Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton assured Iraqi leaders during a visit to Baghdad that as the United States draws down its troops in Iraq, it won’t draw down its commitment to Iraq’s government and people.

--American Forces Press Service

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Military Offensive in Pakistan Threatens Swat Peace Deal - Barry Newhouse, Voice of America. Thousands of people in northwest Pakistan are fleeing a renewed offensive by Pakistani forces against Taliban militants. With the army saying it has killed more than 45 militants since the operation began Sunday, the fighting casts further doubt on the viability of the region's peace deal that has been widely criticized by US officials. Pakistani media broadcast footage of thousands of people walking out of the Lower Dir region, fleeing helicopter gunship attacks and artillery strikes against Taliban militants accused of attacking security forces.

Fight Escalates Between Pakistani Military, Taliban - Matthew Rosenberg and Zahid Hussain, Wall Street Journal. The Taliban controlling Pakistan's Swat Valley declared a peace deal with the government there "worthless" Monday amid a second day of clashes with troops in a neighboring district seen as a possible route for militants to Afghanistan. But government officials gave mixed signals on whether they would abandon the truce in Swat, as the military made its first sustained response to militants' move out of the valley over the past week, which has stoked fears of an Islamist push to dominate the nuclear-armed nation. Pakistan faces intense pressure from US officials to abandon the pact and take stronger action against the Taliban, including in Swat. The truce, which allowed the Taliban group that controls Swat to impose Islamic law there, was supposed to end fighting and lead to the militants laying down their arms.

Pakistan Taleban Break Off Talks as Army Assault Gains Momentum - Zahid Hussain, The Times. The Taleban suspended talks with Pakistan’s Government yesterday, declaring negotiations to be worthless as clashes between militants and the army forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes. The military offensive in Lower Dir on the North-West Frontier came as Gordon Brown made a brief visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan, branding the volatile frontier between the two countries a “crucible of terrorism”. A military spokesman said that more than 46 militants had been killed in the fighting in Dir, west of Swat, where the Government signed a contentious deal with the Taleban to introduce Sharia in return for an end to the insurgency. Under pressure from the US, Pakistani troops have launched an operation in the area to confront an advance by militants toward the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistani Offensive Puts Truce on Shakier Ground - Carlotta Gall and Ismail Khan, New York Times. The uneasy truce between the Pakistani government and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley appeared increasingly fragile on Monday as government forces attacked militants in a neighboring district for a second day, causing the main negotiator for the Taliban to break off talks. Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the pro-Taliban cleric who has been negotiating peace talks between the government and the Taliban in Swat, halted talks on Monday to protest the military operation in the Lower Dir district west of Swat, his spokesman said.

Pakistani Civilians Take Flight as Fighting Between Taliban and Military Escalates - Amanda Hodge, The Australian. Pakistan civilians began pouring out of the North West Frontier Province yesterday, driven out by fierce fighting between Taliban extremists and military forces sent in to stem the insurgents' march on the rest of the country. Frontier corps troops and helicopter gunships engaged several hundred militants in the Lower Dir Province, west of the Swat Valley and abutting the Afghanistan border. The clashes, which began on Sunday after Taliban fighters blocked the path of an army convoy trying to reach the Swat Valley, has brought to the brink of collapse an uneasy peace deal between the two sides.

Talks With Taliban in Pakistan on Hold After Military Offensive - Nahal Toosi, Associated Press. A Pakistani military offensive against insurgent hideouts prompted suspension of controversial peace talks with the Taliban on Monday, and the country's president sought additional foreign aid to ensure that its nuclear arms remain in "safe hands." The developments came as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, calling their shared border region a "crucible of terrorism."

US Lawmakers Weigh Plan to Speed Aid to Pakistan - Greg Hitt, Wall Street Journal. Senior congressional Democrats are weighing a plan to speed emergency aid to Pakistan, and could force a vote as soon as next week on legislation that would help stabilize the troubled US ally. Pakistan is already set to benefit from the $83.4 billion war spending bill sought by President Obama, which is designed to fund US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of September. That measure includes a request for more than $400 million to fund counterinsurgency programs in Pakistan and $1.4 billion in economic assistance, but is on track for congressional action later this summer.

In Remote Afghan Valley, a Rare Peace Sprouts with Insurgents - Anand Gopal, Christian Science Monitor. Deep in a mountain valley north of Kabul, Gulab Shah and his fellow insurgents were under siege. It was mid-March, and a French-led military offensive had been pounding their village night after night. A few of his comrades managed to escape into the surrounding mountains, but most were killed. In the midst of these battles, a progovernment tribal leader met with Mr. Shah's men and made them an appealing offer: Stop fighting, and we will give you amnesty and a job. The men cautiously accepted. They joined a program aimed at reconciling rank-and-file insurgents with the government, an initiative that figures to be a central component in the Obama administration's strategy to stabilize this country. Local tribal elders credit this reconciliation process, together with the French-led military offensive, for a stark turnaround in the security situation here.

