When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

--Declaration of Independence

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Marines, Afghans Establish Bases in Helmand - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. US Marines and Afghan security forces are continuing Operation Khanjar in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, NATO officials said today. Almost 4,000 personnel from the Marine Expeditionary Brigade Afghanistan have moved into cities and towns along the Helmand River and are digging in for the long haul. The addition of nearly 22,000 American personnel in Afghanistan will allow the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to institute a “clear, hold, build” counterinsurgency strategy. Before, small numbers of coalition forces would enter an area and clear it of Taliban, but the shortage of forces meant that when they pulled out, the Taliban flowed back in. Now, Marines and Afghan personnel are clearing the region of Taliban and establishing bases among the people. They will stay to ensure the Taliban or other terrorist groups do not move back in. The strategy calls for experts to move into the region and work with local residents to build the economy and governance. The forces are operating in the districts of Nawa and Garmsir in central Helmand province. The Marines are operating as far south as the vicinity of Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district in the region of the Helmand River valley known as “The Fishhook.” The effort is part of a larger strategy in Regional Command South. British and Afghan forces also are operating in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Insurgents Step Up Attacks on Marines - Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post. Taliban insurgents stepped up attacks Friday against US Marines in southern Afghanistan's Helmand River valley, forcing troops in some areas to spend the day fighting instead of carrying out plans to meet with residents and local leaders. The stiffest resistance occurred in the district of Garmser, where Taliban fighters holed up in a walled housing compound engaged in an eight-hour gun battle with troops from the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment. The Marines eventually requested a Harrier fighter jet to drop a 500-pound bomb on the compound, which was believed to have killed all fighters inside. The commanders directing the huge Marine security operation here had said they hoped not to rely on airstrikes, which have resulted in numerous civilian casualties in Afghanistan over the past seven years. Officers here noted with pride Thursday that they had not used bombs or artillery in the first 24 hours of the mission.

In Villages, Marines Work to Win Over Afghans - Associated Press. United States Marines moved into villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan on Friday, meeting little resistance as they tried to win over local chiefs on the second day of the biggest American military operation here since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. One Marine was killed and several were wounded Thursday, when 4,000 Marines launched the operation in Helmand Province, a remote area at the center of the country’s opium cultivation, which helps finance the insurgency. So far, however, there has been little resistance from the Taliban, according to Capt. Bill Pelletier, a military spokesman. In the east, meanwhile, American troops and other personnel continued looking for an American soldier believed to have been captured by insurgents on Tuesday, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, a military spokesman.

Afghanistan Blast Kills 2 US Troops - Associated Press. A blast in eastern Afghanistan killed two American troops and wounded four others Saturday, a US military spokeswoman said. The troops were attacked in eastern Paktika province, but there were no immediate details about the incident, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker. The deaths come as thousands of Marines in southern Afghanistan are involved in the biggest US military operation here since the American-led invasion of 2001, trying to cut insurgent supply lines and win over local elders. US troops continued looking for an American soldier believed captured by insurgents in Paktika province, Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo said Friday. The soldier and three Afghans with him went missing on Tuesday. There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any insurgent group.

Russia to Open Airspace to US for Afghan War - Peter Baker, New York Times. The Russian government has agreed to let American troops and weapons bound for Afghanistan fly over Russian territory, officials on both sides said Friday. The arrangement will provide an important new corridor for the United States military as it escalates efforts to win the eight-year war. The agreement, to be announced when President Obama visits here on Monday and Tuesday, represents one of the most concrete achievements in the administration’s effort to ease relations with Russia after years of tension. But the two sides failed to make a trade deal or resolve differences over missile defense, and are struggling to draft a preliminary nuclear arms deal.

Russia to Allow US Arms Shipments to Afghanistan - Associated Press. Russia will allow the US to ship weapons across its territory to Afghanistan, a top Kremlin aide said Friday in a gesture aimed at bolstering US military operations and improving strained ties between Washington and Moscow. The deal is expected to be signed during President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow next week, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said. Russia has been allowing the US to ship nonlethal supplies across its territory for operations in Afghanistan, and Kremlin officials had suggested further cooperation was likely. Mr. Prikhodko told reporters that the expected deal would enable the US to ship lethal cargo and would include shipments by air and land. He said it was unclear if US soldiers or other personnel would be permitted to travel through Russian territory or airspace. "They haven't asked us for it," he said. The normal supply route to landlocked Afghanistan via Pakistan has come under repeated Taliban attack, and the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have been eager to have an alternate overland supply route through Russia and the Central Asian countries.

US Drone Targets Taliban in Pakistan, at Least 6 Dead - Joshua Partlow and Pamela Constable, Washington Post. The followers of one of Pakistan's most feared Taliban commanders, Baitullah Mehsud, came under a fresh round of US drone attacks Friday in bombings that killed at least six people, according to Pakistani government officials. The missile attacks targeted a suspected Taliban camp and a religious school used by fighters in the rugged tribal border region of South Waziristan, said a local official from the region and a resident, who said at least 13 people were killed. A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said he had no information about whether senior fighters had been killed in the attack. Such American bombardments have become the focus of widespread, emotional outrage among the Pakistani public and an uncomfortable issue with the country's civilian and military leadership, who privately support them but must be sensitive to the depth of public animosity.

US Drone Attacks Said to Kill 17 at Taliban Outposts in Pakistan - Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times. Missile attacks believed to be carried out by US drone aircraft Friday targeted a training center and a communications base run by one of Pakistan's most wanted militant leaders, killing 17 people and injuring 27. The attacks in South Waziristan, where Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud and his fighters are entrenched in tribal areas along the Afghan border, come just more than a week after Mahsud narrowly escaped a drone attack on a funeral attended by Taliban militants. Dozens were killed in that strike. US reliance on unmanned aircraft to strike Taliban leaders and infrastructure has angered many Pakistanis, who view the missions as violations of their country's sovereignty and a source of civilian casualties. But it is widely believed that the Obama administration and the government of President Asif Ali Zardari have a tacit agreement allowing such airstrikes.

Pakistan Army Helicopter Crash Kills 26 - Pir Zubair Shah and Ismail Khan, New York Times. A Pakistani Army helicopter crashed in a northwestern tribal area that is a Taliban stronghold on Friday, killing at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and paramilitary fighters. The military said the helicopter had technical problems, and several Pakistani security officials said it was carrying too many people, but Dawn TV reported that local officials said insurgents had shot it down. One security official also said bad weather might have contributed to the crash. The security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that although the official number of those killed was 26, 41 people had died.

IRAQ

Biden Warns Iraq of Return to Ethnic Fights - Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told Iraqi leaders on Friday that he and President Obama were committed to helping them resolve their political differences, but he warned that the United States would be unlikely to remain engaged in Iraq if the country reverted to sectarian violence, American officials said. Mr. Biden spent the day in closed-door meetings to assess Iraq’s political and security situation as part of his new role as an unofficial envoy for the Obama administration. He emerged from a session with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to issue a carefully worded statement - partly an offer of support, partly a nudge to action. “The president and I appreciate that Iraq has traveled a great distance over the past year, but there is a hard road ahead if Iraq is going to find lasting peace and stability,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s not over yet.”

Biden Warns of Ending Commitment - Nada Bakri, Washington Post. Vice President Biden warned Iraqi officials Friday that the American commitment to Iraq could end if the country again descended into ethnic and sectarian violence. Biden delivered the warning during a three-day visit to Iraq that began Thursday, just a few days after the United States formally withdrew most combat troops from Iraqi cities under a security agreement reached last year. It was the vice president's first visit since President Obama asked him to take the lead on Iraq policy. In meetings with senior Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Biden stressed that the United States would remain engaged in Iraq, even as its military role diminishes in a withdrawal that is expected to dramatically gather pace after parliamentary elections in January.

Biden Meets Top US Leaders in Iraq - Associated Press. Vice President Joe Biden met with the top American military commander and diplomat in Iraq Friday as he made his first visit to the country after being appointed to oversee the administration's Iraq policy. Mr. Biden's arrival in Baghdad late Thursday came just days after all U.S. combat troops were pulled out of Iraq's cities and towns on June 30, as part of a security agreement that will see all American soldiers out of the country by the end of 2011. On Friday morning, the vice president had breakfast with Gen. Ray Odierno and Ambassador Christopher Hill, America's top soldier and diplomat in Iraq. Mr. Biden will meet later with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki A White House statement said the vice president will reiterate the US commitment to carry out President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw combat forces. He also will press Iraqi leaders to make more progress toward political reconciliation. It was his first trip to Iraq as vice president.

Iraq's Maliki Declines US Offer on National Reconciliation - Liz Sly, Los Angeles Times. Vice President Joe Biden's mission to promote national reconciliation in Iraq was rebuffed Friday by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who told him that the issue was a domestic Iraqi affair and that USinvolvement wouldn't be welcome. Biden was beginning a two-day visit to Iraq after President Obama appointed him this week as his special representative on dealings with the Persian Gulf nation. His assignment, the White House said, is to work with Iraqis "toward overcoming their political differences and achieving the type of reconciliation that we all understand has yet to fully take place." But Biden's meeting with Maliki was a reminder that although the US maintains about 130,000 troops in Iraq, its influence is waning rapidly now that the clock is ticking on the timetable for the departure of all American combat troops next year.

