officer, as apparently all members of the armed forces are required to do, a journalist in the state-owned news media said. Citizens of voting age without an inked finger, which indicates that they have voted, will be regarded as traitors and subject to reprisals, the journalist said.

A Leader Lost to Despair - Washington Post

Morgan Tsvangirai once embodied his nation's soaring hopes. Boisterous and bold in his trademark cowboy hat, the longtime opposition leader would predict the defeat of President Robert Mugabe and wave a red card - like a soccer referee ejecting an unruly player - to the joyous howls of overflowing crowds. That was three months ago, ahead of the March 29 presidential election. Now, on the eve of a runoff vote he vowed would finally end Mugabe's 28 years of unbroken power, the crowds are gone, along with the cowboy hat, the red cards and the boasts.

Mugabe Runs Unopposed - Catherine Philp, Times of London

Robert Mugabe vowed to go ahead with the presidential run-off today in the face of accusations that the vote would bestow upon him a 90 per cent mandate as meaningless as that which Saddam Hussein once enjoyed. Addressing his last rally before polls open for the surreal one-horse race, Mr Mugabe told supporters that he would be magnanimous in victory and willing to talk with the opposition.

Zimbabweans Told They Must Vote - Los Angeles Times

With longtime incumbent Robert Mugabe continuing to campaign despite his opponent's withdrawal, Zimbabwean voters were warned of violent repercussions if they fail to vote in today's presidential runoff. Mugabe, campaigning in a lime-green jacket bearing the ruling ZANU-PF party logo, declared that Zimbabwe would not accept calls from African leaders or anyone else to postpone the vote.

Complex Ties Lead Ally Not to Condemn - Dugger and Bearak, New York Times

President Robert Mugabe’s enforcers had already begun to rampage across Zimbabwe, beating his political opponents, when television cameras captured a startling image of Mr. Mugabe holding hands with the smiling South African president, Thabo Mbeki, a professed champion of African democracy. It was April 2000. And Mr. Mbeki, leader of the continent’s most powerful nation, spoke no evil of Mr. Mugabe’s repressive ways. Eight years later, in April 2008, much the same scene repeated itself.

Runoff Gets Off to Slow Start - Angus Shaw, Associated Press

Zimbabwe's one-candidate presidential runoff got off to a slow start Friday, with the vote seen as an exercise that won't solve the country's political crisis - and may even deepen it. World leaders have dismissed the runoff, which follows a campaign of state-sponsored violence so intense the opposition candidate declared he could not run, leaving a defiant Robert Mugabe as the only candidate.

Mbeki and Mugabe - Mark Givesser, Wall Street Journal opinion

Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, likes to make the point that the world is obsessed with Zimbabwe because white farmers have been victims there. Mr. Mbeki's argument is that there are many other African countries where democracy is subverted, but these are barely a blip on the screens of CNN or BBC. Mr. Mbeki is wrong. The worst victims of Mr. Mugabe's kleptocracy have been black folk, the poor people without British or South African passports whose only choice is to live with untenable inflation or to become illegal migrants in South Africa - and who have now been defrauded of the one thing that gave them dignity: their democratic rights.

Famine Looms in Ethiopia - Nicholas Benequista, Christian Science Monitor

In this African nation, about 10 million people, more than 12 percent of the population, are now in need of emergency food aid after a drought wiped out harvests. But because grain is now twice as expensive as a year ago – if it is available at all – there is not enough food in Ethiopia to feed everyone in need. Some aid workers are concerned that the combination of forces could force the country into the worst crisis since the infamous Ethiopian famine that killed an estimated 1 million people and was brought home to millions of television viewers across the world in the mid-1980s.

AMERICAS

Federal Police Official Killed in Mexico - Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post

A high-ranking federal police official and his bodyguard were assassinated here Thursday, the latest in a string of killings attributed to drug cartels seeking revenge against law enforcement agencies. The killings appear to be part of a recent coordinated effort by drug cartels to go after the federal police agency, which is generally thought to be less corrupt than most state and local police forces. Thousands of federal police officers have been dispatched around the country in the past year and a half to confront the cartels and sometimes to disarm entire local police departments suspected of aiding drug traffickers.