ADF Plays Down Warlord's Role on Crucial Supply Chain - Mark Dodd and Jeremy Kelly, The Australian. Australian special forces have been working closely with a top Afghan warlord whose 2000-strong paramilitary force has proved invaluable in protecting the main Kandahar-to-Tarin Kowt supply route from Taliban attacks. The co-opting of former warlords as anti-Taliban allies by the US and its coalition partners is a well-established practice in Afghanistan. But the Australian Defence Force is reluctant to reveal too much about its well-developed links with Colonel Mutiallah Khan and his private army, which is known as the Kandak Amniante Uruzgan.

Army Chief of Staff Shares Insights During Afghanistan Visit - John Zumer, American Forces Press Service. A revitalized spirit is among the things the Army’s top officer noted April 24 during his third visit to Afghanistan in the past year and his first in four months. “There’s a great sense of energy here,” Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said. “When I was here in December, I saw a little apprehension.” Casey attributed the upturn to additional troops who have arrived in Afghanistan recently. They and more additional soldiers on the way are putting coalition forces in a much better position as the 101st Airborne Division prepares to hand responsibility for the combined joint task force here to the 82nd Airborne Division, he said.

Australia Urged to Boost Military Commitment in Afghanistan - Phil Mercer, Voice of America. Australian forces in Afghanistan are urging the government in Canberra to send more combat advisers to the troubled country despite waning public support for the war. The International Security Assistance Force wants more Australian personnel to train and fight alongside the Afghan army. Australia's most senior army officer in Afghanistan says his troops are the best equipped to help prepare local forces to take greater responsibility for security. Brigadier John Caligari says the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan wants to recruit more Australian combat advisers. The brigadier thinks that Australia's approach to fighting Taliban militants has proved effective and should be used as blueprint by the Afghan army.

Pakistanis Worry About Their International Image - Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times. College student Amena Omer inhaled tobacco from a hookah, the octopus arms of the hubbly-bubbly wrapped around a table leg, and summed up the state of her country: "Worse than zero." Having foreigners refer to their home as a failed state naturally puts Pakistanis on the defensive, she said. But when the 19-year-old looks around at the creeping fundamentalism, increased terrorist attacks, squabbling politicians and large swaths of the nation beyond government control, part of her thinks they may have a point.

Karzai Backs Down Over ‘Abhorrent’ Marital Rape Law - Tom Coghlan, The Times. President Karzai bowed to international pressure yesterday by promising to amend a new law condoning marital rape and child marriage that provoked violent clashes in the Afghan capital. The Shia Family Law, signed by the Afghan President last month, appeared to reintroduce the draconian policies of the Taleban era, such as a ban on married women leaving their homes without their husbands’ permission. The law applies to the 15 per cent of Afghans who are Shia Muslims.

How To Save Pakistan - Nicholas Schmidle, Slate opinion. The United States has, until now, focused primarily on trying to root the Taliban and al-Qaida out of the tribal areas. Intelligence officials have said they believe this is where the next attack against the United States is being planned. So there's plenty to worry about there. But the wider stability of Pakistan is at stake, and the Obama administration would do well to forget FATA and think seriously about saving Pakistan. The thought of nukes falling into the hands of Osama Bin Laden and his men is frightful enough, but what's almost as disturbing is the loss of a natural ally: the Pakistani people.

Pakistan Another Iran? - Arnaud de Borchgrave, Washington Times opinion. President Obama's foreign-policy gurus are baffled by Pakistan's anarchic chaos, which is sweeping across one of the world's eight nuclear powers. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she had trouble understanding why the Pakistani army isn't moving to suppress Taliban insurgents inching closer to the capital city of Islamabad. After six decades of independence - half that time under military dictatorship - Pakistan is still a largely feudal society where landless Taliban have started an uprising against the landlords that back the inept government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

IRAQ

Iraq's Awakening: Two Tales Illustrate Force's Birth and Slow Death - Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times. They were unlikely comrades in arms: the security guard and the stockbroker who stepped out of the shadows of the insurgency to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq. Abu Maarouf, wiry and good with a gun, headed a hit squad and waged a tribal rebellion against insurgents who had turned the revolt against the Americans into a brutal, thuggish affair. Abu Azzam, heavyset and fond of tailored suits, led secret talks with the Americans that helped forge an alliance with the US military in Abu Ghraib, the no man's land between Baghdad and Fallouja. The story of Abu Maarouf and Abu Azzam offers a rare window into the birth and slow death of the Sons of Iraq, the US-backed corps of Sunni fighters who helped end the country's civil war.