France Hopes to Jump-Start Its Arms Sales With New Iraqi Government - Edward Cody, Washington Post. France, which was an important weapons supplier to Saddam Hussein, has set out to revive its once-flourishing arms sales and training relationship with the new Iraqi government put in place by the United States. The effort has attracted attention because, under former president Jacques Chirac, France opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and stayed aloof from the coalition of allies that assisted the United States during the bloody occupation that has followed. At stake, specialists here said, are billions of dollars in potential arms sales and training contracts as the Iraqi military seeks to rebuild from the devastation wrought by UN sanctions and then by US forces as they took over the country, destroyed Hussein's Sunni-led military establishment and set up a new order dominated by the Shiite majority.

IRAN

Hardline Sermons in Iran Stiffen EU Resolve over Embassy Staff - Martin Fletcher and David Charter, The Times. Call it pulpit diplomacy. While Western politicians agonise over how to rebuke Iran without undermining talks on its nuclear aspirations, hardline mullahs use their Friday sermons to bullhorn their defiance to the world. Three Fridays ago Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, demanded that the massive street protests end. Almost immediately his forces flooded the streets and began suppressing the demonstrations. Last week Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, another hardline cleric, told the thousands gathered at Tehran University that the “rioters” should be mercilessly punished and their leaders executed. Yesterday it was the turn of Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 83, chairman of the Guardian Council, the country’s highest legislative body, who said the British had planned a “velvet revolution” by inciting riots. He added that some of the nine embassy staff arrested last weekend would face trial for their part in the plot.

British Embassy Staff in Iran Will Be Tried, Top Cleric Says - Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal. Iran deepened its diplomatic crisis with the European Union on Friday when a senior cleric declared detained Iranian staff of the British embassy would be put on trial for provoking post-election unrest. Delivering the Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an ultra-hard liner, said the British embassy staff had confessed to plotting turmoil in Iran. "In these events, their embassy had a presence. Some people were arrested. Well, inevitably, they will be put on trial," said Mr. Jannati, who is a spiritual guide of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.It is unclear whether Mr. Jannatti's comments will lead to legal action by the judiciary, as harsh rhetoric is customary during Friday prayer sermons in Iran and it doesn't always lead to action. But charges of threatening national security and instigating unrest are extremely serious in Iran and, if convicted, the staffers could face years in prison.m The news shook European nations and fueled calls for tough and immediate diplomatic action against Iran. European Union members had threatened to temporarily pull out all their ambassadors in protest of Tehran's actions if the staffers aren't released.

Iran Cleric Says British Embassy Staff to Stand Trial - John F. Burns and Stephen Castle, New York Times. A high-ranking Iranian cleric said Friday that Iran planned to put some of the detained British embassy staff members on trial, a move that could provoke a tightening of European sanctions against Iran, including the withdrawal of ambassadors. The cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the influential Guardian Council, told worshipers at Friday Prayer in Tehran that the embassy employees had “made confessions” and would be tried for their role in inciting protests after last month’s disputed presidential election. In London, the Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking clarification from the Iranian government as to whether the cleric’s remarks represented official policy.

Iran Plans to Put British Embassy Staffers on Trial - Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. A senior Iranian cleric said Friday that the British Embassy employees arrested in Tehran in recent days would be put on trial on unspecified charges of acting against Iran's national security, a move immediately denounced by members of the European Union. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the conservative Guardian Council, said in a Friday prayer sermon that the employees, all of them Iranian nationals, would "definitely be tried." They are accused of taking part in or promoting weeks of unrest after the June 12 presidential election, which was marred by allegations of massive vote-rigging.

British Embassy Row: Why Iran's Hard-liners are Inviting Isolation - Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor. A leading Iranian cleric's call Friday for some Iranian employees of the British Embassy to be tried for allegedly inciting prodemocracy protests has ratcheted up Iran's confrontation with both global powers and the sizable proportion of its own citizenry who believe the country's June 12 presidential election was rigged in favor of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a sermon at Tehran University, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati suggested that the mass demonstrations against the official election result - the largest since the 1979 Islamic revolution - were premeditated by foreign powers. "[The enemy] had plotted the velvet revolution prior to the election, and even on the British foreign ministry website in March it was announced that Iran's election might be accompanied by some unrest and that British citizens were warned to be careful," he said, according to the Guardian newspaper in London. "What is the meaning of these predictions?" The statement by Ayatollah Jannati, head of the country's Guardian Council – a sort of theocratic Supreme Court – was swiftly condemned by European leaders. Britain has called for European Union members to recall their ambassadors from Tehran, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for sanctions so that Iran's leaders "will really understand that the path they have chosen will be a dead end." The hard-liners in Tehran appear to be consciously pursuing increased isolation for themselves and their country to create an impression that dangerous outside forces - and not legitimate domestic grievances - were behind the outpouring of national anger at the election result. They appear to believe such a course will make it easier to silence their opponents.

Top Reformers Admitted Plot, Iran Declares - Michael Slackman, New York Times. Iranian leaders say they have obtained confessions from top reformist officials that they plotted to bring down the government with a “velvet” revolution. Such confessions, almost always extracted under duress, are part of an effort to recast the civil unrest set off by Iran’s disputed presidential election as a conspiracy orchestrated by foreign nations, human rights groups say. Reports on Iranian Web sites associated with prominent conservatives said that leading reformers have confessed to taking velvet revolution “training courses” outside the country. Atef, a Web site of a conservative member of Parliament, referred to a video of Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who served as vice president in the reform government of former President Mohammed Khatami, as showing that he tearfully “welcomed being defrocked and has confessed to provoking people, causing tension and creating media chaos.”

Who Will Stand With Iranians? - Afshin Molavi, Washington Post opinion. As Iranians took to the streets to protest a fraudulent election last month, braving tear gas, batons and bullets, pressure mounted on President Obama to take a tougher stand against the Islamic Republic's repression of peaceful dissent. Some said the president's statements were too soft. Others argued that Obama should refrain from picking sides, lest he present a pretext for hard-liners to label the protesters American stooges. People began to argue: What should Obama do? I'd like them to ask another question: What should ordinary Americans do? Today, America's Independence Day, it's important to recognize the Iranian struggle for what it is: a grass-roots, vital movement for greater liberty enriched by more than a century of struggle against foreign powers, autocratic kings and repressive theocrats. Iran's rulers would have the world believe that the protesters are a minority inspired by foreigners, but this denies a fundamental piece of Iranian history.

UNITED STATES

Obama Prepares for Russia Summit, G8, Africa Visit - Paula Wolfson, Voice of America. US President Barack Obama is preparing for another round of international travel. He leaves Washington Sunday evening for a Moscow summit on arms control, followed by the annual Group of Eight Meeting in Italy, and what is sure to be an emotional trip to Ghana. In Moscow, the president will seek to reset the US relationship with Russia. Relations eroded in recent years by disputes over Georgia, NATO enlargement and other issues. He will meet individually with both Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Their primary goal: to jumpstart negotiations on a new agreement to replace the soon-to-expire Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Mr. Obama says it is important to consult with both men, noting Prime Minister Putin - the former president - still has a great deal of power. White House officials say Ghana is the perfect spot for a presidential visit after the G8, saying it is a shining example of good governance on the continent. "Ghana is a truly admirable example of a place where governance is getting stronger, a thriving democracy," said Michelle Gavin, the top White House advisor for Africa. The trip will end in Ghana on a highly emotional note.

A Soldier's Wife - Georgie Hanlin, Washington Post opinion. My childhood friend of 31 years visited my home on base, in Quantico, a few months after I gave birth to my first baby. As we took a leisurely stroll one evening through the lingering humidity of early September, I explained to her how different military life is from the world in which we grew up in San Francisco. We passed rows of colorful houses on the tree-lined, manicured blocks and gazed at the playgrounds around the neighborhood, ready to welcome the children of the officers who live there. American flags hung from virtually every front door. The occasional "My daddy fights for your freedom" bumper sticker adorned some vehicles. As we looped around the bend toward my house, my friend turned to me and asked, "How do you accept what your husband does for a living?" I glanced at her, startled. "What do you mean?" I asked. "I guess I just don't know how to accept it. I don't believe in war," she responded, matter-of-factly. My husband is an infantry captain for the U.S. Army. This week, he left on his sixth combat deployment with the 2nd Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade.

AFRICA

African Nations Sign Deal for Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline - Wall Street Journal. Nigeria's state oil company said Nigeria, Algeria and Niger signed an agreement to create a $10 billion trans-Saharan gas pipeline to ship gas to Europe. Managing director Mohammed Barkindo said Friday the project was approved by energy ministers from the three governments. Nigeria's energy minister, Rilwanu Lukman, said the countries are now looking for partners for the project. Europe currently depends on Russia for much of its gas and is seeking new sources and routes, and the European Union recently lent its support to the project. Total SA and Eni SpA have expressed interest in joining the trans-Saharan pipeline project. Last month, Russia's state natural gas supplier Gazprom and Nigeria's main oil company agreed to create a joint venture to explore and produce oil and gas in Africa's most populous country. Gazprom's chief in Nigeria has said the Russian firm would invest $2.5 billion in the new venture. If Gazprom should gain control over Nigeria's gas resources, that could strip European consumers of a possible alternative to Russian gas supplies.