ASIA PACIFIC

N. Korea Destroys Tower - Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times

With international TV networks broadcasting live from the scene, North Korea blew up the most visible symbol of its nuclear program on Friday in a gesture demonstrating its commitment to stop making plutonium for weapons. The 60-foot cooling tower at the North’s main nuclear power plant was demolished on Friday, as promised by the North Korean government. The collapse of the concrete structure, the most conspicuous part of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, 60 miles, north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, bore witness to the incremental progress that has been made in American-led multilateral efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.

US to Delist North Korea - Harden and Wright, Washington Post

President Bush moved Thursday to drop North Korea from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism and to lift some trading sanctions, after the isolated totalitarian state turned over a long-delayed report that includes details of plutonium production in its nuclear program. Nearly two years after North Korea stunned the world by detonating a small nuclear device, Bush said the declaration marked the start of an "action for action" process meant to end with full dismantling of the highly militarized country's nuclear facilities and nuclear weapons.

'Axis of Evil' Member Scratched - Ward and Kralev, Washington Times

Six years after he identified a three-nation "axis of evil" and five years after he invaded one of them, President Bush has declared another of those nations safer as a result of diplomacy and agreed to remove it from the US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism. His decision Thursday, ending a series of sanctions on North Korea to reward it for providing an overdue account of its nuclear activities, underscored the dramatic changes in the president's foreign policy since the invasion of Iraq.

N. Korea Wins US Concessions - Spiegel and Demick, Los Angeles Times

With a formal announcement in the Rose Garden that he is easing sanctions against North Korea, President Bush on Thursday marked a milestone, albeit mostly symbolic, in the years-long struggle over the communist nation's nuclear weapons programs. Pyongyang, in an orchestrated exchange of concessions, provided details about its main nuclear efforts. In turn, US officials will no longer brand North Korea a sponsor of terrorism and will free it from a few economic restrictions.

N. Korea Off Terror List - Helene Cooper, New York Times

In the internal Bush administration war between the State Department and Mr. Cheney’s office over North Korea, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top North Korea envoy, Christopher R. Hill, won a major battle against the Cheney camp when President Bush announced Thursday that he was taking the country he once described as part of the “axis of evil” off the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The administration sought to portray the move as a largely symbolic, reciprocal move, made in return for North Korea’s long-delayed declaration of its nuclear program to the outside world. It is the first step in what will be a long, drawn-out diplomatic process that is meant to lead eventually to establishing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

N. Korea, US Nuke Breakthrough - Page and Parry, The Australian

North Korea and the US took their biggest steps towards reconciliation since the Korean War yesterday after the reclusive state handed China a long-delayed account of its nuclear activities. President George W. Bush responded by announcing that he would lift trade sanctions dating back to the 1950-53 conflict and remove North Korea from the US terrorism blacklist. The moves could be reversed quickly if North Korea, which tested a nuclear device two years ago, does not comply with US demands to abandon its nuclear program in a verifiable way.

Diplomatic Success That Defies Critics - Steven Lee Meyers, New York Times

North Korea’s declaration of its nuclear activities is a triumph of the sort of diplomacy - complicated, plodding, often frustrating - that President Bush and his aides once eschewed as American weakness. In more than two years of negotiations, the man who once declared North Korea part of an “axis of evil” with Iran and Iraq, angrily vowing to confront, not negotiate with, its despotic leader, in fact demonstrated a flexibility that his critics at home and abroad once considered impossible.

Leap of Nuclear Faith - Wall Street Journal editorial

North Korea delivered its long-overdue nuclear declaration yesterday, and President Bush immediately announced his intention to remove it from the US list of terrorism-sponsoring nations. We called this "faith-based nonproliferation" when it was first announced in February 2007, and that's still what it looks like today. Yesterday's accounting is far from the "complete declaration of all nuclear programs" that Pyongyang pledged to supply. There's no mention of nuclear weapons, notwithstanding the device it exploded in October 2006. Also missing is an accounting of its uranium program – despite new evidence of uranium traces found on 18,000 pages of North Korean documents, as reported by the Washington Post last weekend. Nor is there any mention of the North's proliferation, including the nuclear facility in Syria destroyed by Israel last year.