THE LONG WAR

FBI Agent 'Got Valuable Information Without Torture' - Alex Spillius, Daily Telegraph. A former FBI agent has claimed that he gleaned valuable information, including the identity of the chief planner of the 9/11 attacks, from a prime al-Qaeda suspect without resorting to controversial interrogation methods later used by the CIA. The claim by Ali Soufan will be well received by President Barack Obama whose decision to release confidential memos on "enhanced" interrogation techniques threatens to overshadow his agenda. Mr Soufan gave a detailed account of a fierce row with CIA agents who took over the interrogation at an undisclosed location in Thailand in early 2002 using techniques that he regarded as "borderline torture".

Who Attended ‘Torture’ Briefings? A GOP Lawmaker Wants to Know - Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor. President Obama’s decision to make public four Bush-era memos authorizing “enhanced interrogation techniques” of terrorist suspects is now putting key Democrats on the spot, too. The top Republican on the House intelligence committee is calling for the release of the names all members of Congress briefed on these techniques, as well as the substance of those briefings. The practice during the Bush years was to restrict highly classified intelligence oversight hearings to the so-called gang of eight – that is, the party leaders of both the House and Senate (speaker of the House, Senate majority leader, and minority leaders of the House and Senate), as well as the chairman and ranking minority-party members of the House and Senate intelligence panels. But attendance at these briefings varied. Republicans want clarification on who, exactly, attended the briefings, what they knew, and what they found out, and what they did about it.

Janus-faced Flashback - Washington Times editorial. A political firestorm is brewing over what members of Congress knew about the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation methods on terrorist detainees, and when they knew it. As various members try to duck, cover, or flee from the issue, we are reminded of a shameful episode from the Vietnam War. On Sept. 19, 1969, Sen. Stuart Symington, Missouri Democrat, publicly denounced the "cloak of secrecy" over what became known as "Nixon's secret war in Laos," and announced a Senate investigation. The CIA had been waging a covert struggle against the North Vietnamese, who were illegally using neutral Laos as both a staging ground for attacks and a transit route for the Ho Chi Minh trail into Cambodia. Symington's subcommittee became a fountain of leaks, and the previously hawkish senator, who was up for re-election in 1970, was transformed into a darling of the doves. Symington later said the Laotian operation would "teach us all a lesson about creeping involvements, hidden from the Congress and the public, that make a mockery of our governmental processes."

How to Proceed with Torture Inquiry - Miami Herald editorial. The Obama administration's decision late last week to release photographs depicting alleged abuses at U.S. prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan is sure to add fuel to the fire over whether to investigate allegations of torture during the Bush years. The two issues are not, strictly speaking, related. The photographs deal with instances of wrongdoing at detention facilities, whereas the torture issue involves practices explicitly endorsed by Bush administration lawyers. This distinction will surely get lost in the heat of debate. The right and wrong of torture is not up for discussion. It's wrong. That's why President Bush said repeatedly and without equivocation when he was in office that the United States does not torture, period. If his government engaged in practices that did not square with his statement, the public needs to know how it happened and why.

Loose Lips or Loose Pics - Cal Thomas, Washington Times opinion. During World War II, every American was discouraged from saying, writing or publishing anything that might aid the enemy while America pursued victory, and every citizen was reminded constantly that, "Loose lips sink ships." My how times have changed. In our modern confessional era, in which no emotion or secret is to be hidden, we blab everything, caring more about our feelings and self-esteem than about defeating an enemy just as determined as the ones we fought more than 60 years ago.

On Higher Ground, but Not Safer - Richard Cohen, Washington Post opinion. On April 16, President Obama released the now-infamous torture memos along with a covering statement that said the CIA's old interrogation methods not only failed to "make us safer" but undermined "our moral authority." A week later, a woman holding the hand of a child walked into a throng in Baghdad and blew herself up. Apparently she had not heard of our new moral authority. That term - "moral authority" - gets used a lot. There is such a thing, I suppose, although a suicide bomber probably thinks he or she has it in abundance. Whatever it may be, however, it is an awfully thin reed upon which to construct a foreign policy. I, for one, am glad we're no longer torturing anyone, but ceasing this foul practice will not in any way make Americans safer. We prohibit torture for other reasons.