AMERICAS

Honduras Denies Late Appeal by OAS - William Booth, Washington Post. Honduran officials said Friday that they will not restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power, rebuffing a last-ditch appeal by the top diplomat for the Organization of American States in face-to-face meetings. Members of the OAS, the hemisphere's main diplomatic body, have given the new Honduran government until Saturday morning to permit Zelaya to return to office from exile. But appeals by OAS leader José Miguel Insulza, who flew to the Honduran capital Friday, appear to have failed. Insulza met with Jorge Rivera, the head judge at the Honduran Supreme Court. Rivera told the diplomat the judiciary had already issued a warrant for Zelaya's arrest and promised that the ousted president would be immediately detained if he came back to Honduras.

Envoy Seeks Ousted Honduran President’s Return - Marc Lacey, New York Times. Some of those who played behind-the-scenes roles in the ouster of the Honduran president told a top diplomat trying to resolve the country’s political crisis on Friday that they stood by their actions and would not permit Manuel Zelaya to return to office. The top envoy for the Americas, José Miguel Insulza, got a close-up view of the bitter political divide in Honduras. Amid street protests that drew tens of thousands of people on both sides of the issue, he met with many of the country’s political and judicial leaders, from whom he heard vigorous defenses of the military operation that removed Mr. Zelaya last Sunday. Mr. Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, did not come here to gauge public opinion, however charged. Rather, he shuttled between closed-door meetings with the same stern message from the organization’s 33 other participating countries: if Mr. Zelaya was not returned to office by Saturday, Honduras would be expelled from the group and possibly face sanctions.

Isolated Nicaragua Senses Opportunity in Honduras Crisis - Tim Rogers, Christian Science Monitor. For Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, whose government has been on the defensive since last year's alleged electoral fraud, the military coup in Honduras has presented a golden opportunity to go on the offensive. "We are launching a battle for democracy," announced Mr. Ortega at a June 29 meeting of Latin American leaders, flanked by leftist presidents Raul Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. In the hours following last Sunday's ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Ortega quickly jockeyed himself into a leadership role in the region's condemnation of the coup. Taking advantage of the fact that Nicaragua was already scheduled to host a June 29 summit of Central American presidents, Ortega also invited the leftist members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) and other Latin American leaders to attend. Within less than 24 hours, presidents and representatives from 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries had descended upon Managua, converting the city into what the Sandinista government glowingly called "the capital of democracy." Ortega, seated in the center chair at the banquet table, conducted the meeting as the master of ceremony. The Sandinista administration, which has been accused of trampling on democracy and isolating Nicaragua from the concert of nations, referred to the meeting as "one of the greatest democratic moments" for their government. Ortega's leadership role was hailed as a "cause of pride for Nicaragua."

ASIA-PACIFIC

North Korea Launches 3 Missiles Off Its East Coast - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. Defying the United States on Independence Day, North Korea fired three missiles on Saturday into the sea off its east coast. The test-firings came two days after North Korea, which is being squeezed by the US government and other countries for its recent nuclear test, fired four short-range missiles into the sea. North Korea had warned ships to avoid waters near its east coast through July 10 because of military exercises, and the test-firing were widely predicted. The South Korea military confirmed that three missiles had been fired on Saturday morning, but declined to say what type they were.

North Korean Missile Tests Reported - Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times. North Korea fired three missiles into the sea between the Communist state and Japan on Saturday morning, the South Korean military announced. News reports here called them ballistic Scud or Rodong missiles. The South Korean military declined to clarify what types of missiles the North had fired. But if the reports were correct, the North Korean tests on Saturday were bound to raise tensions between the North and its neighbors. After a nuclear test by North Korea on May 25, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that, among other things, barred it from testing ballistic missiles. A South Korean military official, speaking on condition of anonymity citing government policy, said the missiles launched Saturday were believed to have flown no more than 300 miles, indicating that they might be the North’s Scud-type missiles. The South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted military sources as saying the missiles were either Scud or Rodong missiles.

North Korea Defies US with New Missile Launches - Jon Herskovitz, Reuters. North Korea test-fired four missiles on Saturday, South Korea's defense ministry said, in an act of defiance toward the United States that further stoked regional tensions already high due to its nuclear test in May. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the missile were Scuds, which would mark an escalation by the reclusive North, which has fired several non-ballistic, short-range missile since the May 25 nuclear test. North Korea is barred by United Nations resolutions from firing ballistic missiles such as the Scud. "North Korea fired two missiles, which appeared to be a Scud type," Yonhap quoted an anonymous South Korean official as saying early on Saturday. "The missiles are estimated to have the range of about 500 km (310 miles)."

Myanmar Denies UN Chief's Request to See Opposition Leader - Associated Press. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could leave Myanmar empty-handed after failing to win any concessions Friday during a rare meeting with the country's top military ruler or to gain permission to visit opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in jail. Mr. Ban talked for two hours with reclusive Senior Gen. Than Shwe in an ornate reception hall - complete with an indoor waterfall - in Naypyitaw, the junta's remote, newly built capital. It was a rocky start to what the UN chief predicted would be "a very tough mission" to win freedom for Ms. Suu Kyi, the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been detained by the junta for nearly 14 of the past 20 years and is now on trial charged with violating her house arrest. Mr. Ban emerged from Friday's meeting saying he still hoped to meet Ms. Suu Kyi before he leaves the country on Saturday night. "I told him that I wanted to meet her, but he told me that she is [on] trial," Mr. Ban told reporters after meeting with Gen. Than Shwe. "But I told him that this is my proposal, and this is important, and I'm waiting for their reply."

EUROPE

Putin: US-Russia Ties Will Improve if US Halts Missile Defense Plans - Voice of America. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says US-Russian relations will move forward if the United States gives up its plans for deploying a missile defense system in Central Europe. Mr. Putin stressed his country's readiness for effective cooperation. But he said relations will improve if the United States would give up what he termed "its bloc mentality" and halt its approach to expanding military alliances, a clear reference to NATO. His comments in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, came just days before US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart are to open a summit in Moscow. Thursday, in an interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Obama said Mr. Putin still has a lot of influence in Russia. The US president and said he will tell Mr. Putin that old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations are outdated. Mr. Putin rejected Mr. Obama's comments saying he always looks to the future.

Anti-Americanism Plays in Russia - Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times. When President Obama visits the Kremlin next week, he will face the task of trying to reset relations with a government that has built its power base and defined itself by its anti-American, neo-Cold War stance. It's an opportune moment for the United States to warm up a frosty relationship. Moscow could help on some of Washington's most intransigent foreign policy troubles, including Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea. But in Russia, there is scant evidence of a desire for a fresh start. Despite a reshuffle of power that installed Russian leader Vladimir Putin as prime minister and his career underling, Dmitry Medvedev, in the presidency, the Kremlin's policies remain unchanged, including its habit of drumming up anti-American sentiment to bolster political power at home.

Neighbor’s Shadow Still Large in Slovakia - Dan Bilefsky, New York Times. When the Czech Republic unveiled an avowedly satirical artwork to mark the beginning of its European Union presidency last January, neighboring Slovakia was depicted as a giant Hungarian sausage. It was a stinging humiliation for many Slovaks, who have spent centuries struggling to assert their own sense of nationhood, first as serfs under the Hungarian Kingdom in the 19th century and then as the poorer segment of the former Czechoslovakia. Slovakia complained until the Czech government apologized. The Slovak artist Martin Sutovec drew a caricature showing the Czechs as beetles wearing socks and sandals. Other critics said it was an insult that Slovakia - the first former Warsaw Pact country to join the euro, in January - was being compared with Hungary, the economic sick man of the region. The fierce reaction underlined both the insecurities that continue to dog the European project, and the ambivalence of relations between Slovakia and its richer, larger neighbor 16 years after their “velvet divorce” in 1993.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev - New York Times editorial. By the time President George W. Bush left office, Russian-American relations had deteriorated alarmingly. Russia bore a good part of the blame, harassing opponents, stifling a free press and bullying its neighbors. But Mr. Bush both enabled former President Vladimir Putin’s worst impulses and ignored his occasionally legitimate complaints. With President Obama scheduled to meet President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia in Moscow on Monday, both sides say they are eager to “reset” the relationship. One welcome sign: Officials said on Friday that Russia had agreed to let American planes fly over Russian territory to re-supply forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. There are certainly a lot of other difficult issues that need their joint attention.

