Yesterday's counter-terrorist raids across Melbourne demonstrate the radical changes that have occurred in the global jihad movement. Indeed, it appears the Melbourne network may be a case study in the new strategy of jihadi terrorism being waged against the West by al-Qa'ida and its global affiliates such as al-Shabaab in Somalia, which pursues a particularly draconian form of Islamism and played a key role in thenetwork. This strategy emphasises not the "defensive jihad" waged against the "near enemy" in Afghanistan or Iraq, but the "offensive jihad" against the "far enemy" in the US, Britain and other liberal democracies, including Australia. The shift was acknowledged last October by the leader of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, in an interview posted on the internet. Referring to terrorist plots in Glasgow and London, he declared that "all the countries that participated in the hostility against Iraq and their crimes against our people are a legitimate target for us, no matter how long it takes".

--The Australian

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Commentary: More Troops Needed for Afghan War - Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, CNN. CNN's Barbara Starr reported last week that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, is expected to ask the Obama administration for additional troops and equipment for conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as more military resources to deal with roadside bombs and explosives. This impending request appears to conflict with a report earlier in July by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward who wrote that on a trip to Afghanistan, James L. Jones, national security adviser, personally told US military commanders in the country that the Obama administration wants to hold troop levels flat for now. But given the relatively small size of the Afghan army and police - numbering some 170,000 men - and with the total number of US/NATO troops numbering around 100,000, McChrystal's impending request makes a great deal of military sense. While the combined forces total 270,000, classic counterinsurgency doctrine indicates that Afghanistan needs as many as 600,000 soldiers and cops to protect its population of some 30 million. An additional reason why more boots on the ground makes military sense is the large geographic scope of the Taliban insurgency. Estimates of the number of full-time fighters generally do not go above 20,000 men. But according to our analysis of an unpublished threat assessment map provided by the Afghan National Security Forces to the United Nations in April, 40 percent of Afghanistan was either under direct Taliban control or a high-risk area for insurgent attacks.

Senators, Advisers Urge Obama to Double Afghan Forces - Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Bloomberg. President Barack Obama and top US military commanders are under pressure from senators and civilian advisers to double the size of Afghan security forces, a commitment that would cost billions of dollars. In private letters and face-to-face meetings, these supporters of mounting a stronger effort against the Taliban seek to boost the Afghan National Army and police to at least 400,000 personnel from the current 175,000. “Any further postponement” of a decision to support a surge in Afghan forces will hamper US efforts to quell an insurgency in its eighth year, Senators Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to the White House in a July 21 letter obtained by Bloomberg News. General Stanley McChrystal, the new US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, will recommend a speedier expansion of Afghan forces beyond current targets in an assessment he will give Defense Secretary Robert Gates and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen by Aug. 14, according to a military official familiar with the review. McChrystal has heard from civilian advisers who studied the war effort. The general won’t suggest in the report how many more US or NATO troops would be needed to train those Afghan forces or to boost the US fighting effort, the official said.

Complementary Operations Improve Afghan, Pakistan Border - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. Insurgent activity across the Afghanistan and Pakistan borders has declined as a result of complementary operations in the region, a US commander said today. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Army Maj. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 82, which oversees Regional Command East in Afghanistan, noted the reduction in areas of his command. “We have seen a decrease in the cross-border activity throughout [Regional Command East] as a result of the operation [in Pakistan],” he said, referring to the Pakistani army’s offensive against militants along its border region in recent months. The general said the most noticeable decline has occurred in Kunar province, where coalition and Afghan operations complemented Pakistani efforts across the border. “There were not only the operations in Pakistan, but on our side as well, and it did have an impact of our enemies’ ability to move fighters across the border,” he added. One of the key features of the so-called “Af-Pak” policy that President Barack Obama’s administration rolled out in March was to broaden the operation in Afghanistan to include Pakistan. US officials in June praised the Pakistani military’s initiative against extremists within their borders as a reflection of Pakistan’s belief that the insurgents represent a major threat to the country. Scaparrotti said that, after his top priority of protecting Afghan civilians, his next major priority is to build the Afghan National Security Forces - another key component laid out in the president’s strategy.

Task Force Expands Safe Areas in Afghanistan Province - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. The increased troop levels in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province has expanded the security envelope to roughly 80 percent of the people there, the former commander of Task Force Uruzgan in southern Afghanistan said today. Security has taken years to establish, but is allowing development to begin in one of the poorest areas of the country, Dutch army Brig. Gen. T.A. Middendorp told members of the Pentagon press corps during a teleconference from Kandahar, Afghanistan. “If you walk through that province, it is like walking through the Old Testament,” the general said. Uruzgan province is centrally located in the region and the nation, and is the homeland of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and also of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Illiteracy is rampant, with only about 10 percent of all provincial residents able to read and write. The general, who just turned over the task force command, compared conditions today to what he saw two years ago when he was assigned there in a previous deployment. “I see a big difference in the security situation, and I see a change in efforts toward development,” Middendorp said. “I also see a big difference in the attitude of the population.” The latter may be the most important, he said. Two years ago, fighting was prevalent in the province, “but now the resistance of the Taliban in that province seems to be broken,” he said. The Taliban have shifted from direct combat with NATO-led International Security Assistance Force troops, and now plant more roadside bombs and conduct more mortar and rocket attacks.

Neighbors by Day, Soldiers by Night in Afghanistan - Jame Dao, New York Times. As the Obama administration sends thousands of additional troops into Afghanistan, the future of the American strategy for securing the country is already playing out in this verdant triangle of wheat fields and fruit orchards 40 miles south of Kabul. For the last five months, a troop of American soldiers has ensconced itself in the heart of the district’s largest town, living alongside its police officers and public officials, trying to win friends as it struggles to root out enemies. By day, the soldiers patrol the bazaar just outside their barbed-wire gates, chatting with merchants and buying their wares. They have hired three dozen local men as day laborers and security guards and committed more than $2 million to improving local roads, schools and government buildings. But by night, the troop resumes the work of war, conducting armed patrols and raids on homes in search of insurgent fighters and bomb makers. As surgically as possible, the soldiers are trying to separate fighters from the villagers who provide them shelter, whether by choice or at gunpoint.

Afghanistan Helicopters May Get Extra Armour, After They Arrive - Michael Evans, The Times. Eight Merlin helicopters being prepared for Afghanistan will be required to fly troops into combat zones even though it is yet to be decided whether to fit armour-plating for extra protection. The helicopters being sent over four months after serving in Iraq are being modified to ensure they are safe for the altitudes in Helmand province. Fitting the Merlin Mark 3 with a layer of armour to protect the crew and troop-passengers from ground fire is not part of the basic modifications. An option has been submitted by the RAF to consider fitting extra armour to the Merlins at a cost exceeding half a million pounds. This would be a separate modification and the request would be sent to the Treasury as an “urgent operational requirement” (UOR), funded from contingency reserves. An RAF source said: “This proposal now has to go through the chains [of command]. But it has not reached maturity.” RAF sources confirmed that the Merlins would be sent to Afghanistan by December without the extra armour. “But they will be used for the whole range of operations, including flying in combat areas,” one RAF source said.