Why We Must Prosecute - Mark J. McKeon, Washington Post opinion. To say that we should hold ourselves to the same standards of justice that we applied to Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein is not to say that the level of our leaders' crimes approached theirs. Thankfully, there is no evidence of that. And yet, torture and cruel treatment are as much violations of international humanitarian law as are murder and genocide. They demand a judicial response. We cannot expect the rest of humanity to live in a world that we ourselves are not willing to inhabit.

Damnation of Memory - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review opinion. The Obama administration apparently is giving a green light for liberal zealots in Congress and in the Justice Department to go after former Bush-administration lawyers. We are supposed to damn these out-of-office lawyers because, in a time of national crisis, they gave advice that was construed as permitting torture. In three exceptional cases, interrogators waterboarded terrorist detainees - at least one of them responsible for the murder of 3,000 Americans. I emphasize the adverb “apparently,” because - as has been the case from campaign-finance reform to the imposition of the highest ethical standards in history for Cabinet nominations - with the Obama administration, any ethical proclamation is usually at odds with the unethical reality. The administration should tread carefully, since it is about to embark on something nefarious that could tear apart the country.

Cracking KSM - Deroy Murdock, National Review opinion. Today, Library Tower looms 73 stories above Los Angeles. But the Pacific Coast’s highest skyscraper might have become a smoldering pile of steel beams had CIA interrogators not waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) 183 times in March 2003, as recently released memoranda reveal. Americans should be proud that our public servants had the patience and persistence to pressure al-Qaeda’s self-described military chief until he cracked, ratted on his homicidal conspirators, and thus prevented a bloody attack that could have murdered thousands of innocents and transformed much of downtown L.A. into Ground Zero West. The hardcore hand-wringing among soft-headed liberals over the so-called “torture memos” ignores the fact that these tactics squeezed priceless intelligence from KSM and from al-Qaeda’s Abu Zubaydah (waterboarded 83 times in August 2002). Tough stuff? You bet. But nowhere as nasty as what these killers had up their sleeves.

Pakistan's President says Osama bin Laden Could be Dead - Dean Nelson and Emal Khan, Daily Telegraph. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has raised the prospect that Osama bin Laden could be dead after he said that intelligence officials could find "no trace" of the al-Qaeda chief. He said that neither his own advisers in Pakistan nor US intelligence agencies had detected any trace of the al-Qaeda leader since Al Jazeera television broadcast an audio recording of his voice in March. But even then, unlike on previous occasions the authenticity of the voice purporting to be bin Laden was not confirmed by the CIA.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

US Plans Attack and Defense in Cyberspace Warfare - David E. Sanger, John Markoff and Thom Shanker, New York Times. When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a trap, they hacked into one of the group’s computers and altered information that drove them into American gun sights. When President George W. Bush ordered new ways to slow Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb last year, he approved a plan for an experimental covert program - its results still unclear - to bore into their computers and undermine the project. And the Pentagon has commissioned military contractors to develop a highly classified replica of the Internet of the future. The goal is to simulate what it would take for adversaries to shut down the country’s power stations, telecommunications and aviation systems, or freeze the financial markets - in an effort to build better defenses against such attacks, as well as a new generation of online weapons.

Plan to Cut Weapons Programs Disputed - Dan Eggen, Washington Post. Some of the nation's largest defense contractors, labor unions and trade groups are banding together to argue that the Obama administration is putting 100,000 or more jobs at risk by proposing deep cuts in weapons programs. The defense industry and its supporters argue that the proposals by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will increase unemployment during a historic economic crisis. Why, they ask, would President Obama push hundreds of billions in stimulus spending to create jobs only to propose weapons cuts that would eliminate tens of thousands of them?

Program to Introduce New Threat Detection, Countermeasure Capabilities - Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. A lot of questions are likely to rush through your head when you’re out on the battlefield and the enemy projectiles come flying. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency is making big strides on a program to respond with life-saving speed and accuracy. The goal of DARPA’s CROSSHAIRS – or Counter Rocket-Propelled Grenade and Shooter System with Highly Accurate Immediate Responses -- program is to develop a threat detection and countermeasure system for light tactical vehicles, program manager Karen Wood explained.

The US Should Cut Military Spending in Half - Benjamin H. Friedman, Christian Science Monitor opinion. Hawks depicted the cuts that Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently proposed for the Pentagon's weapons programs as a savage assault on the military industrial complex. They insisted that Secretary Gates would leave us prostrate before future rivals. Counterinsurgency enthusiasts, meanwhile cheered Mr. Gates's willingness to swap high-tech platforms for capabilities suited to the unconventional conflicts we are fighting. The truth is that the Gates proposal is both too cautious and inadequate. After all, Gates isn't cutting non-war-related military spending; he's raising it slightly, to a whopping $534 billion.

US FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION / DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

A 'Classified' Photo Op Turns Into a Soaring Blunder for the White House - Suzanne Sataline, Jonathan D. Rockoff and Christopher Conkey, Wall Street Journal. As secret missions go, this one was a flop. On Monday morning, one of the 747s used to ferry around the US president was dispatched to the Statue of Liberty, escorted by a fighter jet. Assignment: Get some fresh glamour shots of the plane. The Air Force said the flight needed to remain confidential. So while New York police knew about it, as did at least one person in the mayor's office, regular New Yorkers remained in the dark. As a result, to onlookers Monday all across downtown Manhattan - where the World Trade Center once stood - the photo shoot looked like a terrorist attack. People watched in horror as a massive aircraft, trailed closely by an F-16 fighter jet, banked and roared low near the city, in a frightening echo of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Aerial Photo Op Recalls 9/11 for Some - Tomoeh Murakami Tse and Michael D. Shear, Washington Post. A plane used as a backup for Air Force One and a fighter-jet escort swooped low in the sky over New York on Monday as part of a government photo op, panicking workers, forcing evacuations and prompting an outcry from lawmakers. The flyover - involving a 747 that is one of two used by the president and an Air Force F-16 fighter jet - took place near Lower Manhattan's financial district and caused traders, construction workers and others to flee for safety. An Air Force spokeswoman said the "aerial photo mission" was authorized to take place in Lower Manhattan and New Jersey and was to last 30 minutes.

Plane Dumb - New York Post editorial. The Federal Aviation Administration seems to see the public as Enemy No. 1. Why else, after all, would it re peatedly hide information about potentially dangerous situations -- as well as those that appear to be, but actually aren't? Yesterday, for example, the FAA (in conjunction with the White House Military Office) staged a "photo-op" featuring flights by an F-16 Falcon jet fighter and an Air Force One back-up plane over the Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan and parts of New Jersey. But - inexplicably - the agency in sisted the event be kept secret. So when the aircraft made several very low-altitude passes over the harbor -- well, memories were triggered.

Pretty Damn Dumb - New York Daily News editorial. Thanks to the morons who staged a photo-op flyby yesterday, thousands of New Yorkers suffered 9/11 flashbacks. The White House Military Office and Federal Aviation Administration also made Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly look like dopes. How's that for a day's work? What got people into a panic, with thousands evacuating buildings, was the sight of a 747 screaming past lower Manhattan, below skyscraper level, pursued by two fighter jets. The 747 was a version of Air Force One, and the Military Office wanted photos with sights like the Statue of Liberty.

AFRICA

US to Continue Congo Security Assistance, Africom Commander Says - Kenneth Fidler, American Forces Press Service. The United States military will continue working with the Congolese armed forces in training, advising and capacity building to support security assistance cooperation activities, but has no plans to put combat troops in the central-African nation, the commander of US Africa Command said here April 24. “Our activities here will be limited, … involving small numbers of US military from different services to help the host nation build capacity to more effectively conduct its military operations and provide for its own security,” Army Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward said during a news conference. Ward’s trip here was the final leg of a three-country, five-day trip to Africa. He led a small Africom delegation to Rwanda and Kenya earlier in the week.

Spanish Capture 'Somali Pirates' - BBC News. Spanish forces have arrested nine Somalis suspected of being the pirates who attacked an Italian cruise ship. A warship intercepted a skiff carrying the nine Somali suspects, the Spanish defence ministry said. The nine were captured near the Seychelles and handed over to authorities there, officials said.

Key Ruling in Kenya Coalition Row - BBC News. The Kenyan parliament's speaker is to rule on who will chair a key committee at the heart of the latest dispute to hit the fragile coalition government. Both Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka say they must lead the House Business Committee. It is the latest stand-off between the prime minister's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU).

Soldiers Storm Madagascar Court - BBC News. Soldiers have stormed Madagascar's constitutional court and arrested its head of security, who has been accused of destabilising the country. Journalists were allowed into the court in the capital, Antananarivo, following the raid and shown a cache of weapons. Supporters of former President Marc Ravalomanana have been pressing the court to reverse its decision to recognise the leader who ousted him. Andry Rajoelina came to power in March after weeks of unrest.

AMERICAS

US Holding Talks With Cuba on Obama Outreach - David Gollust, Voice of America. The State Department says US diplomats are holding talks with officials of Cuba's diplomatic mission in Washington on possible follow-up measures to steps President Barack Obama took earlier this month to ease restrictions on the island nation. The Obama administration says it wants to see an easing of political conditions by the Havana government. The State Department says its top official for Latin America met with the head of Cuba's diplomatic interests section in Washington on Monday for the second time in as many weeks for exploratory talks on prospects for improving the historically-chilly US Cuban relationship.