MIDDLE EAST

Israel and US to Hold Second Meeting - Ethan Bronner, New York Times. The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, and George J. Mitchell, the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy, will confer Monday for the second time in a week to pursue regional peace efforts, a senior Israeli official said Friday. The two met for four hours in New York on Tuesday. The meeting on Monday is to take place in London. There has been tension for several months because the United States has been asking for a total freeze in building Israeli West Bank settlements, partly as a means of confidence-building with the Arab world. Israel rejected the request, saying it was inhumane to the settlers and insufficiently important to the conflict. But Mr. Barak, who is the leader of Israel’s Labor Party and to the left of most of the rest of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been trying to bridge the gap. He told Mr. Mitchell on Tuesday that Israel could accept a freeze of three to six months on new building in all settlements outside Jerusalem if it were part of a broader endeavor that included a Palestinian promise to seek an end to the conflict as well as reciprocal steps from the Arab world.

Syrian Leader Invites Obama to Visit, Raising Hope of Policy Shift - Associated Press. Syria’s president sent a Fourth of July message full of praise to President Obama on Friday and invited him to visit Syria. These were the latest signs that Syria is hedging its bets in the politics of the Middle East, warming up to the United States at a time when Syria’s longtime ally Iran is in turmoil. The United States and its Arab allies have been hoping to pull Syria away from its alliances with Iran and Islamic militant groups in the region. Syria seems unlikely to take such a dramatic step, but it does appear worried about Iran’s reliability and the long-term impact of postelection unrest in the country. Also, Hezbollah, a militant organization supported by Iran, suffered a setback when its coalition failed to win parliamentary elections in Lebanon last month; it was defeated by a pro-Western coalition. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has been expressing hopes for better ties with the United States for months. But the latest developments may make dialogue look more likely.

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.

--The Times

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

In Tactical Shift, Troops Will Stay and Hold Ground in Afghanistan - Thom Shanker and Richard A. Oppel, Jr., New York Times. The first major operation launched with the additional troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Obama is devised to clear Taliban havens across a strategic southern province - and then, in a marked departure from past practice, to leave clusters of Marines in small bases close to the villagers they were sent to guard and aid, according to senior military officers. Despite the troops’ substantial numbers and firepower, the strategy is not without risks. Indeed, on Thursday, the first Marine was killed in the operation. Although American and allied forces have previously swept through the province, Helmand, killing or capturing as many guerrillas as they could, often with airstrikes, the military has never before had enough ground troops to hold onto large areas that were cleared of insurgent fighters in combat operations.

Marines Meet Little Resistance in Afghan Push - Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post. Columns of US Marines in eight-wheeled armored vehicles pushed deep into southern Afghanistan on Thursday in an attempt to cut off Taliban supply lines from Pakistan and restore order in areas long neglected by short-handed NATO forces. The movement of the Marines to the town of Khan Neshin in the lower Helmand River valley is the most significant deployment of US forces in areas near the Pakistani border with southern Afghanistan, and it reflects a growing concern among US military and intelligence officials that much of the violence that has plagued the south is linked to a flow of fighters and munitions from Pakistan's Baluchistan region. The troops encountered roadside bombs and small-arms attacks, which resulted in the death of one Marine, but commanders opted to mute their return fire. In the first 24 hours of the operation, the Marines did not lob artillery or call for fighter planes to drop bombs. The drive to Khan Neshin is part of a Marine campaign to root out Taliban insurgents by restoring the authority of local officials and police departments in the Helmand River valley.

Taliban Slip Away From Afghanistan Surge Battle - Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. The US embarked on a large offensive in southern Afghanistan Thursday in which one Marine was killed, while in the east the military mobilized to recover a soldier apparently captured by the Taliban. The offensive was led by 4,000 Marines who were sent to Afghanistan as part of the new US troop surge. The move is seen as an early test of the Obama administration's efforts to restructure the foundering US-led war effort. The Marines faced little Taliban resistance as they began moving into villages in the Helmand River valley, a Taliban stronghold that is one of the world's largest opium-producing regions. Marine commanders said Taliban fighters seemed to have melted into the surrounding countryside rather than staying to fight the large US force. "There's been sporadic fighting, but it's been light," Capt. Bill Pelletier, a Marine spokesman, said in an interview from southern Afghanistan. "Our focus isn't on going in and killing Taliban; it's on driving those folks out of the area and keeping them from coming back."

Early Success as US Marines Flood into Helmand in Reversal of British Tactics - Catherine Philp, The Times. Thousands of US Marines stormed into the Helmand river valley under cover of night yesterday, the opening phase of Barack Obama’s new high-risk strategy in Afghanistan. In Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, hailed by one commander as a “D-Day moment”, 4,000 Marines entered the lower Helmand river valley, hoping to do in hours what British troops have failed to do in three years. It is part of a massive surge ordered by Mr Obama, doubling the number of American troops and flooding Helmand with 10,000 Marines - far in excess of the 8,000-strong British contingent stationed there since 2006. Operation Khanjar aims to capture and hold a swath of Taleban territory, opening the way for a massive influx of development aid and allowing the Afghan Government to put down roots before its presidential election on August 20. The election is a critical test for the leadership of President Karzai, once a darling of the West, now tainted by accusations of corruption and ineffectuality yet still regarded as Afghanistan’s least bad option.

US Faces Resentment in Afghan Region - Carlotta Gall, New York Times. The mood of the Afghan people has tipped into a popular revolt in some parts of southern Afghanistan, presenting incoming American forces with an even harder job than expected in reversing military losses to the Taliban and winning over the population. Villagers in some districts have taken up arms against foreign troops to protect their homes or in anger after losing relatives in airstrikes, several community representatives interviewed said. Others have been moved to join the insurgents out of poverty or simply because the Taliban’s influence is so pervasive here. On Thursday morning, 4,000 American Marines began a major offensive to try to take back the region from the strongest Taliban insurgency in the country. The Marines are part of a larger deployment of additional troops being ordered by the new American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, to concentrate not just on killing Taliban fighters but on protecting the population. Yet Taliban control of the countryside is so extensive in provinces like Kandahar and Helmand that winning districts back will involve tough fighting and may ignite further tensions, residents and local officials warn. The government has no presence in 5 of Helmand’s 13 districts, and in several others, like Nawa, it holds only the district town, where troops and officials live virtually under siege.

US Operation Aims to Smooth Road for Afghan Elections - Ben Arnoldy, Christian Science Monitor. With national elections less than two months away, the Afghan government is hoping to bring more areas under its control with the help of a new US-led military campaign. The Taliban, who hold sway over large swaths of the country, could disrupt turnout among voters, calling into further question the legitimacy of an election already dogged by registration irregularities and a fractured opposition. "In order to increase the legitimacy of the election it is [crucial] to allow people to open voting booths in every district of Afghanistan, and in Helmand most are under the control of the Taliban," says Kabul-based analyst Haroun Mir. Nearly 4,000 US Marines and 650 Afghan troops poured into Helmand Province Tuesday in an attempt to take back the Taliban stronghold. But simply securing control over every district won't solve all the problems swirling around the August 20 vote for president and provincial councils, analysts caution.

US Seeks to Ensure Afghan Elections - Sara A. Carter, Washington Times. Two months before Afghan civilians head to the polls, US military reinforcements have mounted an offensive against a growing Taliban insurgency that is threatening to destabilize the upcoming presidential elections. Still, clinics, schools and other facilities have refused to let the government set up polling stations out of fear they will be targeted by the Taliban and tribal leaders in the dangerous southern, western and eastern provinces. The US offensive, launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday in the western Helmand province, was the first step in a campaign that aims to strike at the heart of the Afghan Taliban. As 4,000 US Marines debarked from helicopters in the searing hot insurgent-controlled territory, it became apparent that quelling the Taliban's growth would not be easy. The offensive - named Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword - led to the death of one Marine, and several others were injured on the first day of the assault. It was the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

US Troops Push Further into Southern Afghanistan - Voice of America. US Marines pushed further into southern Afghanistan Friday, meeting little resistance as they moved to capture villages and population centers controlled by Taliban militants. The US offensive is being led by 4,000 Marines who poured into southern Helmand province on Thursday. The operation is aimed at driving out militants and securing the area ahead of presidential elections August 20. Marine spokesman Bill Pelletier says US troops have engaged in only sporadic fighting, but he warned that could change. He said the US is focused one keeping the Taliban militants out and winning the people's trust. The US military says one Marine has been killed and several others wounded in the offensive. Hundreds of Afghan soldiers and police are also taking part in the operation. Separately, US officials say the military is using all its resources to find an American soldier believed to have been captured by militants in eastern Paktika province on Tuesday.

US Soldier May Be a Captive of Taliban Forces - Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post. A US soldier discovered missing yesterday from a small outpost in eastern Afghanistan is believed to have been captured by Taliban militants when he walked away from his base, military officials said. A US official in Afghanistan said the soldier's absence was discovered when he did not show up for morning formation. It is highly unusual for a US soldier to leave a military base unaccompanied by other American troops, and the military is investigating. "We are exhausting all available resources to ascertain his whereabouts and provide for his safe return," said a statement issued by the US military headquarters in Kabul. The US military, citing safety concerns, declined to identify the soldier by name or the group holding him, and said that the militants had not made any direct contact with military officials.