'Life-saving' Afghanistan Vehicles Stranded in Dubai - Thomas Harding, Daily Telegraph. Life-saving vehicles built to withstand Taliban roadside bombs have been stranded in Dubai for the past month because the RAF does not have enough planes to fly them into Afghanistan, it can be disclosed. During the bloodiest month for British soldiers in Helmand province, where 22 died and an estimated 100 were wounded, nine £300,000 Ridgback vehicles were left on the tarmac at Al Minhad airbase outside Dubai, The Daily Telegraph has learned. The Ridgbacks, which offer protection against mines, are a four-wheeled version of the robust six-wheeled Mastiff that has saved numerous lives in Afghanistan. They were ordered principally to replace the vulnerable Snatch Land Rover, in which 37 soldiers have been killed. News of the delay comes after the Telegraph disclosed yesterday that six Merlin helicopters being sent to Afghanistan are unlikely to be used on combat operations because they are not armour-plated. During the time that the Ridgbacks have been held up in Dubai a number of soldiers have been killed in less-protected vehicles such as the Jackal, Viking and Spartan.

Kabul Is Shelled By the Taliban - Anand Gopal and Matthew Rosenberg, Wall Street Journal. Taliban militants fired rockets into Afghanistan's capital from about 12 miles away before dawn Tuesday, feeding fears that violence will undermine presidential elections already tainted by concerns about fraud. The attack was the first on Kabul in nearly six months, and relatively minor, wounding two people and damaging a few buildings. But it appeared to make good on the insurgents' threat to disrupt the vote, coming after the deadliest month for international forces since the start of the war, at a time when more US forces have arrived in part to help secure as much of the country as possible before the vote on Aug. 20. At least seven rockets fired from north of Kabul slammed into the city, said Muhammad Khalil Dastyar, Kabul's deputy police chief. Two hit the city's diplomatic area, landing near the U.S. Embassy and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force in Afghanistan. It wasn't clear if either was specifically targeted.

Rare Rocket Attack in Afghan Capital Injures 2 - Laura King, Los Angeles Times. With just over two weeks remaining before presidential elections in Afghanistan, insurgents rattled nerves Tuesday by lobbing rockets into the capital, injuring two people. A separate suicide attack killed five people in the south. The Taliban claimed responsibility for firing rockets into an upscale residential neighborhood of Kabul that is home to a number of diplomatic missions and international organizations. One of the projectiles hit about 200 yards from the US Embassy. Although the dawn barrage of eight rockets caused no deaths and only relatively light property damage, the attack was widely viewed as an attempt by insurgents to foster a sense of insecurity before the Aug. 20 vote for president and provincial assemblies. Rocket attacks inside Kabul are rare, in part because the capital and sensitive installations such as the international airport are too heavily fortified to allow insurgents to get close enough to aim. The Interior Ministry said the rockets were fired from Deh Sabz, a district about five miles northeast of Kabul.

Strike Kills Relatives of Taliban Chief - Associated Press. A suspected US missile strike destroyed the home of a close relative of top Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a volatile tribal region, killing two people early Wednesday, two intelligence officials said. The officials said the missile targeted the Akramud Din's home in South Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan and where Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media, did not say what relation the casualties were to Mehsud. They said one of the dead was a woman. One of the officials said it was not clear whether Mehsud himself was in the house at the time, but that he was known to often visit. The second official said agents were trying to get details about the second person who died in the attack.

Why Stay in Afghanistan? To Help its Women - Bronwen Maddox, The Times opinion. The trial of Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese journalist sentenced to 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public, was postponed yesterday, a tribute to her gamble in choosing worldwide publicity rather than accepting the sentence, as most do. The Khartoum police promptly found others to beat - the women who had come to protest. This story resonates all the more in the month of the Afghan presidential elections. It’s worth making the case for why we should spend money and effort and yes, sometimes, military lives, in defence of women’s rights, in places that barely recognise the concept. At a tense time in the Afghan mission, it’s an unfashionable point to make. On Monday, Bill Rammell, the Armed Forces Minister, defined the purpose of the British deployment more tightly than ever. “Our troops are in Afghanistan to keep our country safe from the threat of terrorism,” he said. “To prevent al-Qaeda having a secure base from which to threaten us directly.”

IRAQ

US Says Sunni Insurgent Leader Was Arrested During Raids in Northern Iraq - Timothy Williams and Rod Nordland, New York Times. The United States military said Tuesday that a leader of a Sunni insurgent group had been arrested last month during a joint Iraqi-American operation. The man, Fakri Hadi Gari, was among 10 people arrested July 24 during raids in the northern city of Mosul, the United States military said in a statement. Mr. Gari is suspected of organizing attacks carried out by the insurgent group Ansar al-Islam and of being in charge of its recruiting and financing, the statement said. Ansar al-Islam has roots in the country’s Kurdish region and has been blamed for suicide bombings throughout the country. “He is also believed to have facilitated the movement of terrorists across the borders of Iraq,” the statement read. The Iraqi military had no comment about the arrest, even though the statement said the raid had been conducted by units of the Mosul Special Weapons and Tactics team and Iraqi Army soldiers, along with “coalition advisers.”

Glory Days are Over at Iraq Copper Market - Usama Redha, Los Angeles Times. For hundreds of years, the Safafeer copper market has been considered hallowed ground. Countless generations of fathers and sons have banged copper sheets into pots, plates and lamps in this narrow pedestrian side street, now home to more fabric shops than coppersmiths. Those left say it is only a matter of time until their dozen or so dimly lighted stalls - replete with chisels, hammers, nails, rusty metal cutters and grimy walls - disappear. The artisans sit on their stools or stand barefoot on cardboard as they pound away at pieces of metal, knowing their profession is doomed, their sloped yellow-brick alleyway now belonging to them in name only. The decline mirrors that of Iraq, buffeted by wars, sanctions, isolation and the drying up of tourism. Another major blow has been the introduction of cheap imported factory-produced copper goods.

In Iraq, Reigniting a Flame for Roasting Carp - Steven Lee Meyers, New York Times. Our dinner - a six-plus-pound common carp - came out of a murky pool and landed with a wet slap on a bare concrete floor, exposed to the dusty night air except for a crude awning of corrugated metal. The sous chef, if you will, lifted a wooden club and delivered a crushing blow to the head that clearly came nowhere near killing the creature, since it continued to writhe as the knife was plunged through its gills and then along its spine, not through the gut, the only way I’ve ever known to clean a fish. Iraqis are particular about selecting their fish - preferring males over females, for example - and then seeing it to its mortal end for a simple reason: it should be as fresh as possible and, even while still twitching, roasted over an open fire in the style called masquf, which has been associated with Baghdad for centuries at least.

IRAN

Ahmadinejad Sworn in for 2nd Term as Iran’s President - Robert F. Worth and Alan Cowell, New York Times. With his adversaries shunning the ceremony and security forces on the streets, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn into office for a second term Wednesday, almost two months after elections that divided the nation and sparked Iran’s deepest crisis since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago. Protests erupted outside the parliament building as he was inaugurated, with several people arrested and police using pepper spray to disperse demonstrators, according to news reports. Severe reporting restrictions in Iran hindered efforts to gauge the scale of the demonstration. The official IRNA news agency said there was no “disturbance of the peace” on major streets and traffic circles in the Iranian capital during the inauguration, The Associated Press reported, quoting witnesses as saying at least 10 people were detained by police. Witnesses said the detainees included protesters in black T-shirts in a show of grief over Mr. Ahmadinejad’s inauguration, The Associated Press said. The state-run broadcaster Press TV said more than 5,000 members of the security and police forces had gathered around the parliament building while officers with sniffer dogs patrolled the area.