The North Korea Deal - New York Times editorial

For six years, President Bush rejected any serious diplomacy with North Korea. That obstinacy made the world a more dangerous place. While he was refusing to talk, Pyongyang made more fuel for more weapons and tested a nuclear device. Now that American diplomats finally have been freed to negotiate, there is a chance that North Korea can be persuaded to give up its weapons. That would make the world a safer place.

N. Korea: Nuclear Bombshell - Times of London editorial

President Bush's decision to lift American trade sanctions on North Korea and to remove it from the US blacklist of states supporting terrorism is a remarkable turnaround in policy towards the Stalinist state that he once branded as part of the “axis of evil”. It is a step of huge importance, both for North Korea and for the region, prompted by Pyongyang's handover yesterday, after years of prevarication, of the accounts of its nuclear work to Chinese officials. The surprise throughout Asia is matched only by the sudden hope that North Korea may at last be ready to renounce its nuclear weapons and co-operate in global attempts to enforce non-proliferation. President Bush has reacted swiftly to North Korea's “Libya moment”, calling the move a positive step, though only a first step.

A Bend in the Axis of Evil - Boston Globe editorial

There are still important questions to be answered about North Korea's nuclear program, but a milestone was passed yesterday. North Korea gave China what is supposed to be a complete account of that program, and President Bush said it is exempted from the Trading with the Enemy Act and will be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. North Korea's declaration and Bush's reciprocal action are very good news. They suggest that the joint statement of principles signed in 2005 by the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia is finally being fulfilled. The North has begun abandoning its nuclear program, disabling the reactor at Yongbyon, and the other five countries are starting to reward Pyongyang with fuel, food, and economic aid - steps that may lead to its inclusion in a peaceful security framework for northeast Asia.

Korean Nukes: Don't Get Giddy - Peter Brookes, New York Post opinion

North Korea gave the world some good news this week - finally handing over a declaration about its nuclear program and promising to blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility. But don't break out the best bubbly just yet. These moves are only a first step in what is likely to be a drawn-out, slippery, pot-hole-filled road in a (possibly futile) attempt to roll back Kim Jong Il's membership in the nuclear-weapons club.

Philippines Toll Could Reach 1,300 - Carlos Conde, New York Times

The death toll from Typhoon Fengshen, the storm that battered the Philippines last week, could reach 1,300 if the missing passengers and crew of a capsized ferry are included, officials said Thursday. Divers continued to search the overturned ferry but found no more survivors. As many as 809 of the 865 passengers and crew are feared to have died in the disaster.

EUROPE

Avoiding War - Yalowitz and Courtney, Christian Science Monitor opinion

Russia may be provoking a war with Georgia in a territorial dispute over Abkhazia. Some say Moscow's provocations are merely an effort to prevent Georgia from joining NATO, which it was promised at the alliance's summit in Bucharest this April. But a war between these two countries would threaten security in the volatile Caucasus and eastern Black Sea region and the booming exports of Caspian energy through Georgia, adding pressure to already sky-high oil prices throughout the world. It would also endanger US and NATO security interests in an area not far removed from the Middle East.

How Putin Muzzled Russia's Press - Garry Kasparov, Wall Street Journal opinion

"How come I am still alive? When I really think about it, it's a miracle." Several years back so spoke Anna Politkovskaya, the late Russian investigative journalist who for years fearlessly explored the depths of war-ravaged Chechnya. She is now the subject of the documentary "Letter to Anna" by Swiss director Eric Bergkraut. The film premiered in the U.S. last night at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York. Politkovskaya reported conversations with families ripped apart by war. She was also the voice of Russian soldiers who were ashamed of the atrocities committed in their country's name. Her work made her the enemy of many powerful people, and on Oct. 7, 2006, the 48-year-old was gunned down in the foyer of her apartment building.