US Soldier May Be Held by Taliban, Military Fears - Richard A. Oppel, Jr., New York Times. A young American soldier who walked off his remote combat outpost in a volatile region of eastern Afghanistan has been captured and is believed to be in the hands of the Taliban network led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, American military officials said Thursday. American and Afghan forces fanned out in eastern Afghanistan to shut down routes the kidnappers could use to transport the soldier, officials said. A senior American defense official said that there had been no direct negotiations with the kidnappers but that American forces were reaching out to tribal leaders and local government officials for help. It was not clear when the soldier left the base. One official said other soldiers reported that he was missing at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, while another said that his absence was discovered during a morning formation on that day.

GI Apparently Seized in Afghanistan - M. Karim Faiez and Laura King, Los Angeles Times. The apparent capture of an American soldier by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, believed to be the first such case in nearly eight years of warfare, presents US military officials with potentially agonizing choices just as a major military offensive is underway in one of the most guerrilla-filled areas of the south. The soldier could provide insurgents with both a propaganda bonanza and a bargaining chip. There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any group, but a number of militant commanders, not all of them affiliated with the Taliban, operate in eastern Afghanistan. The US military said in a terse statement that the soldier had disappeared Tuesday, but it disclosed virtually nothing of the circumstances other than to say he was believed to have been captured. However, an American military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident, said that for unknown reasons, the soldier apparently left his base near the Pakistani border. Like most US installations in the country's rugged eastern sector, the base is surrounded by hostile territory where a number of insurgent groups operate. The soldier was reported to have been in the company of several Afghans.

Highest British Ranked Officer in Three Decades Killed in Afghanistan - Thomas Harding, Daily Telegraph. Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, 40, the commanding officer of the Welsh Guards, died after his Viking armoured vehicle was blown up by a substantial roadside bomb that killed another British soldier and wounded six others. A high-level inquiry is now underway as to why the officer was travelling in a Viking, which were supposed to be restricted to low risk areas pending its replacement by the more heavily armoured Warthog vehicle next year. Lt Col Thorneloe is the first commanding officer to be killed during a military operation since Col "H" Jones, VC, died leading 2nd Bn The Parachute Regiment in its attack on Goose Green during the Falklands War in 1982. The legendary paratrooper was awarded the Victoria Cross for the "utmost gallantry" he showed in leading the assault. Lt Col Thorneloe was also a highly regarded officer and seen as a "high flier" within the Army. His previous job was military assistant to Des Browne, the former defence secretary.

US Missile Strike Kills 15 in Pakistan - Associated Press. US missiles struck a training facility operated by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and a militant hide-out Friday, killing 15 people and wounding 27 others, intelligence officials said. The two attacks by drone aircraft took place in South Waziristan, a Mehsud stronghold close to the Afghan border where Pakistani troops are gearing up for a military offensive, two officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They took place as US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met government officials in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. She discussed topics of "mutual interest" with them, a US Embassy spokesman said. The drone attacks were the latest in more than 40 believed to have been be carried out by the US against militant targets in the border area since last August. Washington does not directly acknowledge being responsible for the attacks, which kill civilians as well as militants.

'Militant Deaths' in US Drone Hit - BBC News. At least 10 militants have died after missiles were fired by a suspected US drone aircraft at a Taliban target in Pakistan, intelligence officials say. Unnamed officials said it was an attack on a militant training facility in the South Waziristan area. It took place in an area on the Afghan border controlled by Pakistan's top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. There have been more than 35 US strikes since last August, killing over 340 people, it is estimated. Most hits have taken place in the North and South Waziristan areas.

Suicide Bomber Attacks Government Bus Near Islamabad - Washington Post. A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew himself up alongside a government bus near Islamabad on Thursday afternoon, the latest in a spate of attacks following the Pakistani army's offensive against the Taliban. The death toll in the blast in the garrison city of Rawalpindi ranged from one to six, with as many as 30 people injured, according to initial reports from police. The senior police official in Rawalpindi, Nasir Durrani, told reporters that the bomber struck along the gas-tank side of a white bus carrying about 25 people. The bus was coming from a government facility that is used for Pakistan's nuclear program, government officials said, and the blast struck within a couple of miles of the Pakistani military headquarters.

On the Offensive - Washington Post editorial. As US Marines launched a major offensive in Afghanistan's Taliban-infested Helmand province yesterday, one problem was already apparent: There are not enough troops to properly carry out the Pentagon's new counterinsurgency strategy. The force is "a little light," Marine Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, its commander, told national security adviser James L. Jones in a meeting reported by The Post's Bob Woodward. "We don't have enough force to go everywhere." Those comments will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the attempts by US commanders to turn around the Afghan war. The idea is to replicate the strategy that finally reversed American fortunes in Iraq: protecting the population rather than seeking out insurgents, while building the economy and political institutions. Though the Bush and Obama administrations approved new troop deployments that will double the US force, the ratio of American and allied Afghan soldiers to the population is still well below that mandated by the Army's new counterinsurgency doctrine.

IRAQ

Biden to Urge Iraqi Leaders to Resolve Disputes - Voice of America. US Vice President Joe Biden is in Baghdad where he is expected to urge Iraqi leaders to resolve disputes over oil revenues and political power-sharing. Biden arrived in Baghdad Thursday and is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani Friday. The US vice president is expected to stress the importance of achieving political stability in Iraq before US troops leave the country by the end of 2011. Earlier this week, the US withdrew combat troops from urban areas in Iraq. About 130,000 US troops remain in Iraq to conduct combat duties outside cities, and to advise Iraqi forces within cities. President Barack Obama has urged Iraqi leaders to do more to resolve internal differences and on Tuesday appointed Biden to oversee Iraq policy.

In Iraq, Biden to Press Officials to Forge Progress - Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and Timothy Williams, New York Times. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. landed in Baghdad on Thursday, beginning a two-day diplomatic mission that he said was intended to “re-establish contact” with Iraqi leaders and prod them toward settling internal disputes over oil revenues and political power-sharing. Mr. Biden’s surprise trip, just days after American combat forces officially withdrew from Iraqi cities, underscores the concern in the White House about the fragility of the security situation. President Obama has asked Mr. Biden to serve as a kind of unofficial envoy to the country, and the vice president said this would be his first in a series of trips to the region. The trip is unusually long for such a high-level official; when Mr. Obama visited Iraq, he spent just a few hours here, and President George W. Bush did not spend more than a day. But Mr. Biden said Iraq was at a pivotal moment, “the moment where a lot of Iraqis cynically believed we’d never keep the agreement.” He said the White House wanted to send a message to Iraqi leaders that it was engaged at the highest levels.

Biden Takes Surprise Trip to War Zone - Christina Bellantoni, Washington Times. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., on a surprise trip to Iraq as US troops have pulled out of the country's cities, said he is optimistic about the situation in the region. Mr. Biden, who has been tasked with handling Iraq issues for the administration, was there to reiterate the US commitment to implementing President Obama's draw-down plan to have all combat troops out by the end of 2011. "This is a moment when we have to make sure that the Iraqis don't take their eye off the ultimate prize," Mr. Biden told reporters after arriving. The White House tasked Mr. Biden with overseeing the policy and will work with Iraqis "toward overcoming their political differences and achieving the type of reconciliation that we all understand has yet to fully take place but needs to take place," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said this week.

‘So Far, So Good’ in Iraq, Odierno Says - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. It’s “so far, so good” in Iraq since US combat forces withdrew from the country’s cities and towns, the commander of Multinational Force Iraq said yesterday. “It’s going fine - no problem at all,” Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said on the PBS program “Newshour With Jim Lehrer.” Iraqi troops and police are manning checkpoints and stations by themselves, the general added. Baghdad and Kirkuk have seen bomb attacks, but Iraqi forces have been able to handle the situations, Odierno told news anchor Judy Woodruff. US forces have been moving out of the cities and towns for months. June 30 was the deadline under the US-Iraq status of forces agreement for all coalition forces to leave the cities. American forces continue to work with Iraqi security forces, the general said, and 131,000 US servicemembers are in Iraq. “We have US forces in joint coordination centers all over Iraq, inside of the cities, and they are there doing training, advising, assisting, and they also are coordinating with the Iraqis,” Odierno said. The relationships between Iraqi and American forces at all levels are key to good communications, Odierno said, and if the Iraqis need help, a process is in place for US forces to provide it. American advisory and coordination cells are still in the cities, the general said, but in small numbers “and they’re not related to combat formations, such as brigades and battalions.” American combat forces now are in the belts surrounding the cities. These belts often are the area where terrorists set up support bases for operations inside the cities. “We occupy those key areas to provide security and stability, which will make it more difficult for freedom of movement of the insurgent and extremist organizations,” Odierno explained.