Ahmadinejad Sworn In as Iranians Battle Riot Police - Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. Iran's president began a contentious second term today, vowing to strive for "national greatness" as protesters battled police firing tear gas and swinging truncheons in the streets outside the parliament where he was sworn in. Battered by a weeks-long protest movement alleging fraud in his reelection, and weakened by challenges from within his own conservative camp, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would dedicate himself to serving the Iranian people and to bold steps on the world stage. "It is not important who voted for whom. What we need is national greatness," he said in a speech broadcast live on television after he was sworn in by the judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. "We are representing a great nation. It needs great decisions and great deeds. We need to take great steps." As he spoke, hundreds and possibly thousands of demonstrators tried to push their way into the surrounding Tehran's Baharestan Square, with thousands of security forces and plainclothes Basiji militiamen on motorcycles chasing and arresting them, according to witnesses and accounts in the reformist online media.

Ahmadinejad Sworn in as Iranian President - Naser Karmi, Associated Press. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in Wednesday for a second term in office as president of Iran, appealing for national unity and denouncing foreign interference in his inauguration speech before parliament. Ahmadinejad took the oath and pledged to protect the constitution and frontiers of Iran but his inauguration speech was unusually soft-toned for the bellicose Iranian leader. He focused on foreign policy, saying he would make it "stronger and with more effective new plans." "I hereby swear by the almighty God to protect the system of the Islamic Revolution and the constitution, I will spare no effort to safeguard the frontiers of Iran" Ahmadinejad said. He urged for unity and said: "We should join hands as we move forward to fulfill our goals." Ahmadinejad did not directly address the massive street demonstrations against his proclaimed election victory, but said his government would "resist any violation of law and interference."

Iranian Official: 3 Americans Detained by Iran Face Interrogation - Voice of America. An Iranian official says authorities are interrogating three Americans detained Friday on charges of entering Iran from Iraq without permission. Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency Tuesday quotes a deputy governor of Iran's Kordestan province Iraj Hassanzadeh as saying the three have not confessed to any crime. They were arrested near the Iranian border town of Marivan. Iranian television has described the three Americans as spies. The head of security in northern Iraq's Kurdish region Hakem Qadir says the three were traveling through northern Iraq and apparently ventured into Iran when they went on a hike to see a waterfall near the border. A US State Department spokesman told reporters Tuesday the US is still awaiting official confirmation that Iran is holding the Americans. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the United States is working through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to obtain information about the three tourists and bring them home. The United States and Iran do not have diplomatic ties.

Clinton 'Concerned' About Americans Held in Iran - Nada Bakri, Washington Post. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she was "concerned" about three Americans detained in Iran and that the United States had not received any information from Iran about their fate since they crossed into the country from northern Iraq last week. News reports Tuesday in Iran, meanwhile, said the Americans were under arrest for "illegal entry" and claimed that their case was being used by the US government for propaganda purposes, the Associated Press reported. Iran's state-controlled media noted that at least two of the Americans are journalists, the wire service said, and questioned reports that the trio were hikers who wandered across the border by mistake. Officials in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said the group was lost and entered Iran while on an excursion in a mountainous area along the border. They also said that border guards had warned them not to proceed because the border in that area is not clearly marked.

THE LONG WAR

Somali Extremists on a 'Fatwa Order' from God - Cameron Stewart and Miklanda Rout, The Australian. Police feared that a group of Melbourne Islamic extremists might have recently obtained a fatwa, or religious blessing, to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia, raising the possibility that it could be carried out within weeks. The Australian understands police were concerned that a Somali Australian who returned from the war-torn country only three weeks ago might have secretly obtained a fatwa from a sheik in Somalia, although police were unable to confirm this through their surveillance. Faced with the possibility that a suicide attack on an Australian Army base might be imminent, more than 400 federal and state police swooped on the terror suspects early yesterday, arresting four men and executing search warrants on 19 houses. Nayef El Sayed, 24, was charged with conspiring with Saney Edow Aweys, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, Yacqub Khayre and Abdirahman Ahmed to prepare for a terrorist attack on the Holsworthy army base in Sydney's southwest. As of last night, the remaining four men had not been charged.

Threat Real But Don't Panic, Says PM - Mark Dodd, The Australian. Kevin Rudd declared yesterday the Melbourne terrorist raids did not point to wider unrest in the Australian Muslim community, as the alleged plot to attack a major military base involved only a small number of people. But the Prime Minister acknowledged that there was an "enduring threat" of terrorism in Australia, saying that it was "alive and well". Mr Rudd said Australian police and intelligence agencies had well-developed plans to deal with terrorist threats. Speaking in Cairns, Mr Rudd said the arrest of four men for allegedly planning an attack on Sydney's Holsworthy army base was not connected to last month's Jakarta hotel bombings, that killed nine people, including three Australians. "I want to reassure all Australians that our law enforcement agencies and our intelligence agencies are working hard to combat terrorism and other security threats to our community," he said.

The New Face of Terror - Cameron Stewart, The Australian. The story of a skinny Somalian refugee called Shirwa Ahmed has haunted Australia's counter-terrorism chiefs in recent months. Like thousands of Somali refugees who have sought to rebuild their lives in Australia since 1992, Ahmed and his family fled their war-torn homeland to begin a new life in Minneapolis in the US. He tried his best to adapt to life in the West, playing basketball with his new American friends, memorising Ice Cube lyrics and stacking supermarket shelves for an income. But Ahmed could not adjust. He searched for meaning by embracing a strict form of Islam and then abruptly vanished from his suburban home in America's heartland. On October 31 last year, he reappeared in the worst possible way: he drove an explosives-packed car into a government compound in northern Somalia. At 26, Ahmed became the first known American suicide bomber. His dark journey from suburban boy to jihadi extremist is one that Australia's police and intelligence agencies fear could soon be replicated in Australia. The sweeping counter-terrorist raids across Melbourne yesterday and the arrest of four men has highlighted the dangers of Australians being seduced by the call to arms of extremist Islamic groups overseas. In the case of the Melbourne men, the frustration of some of their group being unable to travel to Somalia to join the extremist organisation al-Shabaab is alleged to have boiled over into a plot to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia instead.

Thwarting Jihad in Our Own Backyard - The Australian editorial. The Australian Federal Police, the Victoria Police and ASIO deserve the heartfelt gratitude of all Australians for foiling an alleged suicide terrorist mission to attack Australian soldiers in Sydney with automatic weapons. A decade ago, the notion of fanatical Islamists storming an Australian Army base to kill as many Diggers as possible with automatic weapons would have seemed preposterous. The fact that the alleged would-be mass murderers, Australian nationals of Somali and Lebanese background, were reportedly willing to commit suicide in the process highlights their demented extremism. The anarchy that has destroyed Somalia is a world away, but that, apparently, has not deterred depraved suicide raiders transferring their desire for jihad to Australia. We congratulate the 150 officers, intelligence agents and officials for their joint operation. The intelligence-gathering, vigilance and counter-terrorism expertise of Operation Neath matched any in the world. In breaking news of the alleged plot, The Australian's associate editor Cameron Stewart revealed that a single phone call put investigators on the right track. For several years, security agencies had suspected illegal links between small pockets of Australia's Somali community and al-Shabaab, a terrorist group aligned to al-Qa'ida in their homeland. That call, from an Australian-Lebanese man to a Somalian, allegedly confirmed the suspicion and showed the importance of painstaking surveillance.