Fidel Just Biding His Time - Brian Latell, Miami Herald opinion. In two lengthy commentaries disseminated by Cuba's media recently, Fidel Castro shot down hopes for a better relationship with the United States. In language both scornful and abusive, he described President Barack Obama as ''looking conceited'' in Trinidad and quoted extensively from Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega's 50-minute anti-American jeremiad in Port-of-Spain. Castro echoed the theme that it is the United States, not Cuba, that must change. He gave no ground whatever, intimating that, as far as he is concerned, Cuba can wait another four or eight years until after President Obama leaves office without progress in alleviating bilateral tensions. Castro's intransigence is scarcely any different than it has been since the first months of his revolutionary regime and repeated with virtually every president since.

Mexican Schools Shut as Epidemic Hits 'Critical' Point - Joshua Partlow, Washington Post. Mexican officials outlined a steadily deteriorating situation Monday with the suspected death toll from swine flu rising to 149 people, prompting a decision to shut down all schools nationwide for more than a week and vastly limit public gatherings in the country that has been at the center of the international crisis. The widening scope of the new virus has strained Mexico's ability to cope despite teams of international experts who have flown here to assist in the effort.

Mexico Tries to Focus on Source of Infection - Tracy Wilkinson and Cecilia Sánchez, Los Angeles Times. With the death toll climbing, Mexican authorities at the center of an international swine flu epidemic struggled Monday to piece together its lethal march, with attention focusing on a 4-year-old boy and a pig farm. The boy, who survived the illness, has emerged as Mexico's earliest known case of the never-before-seen virus, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said Monday. It provides an important clue to the unique strain's path.

In Ecuador, High Stakes in Case Against Chevron - Juan Forero, Washington Post. Deep in the northern Ecuadoran rain forest, next to pits filled with noxious sludge, a lawyer on his very first case argued that a US oil company had deliberately fouled a swath of jungle nearly the size of Delaware during two decades of production. Wearing a straw hat for the recent outdoor hearing, Pablo Fajardo was delivering the final arguments in a lawsuit that began in New York in 1993 against Texaco but is wrapping up here against Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001. The stakes are high - and so tinged with nationalism that Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has openly sided with the plaintiffs, 48 individuals representing tens of thousands of people in the region.

Venezuela Recalls Envoy in Peru - BBC News. Venezuela has withdrawn its ambassador to Lima in response to Peru's decision to grant political asylum to an opponent of President Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan foreign ministry said Peru's decision to grant Manuel Rosales asylum constituted a "mockery of international law". Mr Rosales ran against Mr Chavez in Venezuela's 2006 presidential election.

What Chávez Has Wrought - Duncan Currie, National Review opinion. The authoritarian socialist has brought Venezuela food shortages and massive inflation. In December 2007, a group of paramilitary fighters armed with machine guns ransacked and vandalized a farm in northwest Venezuela. It was not the first time that government-backed thugs had paid a visit to this property. The owner of the farm, Diego Arria, is a prominent opponent of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, the radical leftist. “It was a strong message,” Arria says of the December 2007 attack. (He was not at the farm when it occurred.) “The government has a lot of groups like that.”

Panama's Promise - Jaime Daremblum, Weekly Standard opinion. In a 2006 national referendum, Panamanian voters approved a $5.2 billion project to expand the Panama Canal. As the Panama Star reports, "Percentage wise, the canal expansion dwarfs any stimulus project the United States is planning. The project represents nearly a quarter of Panama's $23 billion gross domestic product." President Martín Torrijos, a member of the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), eagerly championed the canal expansion, but it won't be completed on his watch. This coming Sunday (May 3), Panamanians will elect his successor. PRD presidential candidate Balbina Herrera is trailing opposition candidate Ricardo Martinelli by double digits. It is hard to see how Herrera can make up so much ground in so little time. All signs point to a Martinelli victory.

ASIA / PACIFIC

UN Says Mounting Crises Threaten Development Gains in Asia Pacific Region - Ron Corben, Voice of America. The United Nations is warning the Asia and Pacific region faces several economic and environmental challenges that threaten to undermine development and progress achieved during recent decades. The concerns were raised during the annual meeting of states of the UNESCAP - meeting in Bangkok. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific - ESCAP - says the combined impact of the global economic downturn, climate change, and growing food insecurity are threatening social and development gains in the Asia and Pacific.