Saab al Bor’s Experience Shows Turnaround, but Iraq Now Has to Take Economic Initiative - Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes. Last week, a woman was putting out bunches of greens at the produce and meat market in this small town near Baghdad. They cost her customers about 25 cents a bunch. Two years ago, her livelihood cost her shrapnel wounds that left scars on her leg, arms and neck. Violence between Sunnis and Shiites once overwhelmed residents in Saab al Bor, which lies along the country’s major highway that runs west to Syria. By the spring of 2007, most of the town’s 40,000 residents had fled. Three things happened to lure people back home last year: The US military hired many of those causing the violence and made them members of the "Sons of Iraq." Those members in turn helped the military find some of the insurgents behind the continuing violence. And the US dumped a load of money into the town. The cash came from the Commanders Emergency Response Program, which began shortly after the March 2003 invasion as a way to help Iraqis clean and secure their neighborhoods - and buy some goodwill. US commanders began referring to CERP as their "walking-around money" - an officer could walk through a town, see a problem, and within a few weeks put money toward fixing it. In Saab al Bor, the cash was used to create jobs, clean up rubble and make the local water drinkable. Now, as the US military presence in Iraq begins to steadily diminish, the CERP money will begin to recede as well. "As troop numbers go down, the CERP money will go down. CERP is a commander’s program," said Lt. Col. Simon Gardner, whose office oversees CERP spending for Multi-National Division-Baghdad. To spend the funds, he said, "you have to have commanders." The turnaround in Saab al Bor has become a case study of the effectiveness of the CERP program; it’s part of the curriculum at the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., officials say.

Bombings Kill at Least 3 in Baghdad - Voice of America. Bombings have killed at least three people in the Baghdad area, the first such violence since US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities. Authorities say a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol in the capital Thursday, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding at least eight others. Officials say at least two people were killed and 15 others wounded in a car bombing south of Baghdad. Meanwhile, police in the northern city of Kirkuk said gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi army officer near his home. Violence in the northern city has surged in recent weeks. On Tuesday, a bombing at a Kirkuk market killed 33 people. US troops pulled out of Iraqi urban areas on Tuesday. A spokesman for Iraq's Defense Ministry, Mohammed al-Askari, told reporters Thursday the first phase of implementing the US withdrawal timetable concluded peacefully without any problems. The Defense Ministry spokesman said the next step is to reduce the number of US troops in Iraq.

Documents Show Iraqi Dictator’s Fears - Scott Shane, New York Times. In a series of interrogations before his execution, Saddam Hussein told an FBI agent that on the eve of the 2003 American invasion, Iraq was trapped between United Nations orders to demonstrate that it had disarmed and a fear that appearing too weak would invite attack from its powerful neighbor and foe, Iran. The ousted Iraqi dictator “was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for his refusal to allow UN inspectors back into Iraq,” according to a summary of questioning by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The inspectors, he feared, “would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq,” he told the FBI. Mr. Hussein told the FBI that if United Nations sanctions against his country had been lifted, Iraq would have sought a security agreement with the United States to protect it from Iran.

Stepping Down to Success - Michael Gerson, Washington Post opinion. It may seem strange to Americans, so close to our independence celebration, that Iraqis should break out the fireworks when our troops withdraw. We are not accustomed to being cast in the British role. In Iraq, nearly every achievement seems colored by ambiguity. But we are seeing achievement nonetheless. The recent American withdrawal was not a decisive military shift. Our units will no longer conduct unilateral military operations. Except in Baghdad and Mosul, however, this has been the situation in Iraq for months. American troops will still be visible on the streets in a supporting role alongside Iraqis. And American quick-reaction forces can provide assistance in a pinch. High-profile attacks, mostly by al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), have increased during the past 30 days, compared to previous months - perhaps intended to create the impression that American troops were being forced to leave. But "AQI has not been able to mount a sustained campaign," says an administration official. "The attacks are terrible, but AQI is still on the ropes." Though not militarily decisive, the American handover is a milestone of a different kind. It represents the success of an approach that once seemed doomed - the strategy of "as they step up, we step down."

IRAN

Iran's Ahmadinejad Faces Diplomatic Isolation - Jeffrey Fleishman and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can in one instant appear the diplomatic equivalent of damaged goods and in the next a confident leader whose bellicose speeches leave the West wondering how to deal with him and his perplexing nation now that he's won a much-disputed reelection. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko, but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament. A similar pattern has emerged in the Middle East, where Arab regimes have long been wary of Iran's ambitions. Authorities in Jordan withdrew licenses for two Iranian news organizations this week and the sultan of Oman reportedly canceled a trip to Tehran following the unrest after Iran's June 12 election. Snubs and slights in the diplomatic world are common, sometimes almost imperceptible. But as long as Ahmadinejad remains in power, with the support of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there are concerns about how the messy fallout over his reelection will influence diplomacy regarding Iran's nuclear program, regional stature and relations with the US and Europe.

Europe Talking Tougher on Iran than US - Shelley Emling, Washington Times. Before Iran's recent election and subsequent crackdown on protesters, European leaders often displayed a kind, gentle attitude toward the country - especially when compared to the more bellicose United States. But after suspicions of electoral fraud, repression of postelection protests and accusations thrown at the British Embassy, it's Europe that's spitting out the toughest talk. Now many are wondering whether the Europeans will follow their words with concrete actions to distance themselves from Iran. "All the major European powers have taken a much firmer stand than the United States," said Patrick Keller, coordinator of foreign and security policy at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin.

British Calls for Diplomatic Walkout From Iran are Rejected by EU Partners - David Charter, The Times. British calls for a mass walkout of European Union ambassadors from Tehran were shot down by more cautious nations led by Germany and Italy yesterday as the carefully constructed European consensus on responding to Iran came under intense strain. Britain, backed by the outgoing Czech presidency of the EU, had pushed for the dramatic step of a temporary withdrawal of ambassadors to pile pressure on Tehran to free local British Embassy staff from custody. With the release of all but two of the nine staff by yesterday afternoon, the incoming Swedish presidency of the EU, which took the reins on Wednesday, struck a less aggressive diplomatic note, more in tune with Berlin and a number of other EU capitals. Carl Bildt, Sweden’s Foreign Minister, said last night that the EU had called on Iran to release all the British Embassy employees, but added that the EU was still awaiting a response from Tehran. Suggesting that it was too early to recall the ambassadors, Mr Bildt said: “We are taking this step by step.”

Britain Asks Allies for Help on Employees Held in Iran - Stephen Castle and Nazila Fathi, New York Times. Britain continued to push other European countries on Thursday to take a tough stance against Iran for detaining at least one employee of the British Embassy in Tehran, but European Union diplomats meeting here were searching for other ways to resolve the standoff. The Iranian authorities, who have taken to blaming foreigners for the recent unrest that followed the disputed presidential election, have directed much of their ire at Britain and arrested nine Iranian staff members of the British Embassy over the weekend. Several have since been released. Iran’s leaders are struggling to put the election, and the passionate dissatisfaction the results unleashed, behind them. Although the government managed to halt the huge protests days ago using tactics that included mass arrests, it has been unable, or unwilling, to silence Mir Hussein Moussavi, the moderate who says the election was stolen from him, and some of his influential supporters.

'Iran Trial' for UK Embassy Staff - BBC News. Some UK embassy staff detained in Tehran and accused of inciting protests over disputed elections will face trial, a top Iranian cleric says. Guardians Council chief Ahmad Jannati said: "Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions." Nine embassy staff were held in Tehran last weekend. The UK government says all except two have now been released. EU governments are considering temporarily withdrawing ambassadors to Iran in protest at the detentions. "In these incidents, their embassy had a presence, some people were arrested," said Ayatollah Jannati, according to news agencies.

Iran Pro-Regime Voices Multiply Online - Christopher Rhoads and Geoffrey A. Fowler, Wall Street Journal. Supporters of Iran's regime are taking a cue from the opposition's strategy: They're mounting an online offensive. Thousands of Iranians used social-networking sites and blogs after Iran's election last month to criticize the government and spread news of its violent clashes with protesters. But over the past week, a growing number of Iranian users of Twitter - the online service that allows users to send short messages - have been "tweeting" in favor of the regime, according to Internet security experts and others studying the development. Some messages throw cold water on planned protests. "Staying at home tomorrow to avoid angering my elected govt," one user with the name Eyeran wrote. Others make threats. A user with the name Vagheeiat (Persian for "realities") said in an online message to an apparent opposition supporter: "The Basij [volunteer militia] protects the honor of the people and is the killer of you, liars and puppets of the US" Ariel Silverstone, an Internet security expert in Atlanta, says the number of pro-government messages on Twitter in the past few days has increased to about 100 every six hours from just one every 12 hours or so earlier in the post-election period. It is impossible to determine whether the comments come from members of Iran's government or simply supporters. Attempts to reach such users of Twitter weren't successful.

After the Crackdown - New York Times editorial. Tragically, Iran’s government appears to have driven back the most significant challenge to its repressive rule since the 1979 revolution. First, the hard-line mullahs brazenly stole the election for the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When hundreds of thousands of Iranians protested, they sent their thugs to beat and shoot them. At least 20 people are dead, and hundreds of journalists, political activists and former government officials have been detained. Even before the elections, Iranians - likely the majority - were fed up with Mr. Ahmadinejad. They were sick of the corruption and incompetence. They wanted more say in how they are governed and more engagement with the world, including the United States. The regime’s refusal to listen has now exposed deep fault lines in Iranian society. Even some members of the clerical elite seemed to question the thuggery.