Luck May Not Avert Jihadi Terror - Mervyn Bendle, The Australian opinion. Yesterday's counter-terrorist raids across Melbourne demonstrate the radical changes that have occurred in the global jihad movement. Indeed, it appears the Melbourne network may be a case study in the new strategy of jihadi terrorism being waged against the West by al-Qa'ida and its global affiliates such as al-Shabaab in Somalia, which pursues a particularly draconian form of Islamism and played a key role in thenetwork. This strategy emphasises not the "defensive jihad" waged against the "near enemy" in Afghanistan or Iraq, but the "offensive jihad" against the "far enemy" in the US, Britain and other liberal democracies, including Australia. The shift was acknowledged last October by the leader of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, in an interview posted on the internet. Referring to terrorist plots in Glasgow and London, he declared that "all the countries that participated in the hostility against Iraq and their crimes against our people are a legitimate target for us, no matter how long it takes".

Court in North Carolina Hears Tapes in Terror Case - Victoria Cherrie, New York Times. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday bolstered their case against Daniel P. Boyd, the man accused of being the ringleader of a group of Islamic terrorists, playing recordings in court in which he advocated violent jihad against the West. During a daylong detention hearing Tuesday at the federal courthouse here, Barbara Kocher, an assistant United States attorney, played audio recordings of Mr. Boyd, who frowned while hearing his recorded voice fill the courtroom and tell recruits about the need for Muslims to be “protected at all costs.” Prosecutors identified Mr. Boyd as the man on the tape making remarks like, “We should take them out right now, they are over there killing our brothers,” apparently in reference to the American military, and saying that jihad was the only defense his group had “for getting our wealth back and stopping the rape of Muslim women.” Mr. Boyd, 39, and six others were arrested last week and charged with plotting attacks in a foreign country, although no targets were named. An indictment said Mr. Boyd bought dozens of weapons and recruited his two sons, Zakariya, 20, and Dylan, 22, to raise thousands of dollars to travel to Israel with him and others to develop terror plots.

Detainees Could Be Boon for Mich. Town - Kari Lydersen, Washington Post. From the road, the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility looks like it could be a country resort, lush wooded grounds surrounded by corn fields and flower beds. Prison employees and residents of this northern Michigan town are proud of the facility and want to keep it open at all costs, even if that means becoming the new home of Guantanamo Bay detainees. The news that the Obama administration is considering moving some detainees at the military prison in Cuba to facilities within US borders, including Standish and Fort Leavenworth, Kan., prompted Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (D) and several state legislators Tuesday to voice their opposition. But residents here are most concerned about keeping some of the 340 jobs and other economic sustenance the prison provides, in a county where unemployment tops 17 percent. A hand-painted sign outside the lockup begs "Save Our Town, Save Standish Max," referring to the collection of buildings behind razor-topped fencing that contains 604 beds, usually reserved for maximum-security inmates. Throughout the quaint, somewhat ramshackle borough of 1,500 people, marquees and handmade posters outside churches, bars and Denise's Beauty Barn carry the same message.

Justice Too Long Delayed - New York Times editorial. Of the many examples of the Bush administration’s abusive and incompetent detainee policies, one of the most baffling is the case of Mohammed Jawad. Mr. Jawad, an Afghan, was no older than 17 and likely even younger when he was captured in 2002 and thrown into indefinite detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Seven years, one suicide attempt and untold hours of physical and mental torture later, he remains there, a wrecked young man held on an allegation that he hurled a grenade at two American servicemen and their interpreter - without any credible evidence that he actually did or that he is a grave threat to American security. In a belated victory for justice, a federal judge recognized that tragic fact last week and ordered the government to release Mr. Jawad.

CYBER WARFARE

White House Cybermistakes - Washington Times editorial. Monday's resignation of White House cybersecurity adviser Melissa Hathaway was another reminder that President Obama's cyberpolicy is lost in space. Mr. Obama broadly outlined his cybersecurity plan and creation of a cyberczar May 29 following a policy review led by Ms. Hathaway. The White House has yet to fill the post, likely because the power is limited for any one official to coordinate the disparate federal agencies involved. Ms. Hathaway, a George W. Bush administration holdover, largely was sidelined by Obama administration officials after arguing that the cyberczar should have direct access to the president. This would ensure power to coordinate federal policy. National Economic Council Director Lawrence H. Summers, National Security Adviser Gen. James L. Jones Jr. and John O. Brennan, Mr. Obama's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, fought to protect their turf. The czar will report to both the National Security Agency and NEC. No one seems to know exactly what the czar will actually oversee.

Profile of a Real Cyberwar - Aaron Mannes and James Hendler, Washington Times opinion. The denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that started on July 4 garnered typical headlines about cyberwar, but in fact, from a technical standpoint, those "attacks" may be the opposite of real cyberwar. A much less noticed report in Israel's leading daily, Ha'aretz, on Israel's operations against Iran's nuclear program may give greater insight into how cyberwar actually will work. It is no secret that several countries, including the United States, China, Russia and Israel, have examined cyberwar capabilities. What those capabilities might be or how a cyberwar might look are shrouded in mystery. The denial-of-service attacks that made headlines are not it. Those attacks are nothing more than the sending of enormous numbers of requests to servers, preventing Web sites from responding to legitimate traffic and interfering with e-mail. Competent information-technology professionals usually can mitigate these attacks, and even when successful, their impact - from a national security standpoint - is marginal.

UNITED STATES

Leadership Vacancy Raises Fears About USAID's Future - Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post. As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton begins a seven-country African trip with a visit to Kenya, the main US foreign aid agency is in limbo, entering its seventh month without a permanent director despite pledges by the Obama administration to expand development assistance and improve its effectiveness in poor countries. Clinton has backed the use of "smart power" - employing a full range of economic, military, political and development tools in US foreign policy - but many aid experts are questioning whether the US Agency for International Development could lose clout under her plans. While Clinton has championed additional personnel for USAID, aid groups worry that the once-autonomous agency could be swallowed up in the State Department, with long-term development goals losing out to short-term political aims. "Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have said how important development is. Increasingly, it's a painful contrast between their rhetoric and the reality of having no leadership" at USAID, said Carol Lancaster, interim dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, who served as deputy administrator of the aid agency under President Bill Clinton.

AFRICA

Clinton Begins Africa Trip With Stop in Kenya - Alisha Ryu, Voice of America. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in the Kenyan capital Nairobi Tuesday, the first stop on a seven-nation visit to Africa. She will be taking part in a forum that has been a centerpiece of US trade, aid and investment policy in Sub-Saharan Africa for the past eight years. Hillary Clinton's first visit to Africa as secretary of state will officially begin on Wednesday, when she will speak at the ministerial opening ceremony of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act forum. Also known as AGOA, the act was signed into law in 2000 by Secretary Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, to expand benefits under an existing Generalized System of Preferences program. AGOA provides 41 eligible countries in Sub-Saharan Africa duty and quota free access to US markets for certain African-made goods, especially textiles and apparels. Eligibility is based on a country's commitment to good governance and free trade and it can be revoked.

US Chides Kenya Before Clinton Visit - Sarah Childress, Wall Street Journal. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her African trip Tuesday in this East African hub, where she is expected to reiterate the support for good governance and sustainable development that President Barack Obama expressed in his brief visit to Ghana, in West Africa last month. The stop in Kenya will be significant not only for the food-security theme Mrs. Clinton is expected to emphasize in this agricultural economy, but also for the strong political message that the US aims to send to Kenya's recalcitrant coalition government. Since the coalition was cobbled together last year, it has failed to implement any reforms or prosecute perpetrators of the violence that erupted after flawed presidential elections in December 2007. Last week the Kenyan government outlined its intention to rely on the country's notoriously corrupt local courts - rather than to form a special tribunal - to try individuals suspected of organizing or participating in the postelection violence.