Thai Militant Attacks Intensify - BBC News. Nine people have died in the past 24 hours in a wave of attacks by suspected Islamic militants in southern Thailand. The latest violence coincides with the fifth anniversary of an attack on the Krue Se mosque, which marked a sharp escalation in the separatist conflict. It was the first big clash between the security forces and militants, and more than 100 people died in just one day. About 3,500 people have died since then and successive governments have made little progress in stemming the unrest.

China Still Presses Crusade Against Falun Gong - Andrew Jacobs, New York Times. In the decade since the Chinese government began repressing Falun Gong, a crusade that human rights groups say has led to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of practitioners and claimed at least 2,000 lives, the world’s attention has shifted elsewhere. The drive against the spiritual group has eliminated its leadership, decimated the ranks of faithful and convinced many Chinese that the group is an “evil cult,” as the government contends. But 10 years on, the war on Falun Gong remains unfinished.

EUROPE

Gun Siege with Extremist Leaves Three Dead in Istanbul - Nico Hines, The Times. Helicopters, armoured vehicles and hundreds of police officers were involved in a violent stand-off with a suspected extremist in central Istanbul this morning that left three people dead. A heavily armed militant, thought to have links to the Kurdish separatist PKK group, resisted a police raid for five hours in an apartment east of the Bosphorous river. The man was eventually killed by police marksmen, but not before he had shot eight officers, a camera man and an onlooker.

MIDDLE EAST

With Shiites Rising Across the Region, Saudi Arabia's Grow Impatient - Caryle Murphy, Christian Science Monitor. Recent developments in Medina and Awwamiya reflect deepening frustration among Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority at continuing discrimination in jobs and schools as well as government tolerance for hateful anti-Shiite rhetoric from Wahhabi clerics, according to more than a dozen Shiite activists, writers, and clerics interviewed in the oil-rich Eastern Province. Shiite leaders also warn of rising militancy in a younger generation that is losing faith in the older leadership's approach of working peacefully for change. "The problem now we are facing ... is that we are trying to convince those guys that, 'OK, slow down; there are things we are trying to do for you,' " says Sheikh Hussain Al Bayat, a Shiite cleric in Qatif. "But they would like to see something fast. And that's what we are trying to tell [government] leaders: That we are now in control of these people ... but there will be a time they will override us."

Report: Arms Sales to Middle East Up 38 Percent - Cindy Saine, Voice of America. New data shows that arms transfers to the Middle East have increased by 38 percent during the past five years, compared to the previous five. The data show the United States, Russia and Germany remain the world's largest arms exporters. The report by the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows the volume of arms transfers worldwide increased by 21 percent during the group's latest five-year reporting period. Arms transfers had been at their lowest level since the 1960's during the previous reporting period between 1999-2003.

Reporter Jailed in Iran Passes Week on Fast - Nazila Fathi, New York Times. The Iranian-American journalist imprisoned here since late January has become weak after seven days of a hunger strike, her father said Monday. Reza Saberi, the father of Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment this month on charges of spying for Washington, said his daughter had lost about 10 pounds. Mr. Saberi spoke after he and his wife, Akiko, visited her in prison on Monday, a day after her 32nd birthday. Ms. Saberi started the hunger strike to protest her sentence and has demanded to be released. Her incarceration has become a new source of tension between Iran and the United States at a time when both countries have been making diplomatic overtures for improved relations after a 30-year estrangement.

The Shifting Sands - Washington Times editorial. Al Qaeda is not an existential threat to the kingdom, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence service, told us yesterday. "It is a threat," he said, one of many nightmares. Now, the prince explained, two new nightmares have emerged: that Iran will develop a working nuclear bomb, or that America will strike Iran to prevent it from having a working nuclear bomb. The moral equivalence between these two feared outcomes is breathtaking, even by Saudi standards.

Iran's New Target: Egypt - Abdel Monem Said Aly, Wall Street Journal opinion. On April 8, Egypt announced it had uncovered a Hezbollah cell operating inside its borders. This startling pronouncement offers a rare insight into the way Iran and its proxies are manipulating Middle East politics. According to Egyptian authorities, the cell was tasked with planning attacks against tourist sites in Sinai, conducting surveillance on strategic targets including the Suez Canal, and funneling arms and money to Hamas. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has admitted that the ringleader of the cell was indeed a member of his organization to provide "logistical support to help the Palestinian brothers in transporting ammunition and individuals." These latest actions by an emboldened Hezbollah have been spurred on by Iran, which is seeking to further its quest for power in the Arab Middle East.