Tehran Needs to Stop Meddling - Jonathan Schanzer and Howard Gumnitzky, Weekly Standard opinion. While Iranian citizens demonstrate against the dubious results of their presidential election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims that America is interfering in Tehran's affairs. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accuses outside forces of fomenting riots, declaring "the enemies of the Iranian nation" are at work. Ahmadinejad warned President Obama: "If you continue your meddlesome stance, the Iranian nation's response will be crushing and regret-inducing." The irony is palpable. For a generation, Iran has spread unrest around the world both directly and through proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas. Tehran's leaders have held conferences, issued edicts, and provided arms to strategically undermine its political foes. Iran has sponsored attacks on US soldiers and citizens. In 1983, Hezbollah operatives, trained by Iran, attacked the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing hundreds of American soldiers who were part of an international peacekeeping force. A simultaneous attack killed 58 French soldiers in their barracks in Beirut. Later that year, Iranian-backed militants bombed the American and French embassies in Kuwait, along with the country's airport and main oil refinery. In 1996, Khamenei authorized the bombing of an apartment tower in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, housing US Air Force personnel. Nineteen American servicemen died in the attack. US officials believe Hezbollah was involved in abducting 30 Westerners between 1982 and 1992. In addition, Hezbollah's Imad Mugniyah was connected to the 1984 hijacking of a Kuwaiti airplane that was diverted to Tehran, where hijackers killed two Americans.

THE LONG WAR

Grand Jury Inquiry on Destruction of CIA Tapes - Mark Mazzetti, New York Times. Current and former top Central Intelligence Agency officers have appeared before a federal grand jury in Virginia as part of an 18-month investigation into the agency’s destruction of 92 videotapes depicting the brutal interrogations of two Qaeda detainees. The witnesses recently called by the special prosecutor, former government officials said, include the agency’s top officer in London and Porter J. Goss, who was CIA director when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005. The grand jury testimony of CIA officers is further evidence that, despite President Obama’s pledge not to punish agency operatives for their role in the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, the shadow of the controversial program still looms over the agency’s daily operations. The court appearances are tied to a criminal investigation led by John L. Durham, whom the Justice Department appointed in January 2008 to investigate the destruction of the tapes. The tapes had shown CIA officers using harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, on two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

US Says It Will Preserve Secret Jails for Terror Case - Benjamin Weiser and Scott Shane, New York Times. The government will agree to preserve the secret overseas sites where a defendant in a terror case was once held and, his lawyers say, subjected to harsh interrogation techniques after his capture in 2004, a prosecutor indicated in court in New York on Thursday. Lawyers for the defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, told a judge this week that they were afraid that the so-called black sites, which were run by the Central Intelligence Agency, would be demolished as the agency has said it will discontinue their use. Mr. Ghailani, who was ordered by President Obama to be tried in civilian court, spent up to two years in the black sites before he was moved to the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He has been charged with participating in a conspiracy that included the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks organized by Al Qaeda which killed 224 people and wounded thousands.

Waiting for al Qaeda's Godot - Arnaud de Borchgrave, Washington Times opinion. It's no longer a war on transnational terrorism? Before Emile Coue's method of psychotherapy, self-improvement based on the healing power of optimistic autosuggestion, becomes our national security comfort blanket, it would behoove us all to take a deep breath and snap out of creeping amnesia. By simply changing mental pictures, Coue figured the subconscious also changes - as well as the body that houses it. By shifting its tone on terrorism and discarding the language of war, the administration junks the global war on terror because it's no longer an accurate description of the terrorist threat. No less an authority than Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona who now runs 22 former government agencies, believes we have been neglecting domestic threats from the far right, neo-Nazis presumably plotting Adolf Hitler's revenge against the Jews.

CYBER WARFARE / SECURITY

Cybersecurity Plan to Involve NSA, Telecoms - Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post. The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials. President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve "monitoring private-sector networks or Internet traffic," and Department of Homeland Security officials say the new program will scrutinize only data going to or from government systems. But the program has provoked debate within DHS, the officials said, because of uncertainty about whether private data can be shielded from unauthorized scrutiny, how much of a role NSA should play and whether the agency's involvement in warrantless wiretapping during George W. Bush's presidency would draw controversy. Each time a private citizen visited a "dot-gov" Web site or sent an e-mail to a civilian government employee, that action would be screened for potential harm to the network.

US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Naval Academy Professor Challenges Rising Diversity - Daniel de Vise, Washington Post. Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the academy's 164-year history. Academy leaders say it is a top priority to build a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the nation. The service academy has almost twice as many black, Hispanic and Asian midshipmen as it did a decade ago. Much of the increase has occurred in the past two years, with a blitz of 1,000 outreach and recruitment events across the country. But during the past two weeks, a faculty member has stirred debate by suggesting that the school's quest for diversity comes at a price. Bruce Fleming, a tenured English professor, said in a June 14 opinion piece in the Capital newspaper of Annapolis that the academy operates a two-tiered admission system that makes it substantially easier for minority applicants to get in. Academy leaders strenuously deny Fleming's assertion. Fleming served on the academy's admissions board several years ago.

UNITED NATIONS

IAEA Chooses New Chief - David Crawford, Wall Street Journal. The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to choose Japan's Yukiya Amano to head the sensitive United Nations watchdog, in another step toward the end of a months-long selection process. Mr. Amano's selection by a one-vote margin in a secret ballot is a significant success for the group of US-led Western governments that back his candidacy for director general. The IAEA is pivotal to their efforts to counter nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. The process isn't over yet. On Friday, the IAEA's 35-member board is expected to confirm the nomination. Then, in September, the Vienna-based IAEA's most important governing body, the 146-nation IAEA General Conference, must give its final approval. That is usually a rubber-stamp process, but this time, the selection has been particularly contentious.

Nuclear Watchdog IAEA Elects Japanese Diplomat as its Leader - Julia Damianova and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. After a months-long deadlock and half a dozen inconclusive votes, the world's atomic energy watchdog on Thursday elected as its leader a Japanese diplomat described as colorless by foes and competent by allies. Yukiya Amano, formerly Japan's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, will serve as director-general of the United Nations agency when Mohamed ElBaradei, an outspoken Egyptian diplomat, retires this year. Amano's rivalry with South African candidate Abdul Samad Minty emerged as a competition between the West, which wants the agency to focus on preventing countries such as Iran and Syria from obtaining nuclear weapons, and developing nations more concerned with disarming nuclear powers and spreading atomic energy technology to poorer nations. Amano barely secured the necessary two-thirds vote of the agency's board of governors and must now be approved today in an open session with the governors and the general conference, where the board is expected to confirm him by acclamation, said Taous Feroukhi, the board's chairwoman.

AFRICA

Africa Leaders Edge Towards Unity - BBC News. African Union (AU) members have agreed a plan to give its executive arm enhanced powers to co-ordinate common-interest policies, officials say. But the African Authority will not be able to act internationally unless it has a mandate from heads of state. The compromise on the draft came after hours of heated debate in a closed session in the Libyan town of Sirte. Correspondents say its creation is regarded as a stepping stone towards a federal government for the continent. This is of the ambition of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who wants a United States of Africa. The African Authority proposal had been resisted by South Africa and Nigeria, among others, who objected to giving the body too much power.

'Fighter Influx' for Somali Group - BBC News. An Islamist commander in Somalia has told the BBC there has been an influx of fighters from overseas joining their battle against the interim government. The al-Shabab militant leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several hundred foreigners had joined their militia, many from Pakistan. Meanwhile, at least 25 people have been killed in fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, over the past two days. Africa Union leaders meeting in Libya are due to discuss Somalia later. There have been calls for the AU to boost its force of some 4,000 peacekeepers based in Mogadishu.

IMF Refuses New Aid for Zimbabwe - BBC News. The International Monetary Fund has told Zimbabwe that it will not provide the country with more funds until its existing $1bn debts are settled. Zimbabwe's government estimates it will need $10bn (£6bn) of foreign aid to help rebuild its battered economy. But the IMF said that Zimbabwe would need to clear its debts and show a sustained record of sound policies before it could give financing. China recently agreed to give Zimbabwe a loan of $950m. China was one of the few countries to retain economic support for Zimbabwe in recent years.

AMERICAS

Honduras Coup Spotlights Latin America's Growing Instability - Sara Miller Llana, Christian Science Monitor. The military ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday, for many, harks back to dark days of military coups in Latin America. Yet even as it stands as the region's most tense crisis at the moment, it does not stand alone. Protests have erupted across the region in the past year. Citizens took to streets in Nicaragua demanding a recount after municipal elections they say were rigged. In Guatemala, protesters called for their president to step down after he was accused of orchestrating a murder. There, as in other countries in the region, organized crime is taking over wide swaths of territory and corrupting institutions. "Somewhat to my surprise, Central America seems to be unraveling politically," says Kevin Casas-Zamora, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution's Latin America Initiative. "In different ways, it is showing the vulnerabilities of democracy in the region."