In Kenya, Clinton Starts Africa Tour - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times. If Kenyans were hoping that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would blast their government for recent abuses, they have been disappointed, at least so far. Speaking at the opening of a United States-Africa trade conference Wednesday at the start an African tour, Mrs. Clinton shied away from the subject of Kenya’s volatile politics and spoke instead about tariffs, alternative energy, pineapples and even her hairdo. “This morning I had the chance to meet two women in Nairobi, to get my hair done,” she said. “My hairdos are the subject of Ph.D. theses. I’ll let everyone know I got a good one in Nairobi.” The audience - mostly diplomats, business leaders and African ministers- chuckled politely. Less jokingly, Mrs. Clinton went on to address a theme broached by President Obama when he visited Ghana last month, cautioning African leaders that “true economic progress in Africa will depend on responsible governments that reject corruption, enforce the rule of law, and deliver results for their people.”

What Hillary Clinton Seeks to Achieve in Africa - Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton begins a seven-country tour of sub-Saharan Africa Wednesday designed to underscore the Obama administration's priority on improving the continent's stability and development. While Secretary Clinton's stated objective is to address issues ranging from regional economic development and education to democratic governance and gender-based violence, another aim will be to bolster relations with resource-rich countries where China has been aggressively extending its presence. "The new administration wants to put Africa among the top priorities of its international relations. They want to address the concerns of quite a few countries that were frustrated by Obama's choice of Ghana for his one stop in Africa last month. And then there is the issue of a growing rivalry from China for resources," says Pierre Englebert, an Africa specialist at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. "Clinton's trip is about trying to kill several birds with one stone." Indeed, some diplomatic analysts add to that list Clinton's desire to stake a claim among foreign-policy priorities, since a number of top-rung issues like Middle East peace have been assigned to special envoys.

Hillary Clinton to Pledge US Support for Somalia Against al-Shabaab Terrorists - Mike Pflanz, Daily Telegraph. The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has arrived in east Africa to pledge America's help in confronting the growing international threat posed by Islamist terrorists in Somalia. Her visit to Kenya, where she is due to meet the country's embattled president, began as Australia was still reeling from the arrest of four men who had allegedly plotted a Mumbai-style assault on an army barracks in Sydney and have links to the al-Shabaab terrorist group based in Somalia. Al-Shabaab, which is inspired by al-Qaeda, has long threatened to export its jihadist campaign outside the borders of the failed state. Western intelligence officials have been growing increasingly concerned about its potential to strike beyond the Horn of Africa. Mrs Clinton is expected to offer Somalia increased US support, including 40 tons of weapons and ammunition, to boost the efforts of its president, Sheikh Sharif, to crush the widening al-Shabaab insurgency which, like the president, is based in Mogadishu.

Tear Gas Fired at Protesters Outside Lubna Hussein Trial - Tristan McConnell, The Times. Sudanese riot police fired teargas to disperse protesters who gathered outside a Khartoum courthouse yesterday to support a woman journalist who faces up to 40 lashes for wearing trousers. Lubna Hussein, a widow in her thirties, has drawn attention to her case in an attempt to change a Sudanese law that allows women to be flogged for dressing in breach of the country’s strict indecency laws. Since her arrest last month she has courted media coverage of her plight and sent out 500 invitations to her trial, which began last week. In response, about a hundred men and women, some wearing trousers in solidarity with Ms Hussein, began to gather on a main street in Khartoum near the court yesterday. “We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them,” said Amal Habani, another journalist, who was also arrested last month for writing a column in support of Ms Hussein. The judge adjourned Ms Hussein’s case until September 7, saying that he needed to seek clarity on whether the defendant was immune from prosecution.

Backlash in Khartoum - The Times editorial. Lubna Hussein is nothing if not brave. Arrested last month in a Khartoum café, the Sudanese United Nations official was accused, with 12 other women, of violating public decency by wearing trousers, and taken away to be flogged. Ten of the other women submitted meekly to this arbitrary and barbaric sentence, received ten lashes at a police station and were ordered to pay a substantial fine. Ms Hussein challenged the order, demanded a full trial and said that she was ready to receive not 40 but 40,000 lashes if the courts could prove that the sentence was not only constitutional but laid down in the Koran or the Hadith, the body of Muslim tradition and teachings. Her stance has rallied women across Sudan and the Muslim world, infuriated the embarrassed Government and forced the police and judiciary to seek ways to avoid a public confrontation. Finding a face-saving solution will not be easy, however. Ms Hussein is determined to challenge a law that she believes is not only ill defined and arbitrary but is symptomatic of the repression of women that has sheltered under the umbrella of Sharia. As a UN employee, she had immunity from prosecution. But last week she resigned her job in the UN media office in order to face trial. She announced that she would appeal, if necessary, to the Sudanese Constitutional Court to force a ruling on the wording of Article 152 that does not define indecent dress.

Latest Tragic Symbol of an Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times. For years, the thickly forested hills and clear, deep lakes of eastern Congo have been a reservoir of atrocities. Now, it seems, there is another growing problem: men raping men. According to Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, United Nations officials and several Congolese aid organizations, the number of men who have been raped has risen sharply in recent months, a consequence of joint Congo-Rwanda military operations against rebels that have uncapped an appalling level of violence against civilians. Aid workers struggle to explain the sudden spike in male rape cases. The best answer, they say, is that the sexual violence against men is yet another way for armed groups to humiliate and demoralize Congolese communities into submission. The United Nations already considers eastern Congo the rape capital of the world, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to hear from survivors on her visit to the country next week. Hundreds of thousands of women have been sexually assaulted by the various warring militias haunting these hills, and right now this area is going through one of its bloodiest periods in years.

Nigeria's Amnesty Program Draws Criticism - Will Connors and Spencer Swartz, Wall Street Journal. A high-profile government amnesty program aimed at stopping militants in Nigeria's oil-rich delta region from bombing pipelines is coming under fire for not seeking permanent solutions to the area's underlying problems. The amnesty program, scheduled to begin Thursday and run two months, is the biggest public effort yet by President Umaru Yar'Adua to ease the unrest in the Niger Delta that has cost the country billions of dollars in lost oil revenue. But Nigerian state governors, analysts, and the militants themselves have criticized the plan because it does little to address the core causes of the militancy and criminality that have plagued the Niger Delta for decades, such as the lack of education, jobs and basic services. State governors from the Niger Delta region, a powerful group but rarely in agreement, last week threatened to withdraw from the amnesty program because it lacked "a definite postamnesty plan arrangement for the region." With oil revenue down sharply this year, the Nigerian government desperately needs the program to work. Nigeria has lost the title of Africa's biggest oil producer to Angola with more than one million barrels a day of its production shuttered from militant attacks in recent months.

Nigerian Groups Seek Probe of Killings by Security Forces - Gilbert da Costa, Voice of America. Several rights groups and opposition parties in Nigeria have appealed to the government to investigate allegations of illegal killings by security forces during the recent clashes in the north of the country. Nigerian authorities say most of those who died during a week of brutal violence in the north were members of the Islamic sect Boko Haram, killed in clashes with security forces. The Nigerian security forces have in the past been accused of reprisal killings and the use of excessive force. Reports that the police may have killed people trying to flee the violence have prompted calls for an official investigation. Leading Nigerian rights groups accuse security forces of killing bystanders and other civilians during the siege on Boko Haram compound in Maiduguri. The police have denied any wrongdoing.