Arabs vs. Iran - Benny Avani, New York Post opinion. A number of develop ments, notably out of Egypt, point to the emergence of a new Middle East coalition taking a more robust stance in response to Iran's dangerous mullahs. President Obama should be backing the group and looking to strengthen it. Alas, his administration's gestures toward Tehran make it unclear whether he will. Start with Egypt. In an increasingly loud war of words, Cairo is accusing Iran of trying, through its proxy Hezbollah, to destabilize the regime of President Hosni Mubarak and dominate the region. This month, Egyptian authorities announced the arrest of a 10-member cell in the Sinai Peninsula and then disclosed that since November they have nabbed 49 Palestinian and Lebanese Hezbollah operatives.

SOUTH ASIA

Sri Lanka Pledges to Stop Shelling, Air Strikes of Tamil Rebels - Steve Herman, Voice of America. The Sri Lankan government says although major combat operations against the remaining Tamil Tiger rebels have ended, a military sweep continues to bring about a total defeat of the quarter-century old insurgency. But the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, fighting for their own ethnic homeland, say despite being reduced to a small sliver of land on the island nation's northeast coast, surrender is not an option. Facing intense diplomatic pressure to declare a cease-fire, Sri Lanka says its military is no longer using heavy weaponry and aerial bombing against the remaining few-hundred rebels still fighting. There is intense international concern about civilians trapped in the war zone.

Sri Lanka Halts Heavy-Weapon Attacks on Rebels - Thomas Fuller, New York Times. The Sri Lankan government said Monday that while it rejected calls for a cease-fire by Tamil Tiger rebels, it had instructed its military to stop using heavy weapons, artillery and airstrikes in the combat zone, where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped. In what appeared to be a concession to the visiting United Nations humanitarian coordinator, John Holmes, and foreign governments critical of the continued military offensive, a statement from President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s office said “combat operations have reached their conclusion.” The statement said military forces would “confine their attempts to rescuing civilians who are held hostage.”

Sri Lanka Curbs Military Offensive Against Rebels - Peter Wonacott, Wall Street Journal. The Sri Lanka government said it backed off an offensive Monday that has devastated the separatist Tamil Tigers but forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee what is Asia's longest-running civil war. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said "combat operations have reached their conclusion" and security forces would no longer use heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons that might injure or kill civilians. The president's statement, however, said troops "will continue their attempts to rescue civilians held hostage," an indication that hostilities aren't over.

Latest in Indian Footwear: Protest - Emily Wax, Washington Post. In India, flying footwear is the new hunger strike, overtaking even the trendy Facebook protest as an expression of civil disobedience. In the latest in a string of four shoe-hurling incidents during the month-long elections underway across India, a 21-year-old computer science student took aim at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a sparsely attended rally Sunday in the western city of Ahmedabad.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Battlefield Can Be an Unforgiving Teacher - Janet Maslin, New York Times book review of The Unforgiving Minute by Craig M. Mullaney.

Soldiers of Misfortune - James Glanz, New York Times book review of Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage by Donovan Campbell.

A Counterinsurgency Primer - Max Boot, Wall Street Journal book review of The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.

Reluctant Warriors - The Economist book review of both The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas Ricks and The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.

BOOKS

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage - Donovan Campbell.

Donovan Campbell, first as a Marine and then as a writer, shows us that the dominant emotion in war isn’t hatred or anger or fear. It’s love. His story stands as a poignant tribute to his men–their courage, their dedication, their skill, and their love for one another, even unto death.

The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose - Anthony Zinni and Tony Koltz

The intellectual complement to Zinni and Clancy's bestselling Battle Ready (2004), a narrative memoir salted with specific policy recommendations, this volume provides the former US Central Command chief's analysis of America's current global position. Zinni begins by asserting that America's status as "the most powerful nation in the history of the planet" has created a de facto empire. The US has no choice: if it fails to take the lead, nothing significant happens. At the same time, Americans must recognize that, in a global age, there can be no zero-sum games.

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education - Craig Mullaney

The Unforgiving Minute is the ultimate's soldier's book - universal in its raw emotion and its understanding of the larger issues of life and death. Mullaney, a master storyteller, plunges the depths of self-doubt, endurance, and courage. The result: a riveting, suspenseful human story, beautifully told. This is a book written under fire - a lyrical, spellbinding tale of war, love, and courage. The Unforgiving Minute is the Three Cups of Tea of soldiering.

Great Powers: America and the World after Bush - Thomas P.M. Barnett

In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon’s New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation’s admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett’s second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book’s principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping - and important - book of all.

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - David Kilcullen

A remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Thomas Ricks

Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.

Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips

Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.

Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor

This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.

The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West

From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.

Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson

After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key US and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward

Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.

We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway

In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy

The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.

Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz

Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.