MIDDLE EAST

Gaza Truce Strained - Isabel Kershner, New York Times

A barely week-old truce between Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza frayed further on Thursday when Palestinian militants launched two rockets against Israel, and Israel prevented goods from entering Gaza for a second day. One of the rockets fell harmlessly in an open area across the Israeli border, a military spokesman said. No details were available about the second. Israel sealed the border crossings on Wednesday in response to a rocket attack on Tuesday, the first serious breach of the Egyptian-brokered truce.

Militant Hamas as Reluctant Moderator - Ilene Prusher, Christian Science Monitor

Hamas, which for more than 20 years has been the Palestinian militant movement that most fervently rejected peace with Israel, today finds itself in the odd position of being the group trying to get its comrades in arms to hold their fire against the Jewish state. But the week-old truce – agreed upon between Israel and Hamas and contingent on Gaza's disparate armed factions keeping their guns quiet – looked closer to crumbling Thursday after militants again fired rockets into southern Israel. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade struck Thursday two days after an attack by another group, Islamic Jihad.

SOUTH ASIA

India, Pakistan Meet on Peace Process - Ashok Sharma, Washington Times

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan held talks Friday on the ongoing peace process between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, including their dispute over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. The meeting was the second between Indian Foreign Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, since a civilian government took power in Pakistan and comes ahead of a new round of peace talks scheduled to begin in July.

EVENTS OF INTEREST

22 July - Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare (Public Event). Washington, DC. The Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) is sponsoring a discussion on counterinsurgency on 22 July 2008, at the National Press Club (the Holeman Lounge), Washington, DC. Dr. John Nagl (Center for a New American Security), Dr. Daniel Marston (Australian National University), and Dr. Carter Malkasian (CNA) recently collaborated on Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare (Osprey, 2008), an edited book that examines 13 of the most important counterinsurgency campaigns of the past 100 years, including the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Dr. David Kilcullen (U.S. State Department), the renowned counterinsurgency expert, will moderate the discussion and provide critical commentary. Lunch will be provided. Books will be available to purchase at a discounted rate. For more information, visit the first link above. RSVP at kattm@cna.org or 703.824.2436.

11-15 August - Counterinsurgency Leaders Workshop (Official Event - Workshop). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency (COIN) Center is hosting a five-day program for prospective counterinsurgency leaders, 11-15 August 2008, at the Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The program is focused on equipping leaders with an understanding of the insurgency and counterinsurgency environments, as well as close consideration of the kinds of persons and organizations that usually emerge from insurgencies in contrast to those of conventional conflicts. This event will be held at the Battle Command Training Center (BCTC) Training Facility on Fort Leavenworth. Seating is limited. However, registration is open to any person who serves in any official capacity with regard to dealing with insurgencies, with priority is given to those applying from invited organizations. Other applicants will be reviewed for eligibility on a space-available, case-by-case basis. The duty is uniform/business casual. Application must completed on-line at the link above. The deadline for application is 1 August 2008. For more information, contact the COIN Center at 913-684-5196.

11-12 September - DNI Open Source Conferece 2008 (Public Event - Conference). Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The Office of the DNI is pleased to announce the "DNI Open Source Conference 2008" to be held on Thursday, 11 September and Friday, 12 September, 2008 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC. The conference is free; however, all who wish to attend must register online in advance (deadline 31 July). The two-day conference will explore a wide range of open source issues and open source best practices for the Intelligence Community and its partners. We invite participants from the broader open source community of interest including academia, think tanks, private industry, federal, state, local and tribal entities, international partners, and the media to attend. The conference will include speakers from across the broader open source community participating in panel discussions and focus group sessions. Information about the agenda and break-out sessions is now available. The DNI Open Source Conference 2007 was held 16-17 July 2007 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. More than 900 registered participants and speakers attended. Presentations made at the conference break-out sessions are available on the DNI Open Source Conference 2007 website.

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.