AMERICAS

Leahy Blocks Positive Report on Mexico's Rights Record - William Booth and Steve Fainaru, Washington Post. A key senator rejected a State Department plan to issue a report this week affirming that Mexico is respecting human rights in its war against drug traffickers, delaying the release of millions of dollars in US anti-narcotics assistance, according to US officials and congressional sources. The State Department intended to send the favorable report on Mexico's human rights record to Congress in advance of President Obama's visit to Guadalajara for a summit of North American leaders this weekend, US officials familiar with the report said. That plan was scrapped after aides to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, told State Department officials that the findings contradicted reports of human rights violations in Mexico, including torture and forced disappearances, in connection with the drug war. At stake is more than $100 million in US aid under the Merida Initiative, a three-year, $1.4 billion counternarcotics package begun by President George W. Bush in 2007. The law requires Congress to withhold 15 percent of most of the funds until the secretary of state reports that Mexico has made progress on human rights.

On TV, Honduran Generals Explain Their Role in Coup - Ginger Thompson, New York Times. For the past month, a steady drumbeat of government images on the airwaves and on front pages has tried to convey to Hondurans that this country has not experienced a military coup. On Tuesday, however, television viewers could have been forgiven for thinking that is exactly what had happened. The five generals at the head of the Honduran armed forces made a rare appearance on national television to explain their role in the ouster in late June of President Manuel Zelaya, and to respond to charges that they acted in defense of the country’s elite. In language that often veered into confessional, they repeated that they did not act to take sides in the political fight that had polarized the country, but out of obedience to the law. And they said they were confident that history would judge them as patriots for their actions. The more they spoke, however, the more they showed how concerned they were that their image had been damaged by their actions, and the clearer it became that they continued to play a leading role in Honduran politics, nearly three decades since the end of military rule.

In Mexico, Ousted Honduran Leader Boosts Bid to Go Home - Sara Miller Llana, Christian Science Monitor. Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya began another wave of travel this week to shore up support for his return to Honduras, meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderón at the presidential palace in Mexico City today. And the Organization of American States (OAS) this week is planning a diplomatic mission aimed at persuading the Honduran interim government, which took over after Mr. Zelaya was arrested June 28, to accept a mediated solution to Central America's worst political crisis in decades. But more than a month after Zelaya was deposed by the Honduran military - with international condemnation and millions withheld in aid failing to budge the interim government - hopes are not high that this new diplomatic front will change the political narrative. Still, the visit today with Mexico's conservative president, and renewed diplomatic efforts, could mark a new strategy to distance Zelaya from his leftist ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and appeal to more right-leaning bases both in Honduras and beyond.

ASIA PACIFIC

North Korea Pardons US Journalists - Jim Malone, Voice of America. North Korean state media reports that leader Kim Jong Il has pardoned two American journalists and ordered their release during a surprise visit by former US President Bill Clinton. Word of the release came on a day when official Washington said little about Mr. Clinton's mission. Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea to secure the release of American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The two women were arrested in March for illegally crossing the border from China into North Korea. They were working on a story about refugees for Current TV, which was co-founded by Mr. Clinton's former vice president, Al Gore. Throughout the day Tuesday, US officials said little about Mr. Clinton's mission, describing the effort as private and sensitive.

N. Korea Releases US Journalists - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. North Korea pardoned and released two detained American journalists after former president Bill Clinton met in Pyongyang on Tuesday with the country's ailing dictator, a transaction that gives Kim Jong Il a thin slice of the international legitimacy that has long eluded him. Although the White House and the State Department steadfastly insisted that the former president - the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton - was on a "private humanitarian mission," the trip came about only after weeks of back-channel conversations involving academics, congressional figures and senior White House and State Department officials, according to sources involved in the planning. North Korea rejected the administration's first choice for the trip - former vice president Al Gore, who co-founded the television channel that employs the reporters - and Bill Clinton left the United States only after North Korea provided assurances that the reporters would be released, the sources said.

Clinton and Two Freed Journalists Leave N. Korea - Mark Landler and Peter Baker, New York Times. Former President Bill Clinton left North Korea on Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and dined with the North’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il. Mr. Clinton departed from Pyongyang, the capital, at about 8:30 a.m. local time, along with the journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, on a private jet bound for Los Angeles, according to a statement from the former president’s office. The North Korean government, which in June sentenced the women to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, announced hours earlier that it had pardoned the women after Mr. Clinton apologized to Mr. Kim for their actions, according to the North Korean state media. The White House, which had implicitly blessed Mr. Clinton’s mission, said it would withhold comment until officials had a chance to speak with the former president. Mr. Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang was the most visible by an American in nearly a decade. It came at a time when the United States’ relationship with North Korea had become especially chilled, after North Korea’s test of its second nuclear device in May and a series of missile launching.

Bill Clinton Brings Back Journalists - John M. Glionna and Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times. North Korea's surprise "special pardon" of two American television journalists today may have reopened the channels of communication between the Obama administration and the secretive regime that for years has defied the world with its nuclear tests and political bombast. After a whirlwind 24-hour visit that capped months of quiet diplomatic negotiations, former President Bill Clinton left Pyongyang on a private jet with the reporters after his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, according to a spokesman for Clinton. "President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee," Matt McKenna said in a statement. "They are en route to Los Angeles, where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families." Early today, television video showed the journalists, dressed in short-sleeved shirts, jeans and sneakers, shaking hands with Clinton as they climbed aboard the plane. The two women were "enormously relieved and seemingly in very good health," a senior administration official said in a briefing.

Clinton, Freed Journalists Leave North Korea - Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times. North Korea's pardon Tuesday of two American journalists marks former President Bill Clinton's first major mission for the Obama administration and presents an opportunity to improve relations with a secretive regime that until recently had been escalating tensions with the United States and its allies. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il granted the rare pardon after he met with Mr. Clinton in Pyongyang. The former president left after spending less than 24 hours in North Korea. His spokesman said the reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, left with Mr. Clinton. President Obama called the two women's families Tuesday night to "express relief" at their release, a senior administration official said during a conference call with reporters. Mr. Clinton's visit was "a reflection of a whole lot of work over a couple of months," the official said on the condition of anonymity because the visit was private. The effort started when the North Koreans first allowed the journalists to call their families in the spring, he said, and culminated with an indication in mid-July that they would be granted amnesty if Mr. Clinton went to Pyongyang.

Clinton Leaves N. Korea After Securing Release of US Reporters - Brad Norington, The Australian. Former US president Bill Clinton has left Pyongyang with two US journalists after proving his value to the Obama administration as a diplomat by sealing a pardon by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. “President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families,” Mr Clinton's spokesman Matt McKenna said. According to a North Korean account of the meeting, Mr Clinton “expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong-il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it”. “Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong-il an earnest request of the US government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view,” state news agency reported. The release order came after tightly controlled event in the North Korean capital. The White House kept the final negotiations remarkably low-key to avoid any breast-beating that might jeopardise the result and was careful to separate the release of the two Americans sentenced to 12 years' hard labour from the wider, long running dispute with Washington over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Talks for Secret Mission to North Korea Began Once Journalists Were Seized, Sources Say - Paul Richter. Los Angeles Times. The negotiations that led to former President Clinton's secret mission to North Korea began almost as soon as two U.S. journalists were seized by the isolated Stalinist state, and were spurred on by the Obama administration's hope that they might lead to a resumption of disarmament talks, according to people close to the process. The narrow goal was a specific deal: If the United States showed respect to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il by dispatching an emissary of significant stature to Pyongyang, the regime would release journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were arrested along the border with China on March 17. The choice of Clinton, one of many high-profile public figures who volunteered for the assignment, met that test. But many in the administration argued that providing North Korea with a face-saving resolution on the fate of the journalists could open the way to a broader diplomatic goal: the resumption of talks to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, which have been gridlocked.

Deciphering Korean Propaganda on the Clintons - Andre F. Radzischewski, Washington Times. For those not accustomed to pronouncements by North Korea's official news agency, the contrast seemed dizzying. On Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) trumpeted the arrival of former President Bill Clinton, noting that he "courteously" conveyed a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from President Obama and held a "wide-ranging exchange of views on matters of common concern." Less than two weeks earlier, KCNA derided Mr. Clinton's wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as a "funny lady" who at times "looks like a primary schoolgirl" or "a pensioner going shopping" and makes "vulgar" remarks. No one, except maybe North Koreans, ever accused KCNA of fairness or objectivity. But Pyongyang's official mouthpiece also can provide valuable clues about the secretive, totalitarian state. For instance, Mr. Clinton clearly received kid-gloves treatment because the North Koreans wanted to portray him as a high-profile US emissary out to make amends for what the North Koreans see as a "hostile" US policy toward the country. The former president, according to the Obama administration, was on a private visit to secure the release of two jailed American journalists - Euna Lee and Laura Ling - but was greeted at Pyongyang's airport by North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan.

Paying Kim’s Price - Wall Street Journal editorial. The last time an American civilian was held prisoner by North Korea, in 1996, it took a visit from then-Congressman Bill Richardson to secure his release. Yesterday, it required the full prestige of a former US President to win the freedom of captive journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling. When it comes to giving up politically valuable hostages, the Dear Leader has clearly raised the price. We don’t begrudge the congratulations Bill Clinton deserves for saving the two journalists from what might have been a nightmare 12 years of hard labor; that was the sentence a kangaroo North Korean court imposed for allegedly blundering across its border with China in March. But the important question going forward is whether Mr. Clinton’s visit was merely the down payment Kim extracted from the Obama Administration for a potentially larger set of American concessions. That question is hard to avoid given that Mr. Clinton was met at the Pyongyang airport by Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator. North Korea may have had its own propaganda reasons for putting its diplomat in the photo-op, and the White House insisted that Mr. Clinton’s mission was strictly humanitarian and that he was not carrying any messages from President Obama. We hope that’s true.

Mr. Clinton Goes to Pyongyang - Gordon C. Chang, Wall Street Journal opinion. Everyone can be happy that Bill Clinton won the release of two imprisoned American journalists on his surprise visit to Pyongyang yesterday. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were reporting on refugees at the time of their detention in mid-March and were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for crossing into North Korean territory. Back-channel negotiations have gone on for months between Washington and North Korea over the fate of the two women, and it appears likely that some understanding was reached before the former president risked making this high-profile trip. Let’s hope that understanding doesn’t include undeserved concessions on North Korea’s nuclear program or an agreement to ignore the plight of the country’s numerous other detainees. Rumors have been circulating in Washington for several months that the two countries have been talking about nuclear issues at the same time they have been discussing the two journalists. These reports now appear to be true. Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, was on hand at the airport in Pyongyang to greet Mr. Clinton as he arrived - a clear sign Pyongyang, at least, is linking the two issues. This marks a significant break with previous US policy. During the last years of the Bush administration, the State Department constantly warned Tokyo’s diplomats that concerns over Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea shouldn’t interfere with initiatives to resolve the nuclear problem.

Chinese Authorities Break Up 'Terrorist Plots,' Step Up Pressure on Exiled Uighur Leader - William Ide, Voice of America. Chinese state-run media say officials have prevented five attacks on civilians in China's northwestern Xinjiang since unrest hit the region early last month. News of the alleged attacks comes as the government is stepping up its offensive against exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer just as she arrives in Australia. Chinese media are reporting that anti-terrorism authorities in Xinjiang have broken up at least five alleged terrorist attacks on civilians since last month's riots in Urumqi. Anti-terrorism sources gave few details about the nature of the attacks, but did say the plots targeted civilians in four cities in Xinjiang. Reports did not say how many were involved and only added that authorities confiscated guns, knives, explosives and other materials that advocated violence and terrorism. News of the alleged plots comes as Chinese state media have unleashed a new offensive against exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, releasing a letter from her family members still in China and television interviews of them blaming her for last month's deadly riots.

China’s Tally of 718 Arrests in July Riots Is Questioned - Michael Wines, New York Times. Chinese authorities said Tuesday that they had taken 718 people into custody in connection with last month’s ethnic riots in the western region of Xinjiang, but an official with an ethnic Uighur exile group said the true number was far higher. The new report, released by the state-run Xinhua news agency, left it unclear whether the 718 detainees represented the total of suspects captured since the July 5 unrest, or were in addition to previous arrests and detentions. The government had previously said that more than 1,500 people had been detained after the riots. Nor was it clear how many of the suspects had been charged with crimes. State radio, quoted by Reuters, reported on Tuesday that 83 suspects had been accused of crimes ranging from murder and arson to assault and disturbing the peace. The Xinjiang riots in the regional capital, Urumqi, killed at least 197 people - most of them ethnic Han Chinese, officials said - and injured about 1,100 others. The violence broke out after Uighur residents, the area’s original settlers, marched to protest the treatment of Uighur factory workers involved in a disturbance in eastern China.

Burma's Bomb - Washington Times editorial. The Soviet Union used to be described jokingly as a "Third World country with atomic bombs." But the spread of nuclear weapons in the developing world is no joke. Burma is the latest case. In 2007, the military junta that runs the country confirmed that it was developing a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor with Russian help, claiming the program was for peaceful uses only. But according to reports last week in the Australian press based on defector testimony, the military government maintains a secret underground weapons complex at Naung Laing in the mountainous northern part of the country. Burma, which its leaders call Myanmar, could be ready to build a bomb in less than five years. The junta's reported accomplice in this venture is North Korea. Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed official concern about deepening military cooperation between the two countries. In June 2009, the US Navy shadowed the Burma-bound North Korean freighter Kang Nam I, which was suspected of carrying illegal weapons components. The ship ultimately turned back. The same month, Bangkok-based Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner published photos of North Koreans excavating secret tunnels in the new Burmese capital of Naypyidaw and elsewhere. Burma purportedly is trading yellowcake uranium to North Korea and Iran in exchange for nuclear expertise, though the details are sketchy at this point.

EUROPE

Russia and Georgia Battle Over Position in History - Marc Champion, Wall Street Journal. A year after Russia fought a war with its former-Soviet neighbor Georgia, the argument over who was to blame for a conflict that at one point threatened to reignite the Cold War is raging again. The five-day conflict left hundreds dead, Georgia's army crushed and two parts of its territory on the border with Russia - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - under Russian occupation. It also left the West struggling with how to respond to Russia's determination to assert a sphere of influence. But the core questions left by the war - who was to blame, why it was fought and whether genocide was committed - remain in dispute. Underlining rising tensions around the war's anniversary and the danger of renewed conflict, Russian officials said Tuesday that their troops in Georgia's enclaves had been put on alert after alleged Georgian "provocations," which Georgian officials denied. Also Tuesday, Russia President Dmitry Medvedev discussed "lessons to be learned from the Georgia crisis that took place one year ago" in a telephone call with President Barack Obama, according to a Kremlin statement.

Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of US - Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker, New York Times. A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets - and be poised for war. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the Russian Navy to operate far from home ports, making the current submarine patrols thousands of miles from Russia more surprising for military officials and defense policy experts. “I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the US coast in about 15 years,” said Norman Polmar, a naval historian and submarine warfare expert. The submarines are of the Akula class, a counterpart to the Los Angeles class attack subs of the United States Navy, and not one of the larger submarines that can launch intercontinental nuclear missiles.

MIDDLE EAST

Hezbollah Stockpiles 40,000 Rockets Near Israel Border - Richard Beeston and Nicholas Blanford, The Times. Three years after Israel fought a bloody war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, there are fears that hostilities could erupt again - this time with the militant group better armed than ever. According to Israeli, United Nations and Hezbollah officials, the Shia Muslim militia is stronger than it was in 2006 when it took on the Israeli army in a war that killed 1,191 Lebanese and 43 Israeli civilians. Hezbollah has up to 40,000 rockets and is training its forces to use ground-to-ground missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, and anti-aircraft missiles that could challenge Israel’s dominance of the skies over Lebanon. Brigadier-General Alon Friedman, the deputy head of the Israeli Northern Command, told The Times from his headquarters overlooking the Israeli-Lebanese border that the peace of the past three years could “explode at any minute”. His concerns were due partly to threats from Hezbollah’s leadership. Last month Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, warned that if the southern suburbs of Beirut were bombed as they were in the last war, he would strike back against Tel Aviv, the largest Israeli city.

Palestinian Fatah Party Holds First Congress in 20 Years - Robert Berger, Voice of America. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank are holding what they describe as a "historic" convention, but there is little harmony in the ranks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas opened the first congress of the Fatah movement in 20 years and the first ever on Palestinian soil. Mr. Abbas, who rules the West Bank, endorsed the peace process with Israel, but left open the option of "armed struggle." "Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance," he told hundreds of delegates. A banner at the gathering featured a Palestinian boy holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Israeli spokesman Mark Regev rejected the reference to armed resistance, saying negotiations are the only the way to peace. The conference highlighted the deep rift between Palestinians in the West Bank and those in the Gaza Strip. The Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza and rejects peace talks with Israel, barred some 400 Fatah members in the territory from attending the gathering in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Hamas ousted Mr. Abbas and his Fatah forces from Gaza in the Palestinian civil war two years ago.

Abbas Urges ‘New Start’ at Fatah Conference - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. The mainstream Palestinian movement Fatah came together here on Tuesday for a landmark three-day gathering, its first in 20 years and its first ever on Palestinian soil. The opening ceremony was festive and emotional, though the celebratory tone did not dispel the difficult situation Fatah found itself in. It has struggled to recover from a humiliating defeat by Hamas, its Islamic rival, in the 2006 elections and the subsequent loss of Gaza. Fatah continues to be riddled with internal divisions, and many participants said the conference might be the movement’s last chance to revive. “We have made mistakes,” said Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah. “Twenty years is too long.” The conference, he said, should be a “platform for a new start.” About 2,000 delegates from all over the world are attending the conference, at a school near Manger Square. Israel, which controls the West Bank borders and is interested in bolstering the more moderate Palestinian forces, allowed in Fatah members from hostile states like Syria. Yet Hamas prevented hundreds of Fatah delegates from leaving Gaza to participate, a decision that has deepened the Palestinian divide.

Abbas's Party Holds Convention - Linda Gradstein, Washington Post. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sought to reinvigorate his Fatah movement Tuesday, launching the party's first congress in 20 years - and its first ever in the West Bank. More than 2,000 delegates from around the world have gathered here to choose a new party platform and hold elections for Fatah institutions. "Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law," Abbas told the delegates in an animated two-hour speech. The Palestinian leader made it clear that by "resistance," he meant nonviolent protests rather than armed confrontation, praising peaceful weekly demonstrations against a controversial barrier Israel is building in and around the West Bank. Abbas also said that Palestinians remain committed to the goal of establishing an independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital. "We are on our land, and we are not going anywhere," he said to applause. Israel permitted delegates from throughout the Arab world, including Lebanon and Syria, to attend the conference. However, Hamas refused to allow more than 300 Fatah delegates from Gaza to leave the coastal enclave, underlining the persistent tensions between the Islamist movement, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, and Fatah, which controls the West Bank.

At Palestinian Congress, Abbas Urges Nonviolent Resistance - Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas opened his Fatah movement's first congress in 20 years Tuesday with a call to step up nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation and to keep faith in peace talks despite years of setbacks to the dream of statehood. But he stopped short of renouncing a clause of Fatah's founding charter that prescribes "armed revolution" against the Jewish state. "Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law," he said, using ambiguous language that covers violent as well as peaceful action. He said Palestinians must find consensus on "the proper forms" of resistance at any given time but made it clear that this is not the time for bloodshed. Abbas spoke at the inaugural session of a long-delayed gathering to elect a new generation of Fatah leaders. The aim is to rally the secular movement, stigmatized by defeat and paralyzed by internal division, as a vibrant alternative to the Islamic militants of Hamas.

SOUTH ASIA

Hints of Cooperation Put Leaders of Pakistan and India on the Defensive at Home - Lydia Polgreen, New York Times. When the prime ministers of India and Pakistan met recently on the sidelines of a regional summit meeting in Egypt, they hammered out a joint statement that seemed to point toward greater cooperation between the nuclear-armed neighbors. After months of tension over the attacks in Mumbai last November, in which gunmen from Pakistan rampaged through India’s financial capital and killed more than 160 people, the two sides seemed open to the possibility of resuming full-blown talks. Instead, the mere suggestion of a thaw in relations has been met with fierce public and political resistance in India, providing a nagging reminder of the enormous internal obstacles that both countries face in overcoming their decades-old rivalry. In Pakistan, talking to India about the troubles at the root of the turbulent 62-year relationship, not least the disputed territory of Kashmir, involves thorny questions of who is actually running things, the military or the civilian president, Asif Ali Zardari. The powerful army and intelligence service have been the major obstacles to peace with India in the past, political analysts and diplomats say.

BOOKS

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan - Doug Stanton.

Horse Soldiers tells the important story of the Special Forces soldiers who first put American boots on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. Fighting alongside the Northern Alliance, the troops, often riding on horseback, achieved several important victories against the Taliban.

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age - Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker.

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected trends are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt: the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the Web. Both in cyberspace and in warfare, the grassroots public has assumed increasing importance in recent years. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes. This newly interactive and participatory form of the Web promotes and enables offline action. Similarly, after Rumsfeld's attempt to transform the US military into a lean, lethal, computerized force crashed in Iraq in 2003, counterinsurgency rose from the ashes. Counterinsurgency is a social form of war - indeed, the US Army calls it armed social work - in which the local matrix population becomes the center of strategic gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability.

The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the U.S. Military for Modern Wars - David H. Ucko.

Confronting insurgent violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has recognized the need to "re-learn" counterinsurgency. But how has the Department of Defense with its mixed efforts responded to this new strategic environment? Has it learned anything from past failures? In The New Counterinsurgency Era, David Ucko examines DoD's institutional obstacles and initially slow response to a changing strategic reality.

Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda - Thomas P. Odom.

In July 1994, Thomas P. Odom was part of the US Embassy team that responded to the Goma refugee crisis. He witnessed the deaths of 70,000 refugees in a single week. In the previous three months of escalating violence, the Rwandan genocide had claimed 800,000 dead. Now, in this vivid and unsettling new book, Odom offers the first insider look at these devastating events before, during, and after the genocide.

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.