Envoy Prepares to Visit Honduras, Warning of Obstacles - Marc Lacey and Ginger Thompson, New York Times. The hemisphere’s chief envoy for the crisis in Honduras offered a bleak assessment on Thursday of the diplomatic efforts to restore its ousted president, warning that it would be “very hard” to head off a more severe break with the nation and that he was prepared to call for sanctions if he failed. The comments by the envoy, José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, were the clearest signal yet of the overwhelming odds against a swift resolution to the standoff. Beyond facing stiff resistance from the Honduran government, Mr. Insulza has also had a hard time keeping his coalition of 33 other countries united over how to bring an end to the crisis. American, Canadian and OAS officials said Thursday that while they all stood behind the reinstatement of the Honduran president, a wide range of disagreements had jolted the coalition - over how much Mr. Insulza should negotiate when he arrives in Honduras this week, whom he should meet with and even who should accompany him on the trip. By the end of Thursday, it was simply agreed that Mr. Insulza would travel alone.

Honduras' de facto Leader Open to Early Elections - Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. The man who replaced President Manuel Zelaya in a coup said Thursday that he would be willing to hold elections ahead of schedule if that would ease the standoff, which has left Honduras badly isolated. The offer from Roberto Micheletti came on the eve of a high-level visit by a delegation of the Organization of American States aimed at sealing Zelaya's return to office -- or deciding on sanctions to punish the impoverished nation. Micheletti has repeatedly said that Zelaya, who was dragged from his residence by the army before dawn Sunday and sent to Costa Rica, will not be reinstated. The suggestion to move up elections scheduled for November was a rare hint of concession. "I would totally agree to early elections as part of a political solution," Micheletti said in one of his daily chats with journalists.

Honduran Leadership Stands Defiant - William Booth, Washington Post. Honduran leaders who supported the coup against President Manuel Zelaya maintained a defiant stance Thursday in the face of international pressure, as diplomats conceded that a quick, painless resolution to the regional crisis might not be possible. Officials in the new Honduran government led by interim President Roberto Micheletti said that they were prepared to hunker down for weeks or months and that they could survive economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and even the condemnation of their closest ally, the United States, which has played an outsize role in the history of Honduras for a century. Micheletti, however, said he was open to one compromise: moving presidential elections up from November to an earlier date in a bid to soften outside condemnation of the coup and keep Hondurans from turning toward violence.

US Limits Contact with Honduran Military - John J. Kruzel, American Forces Press Service. The American military contingent in Honduras has limited its contact with Honduran forces as the US government evaluates the situation in the Central American country, a Pentagon spokesman said. Roughly 600 US forces are stationed at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, 50 miles northwest of the capital city of Tegucigalpa, where President Manuel Zelaya was removed from office earlier this week. “Our activities have largely been postponed with the Honduran military forces while our government has a chance to evaluate the situation and determine the way ahead,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today. But the US forces that make up Joint Task Force Bravo, meanwhile, will continue “sustainment activities” such as flight operations from Soto Cano in support of the hospital ship USNS Comfort operating in Nicaragua. “We have a lifesaving rescue capability there that we continue to sustain,” Whitman said. “But we have limited our contact dramatically, to what I would call minimal contact, with the Honduran military as the United States continues to evaluate and make judgments about the way forward.” Whitman added that Joint Task Force Bravo continues to provide regional and interagency support in various capacities, and participates in counter-narcotic efforts.

Not So Fast, Amigas y Amigos - Robert Killebrew, Small Wars Journal opinion. The United States has always had mixed feelings about our relationship with Central America, so when the Honduran Army sent President Manuel Zelaya packing last week, we joined with a chorus of regional leaders, including Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, in condemning the soldier’s putsch. But now that we’ve exercised our moral indignation, we ought to step back and take a deep breath. As reports continue to come in, it appears that it was Zelaya, not the army, that was most egregiously breaking the law. The president was apparently involved in his own takeover, against the courts and Honduran Congress, and was about to stage a Chavez-style “referendum” on ballots printed in Venezuela and looted from an army warehouse where they were being safeguarded. The army’s move was legitimized by the Honduran Supreme Court and applauded by the Congress, which has appointed a stand-in president until regular elections this November. Certainly we deplore military coups, just as we deplore sin. But in the tangled web of Central American politics, Honduras has long been the US’ most staunch ally. Among the four states from Nicaragua north, it has tried hardest to convert from a military-run banana republic to a constitutional democracy and, until just the other day, with some success.

A Coup for Democracy? - Edward Schumacher-Matos, Washington Post opinion. Honduras is guilty of two sins: impatience and size. The rest of the world is committing two more: hubris and hypocrisy. It is now clear that if the Honduran Supreme Court or Congress had used legal means such as impeachment before asking the army to remove President Manuel Zelaya, we would be calling events there a constitutional crisis rather than a coup d'etat. This would be especially true if Honduras were a larger country such as Brazil or Pakistan and its court, Congress, attorney general, human rights ombudsman and electoral commission were all saying afterward, as they do in Tegucigalpa, that the army moved legally in alliance with them. The Honduran army never took political control.

A Coup for Democracy - Jaime Daremblum, Weekly Standard opinion. To say that people in Latin America are sensitive about military coups would be an understatement. Due to the often tumultuous and bloody histories of their respective countries, they have a strong aversion to anything that looks like military interference in civilian politics. Recent events in Honduras have struck many Latin Americans as a return to the bad old days when power-hungry generals routinely dislodged elected officials and stomped on democracy. Yet upon closer examination, the removal of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya bears very little resemblance to traditional Latin American military coups. Indeed, it was not really a "coup." Rather, it was a response to a leader who had trampled the law and attempted to hold an illegal referendum on constitutional reform. Zelaya's ouster was approved by Honduras's Congress, Supreme Court, Electoral Tribunal, attorney general, and national prosecutor. Zelaya started this whole imbroglio when he ignored a Supreme Court ruling and tried to use thuggish mob tactics to impose his will on the Honduran political system.

Mexico: High Stakes and Rampant Voter Apathy in Upcoming Elections - Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times. Mexicans vote Sunday, but the biggest story may be how many don't bother. At stake are all 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, six governorships and scores of local posts. But apathy and disgust with politics are rampant. Many voters plan to deface their ballots in protest. It may seem risky to play up an inconclusive drug war that has claimed about 11,000 lives. But President Felipe Calderon's PAN is doing just that, airing campaign spots that show video of drug traffickers being arrested and piles of marijuana and cocaine seized. Will the ads remind voters of just how violent a place Mexico has become since Calderon declared war on traffickers in late 2006? Or will they convince Mexicans that, as the spots say, the administration is protecting their children from the scourge of drugs and violence as no government before it? Pollsters say the PAN seems to have succeeded in painting the war as a winning - or at least courageous - battle. Public support for the administration's anti-crime crusade is high. But foes say the PAN has politicized the drug war by accusing its main competitor, the PRI, of colluding with traffickers and, on the eve of elections, by rounding up 30 local and state officials on suspicion of having ties to cartels in Michoacan state.

Drug-Cartel Links Haunt an Election South of Border - Joel Millman and Jose de Cordoba, Wall Street Journal. The candidacy of Mario Anguiano, running for governor in a state election here Sunday, says a lot about Mexican politics amid the rise of the drug cartels. A brother of the candidate is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Mexico for peddling methamphetamine. Another Anguiano is serving 27 years in a Texas prison for running a huge meth ring. A few weeks ago, a hand-painted banner hung on a highway overpass cited the Zetas, the bloodthirsty executioners for the Gulf Cartel drug gang, praising the candidate: "The Zetas support you, and we are with you to the death." Mr. Anguiano says his meth-dealing brother was just an addict who sold small amounts to support his habit. He says the man jailed in Texas, reported by local media to be his cousin, may or may not be a relative. "If he is my cousin, I've never met him," he says. Denying any involvement with traffickers, he says the supposed Zetas endorsement was just a dirty trick by his election rivals. If so, it backfired. In the weeks after the banner made local headlines, new polls showed Mr. Anguiano pulling ahead in the race. He is expected to be elected governor on Sunday.

Hail Colombia - Los Angeles Times editorial. President Obama, who withheld his support for a free-trade agreement with Colombia when he was a senator, recently sounded a more positive note on the issue. At a joint news conference this week with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Obama commended him for the progress his country has made in addressing human rights violations. In particular, he remarked on the more hospitable environment in Colombia today for labor organizers - one of the sticking points for Obama and other Democrats in Congress. "We've seen improvements when it comes to prosecution of those carrying out these blatant human rights offenses," Obama said. Furthermore, he added, he has instructed US Trade Representative Ron Kirk to work with his Colombian counterparts to bring the free-trade agreement to fruition. All of which suggested that Colombia has turned a corner since Obama's election, and that the United States may now be more favorably inclined to free trade with this Andean nation.

ASIA-PACIFIC

North Korea Test-Fires 4 Short-Range Missiles - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. North Korea on Thursday continued to rattle its neighbors by firing four short-range missiles into waters off its east coast. The missile tests, monitored by the South Korean government, had been widely expected, as North Korea had warned ships to avoid the east coast through July 10 because of military exercises. The four missiles were fired in the late afternoon and early evening from a base near the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, a South Korean defense spokesman told the South Korean news agency Yonhap. Other South Korean officials said the missiles splashed into the sea about 60 miles from the launch site.

Pyongyang Fires Missiles - Evan Ramstad, Wall Street Journal. North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles from locations on its east coast Thursday evening, South Korean defense officials said, the latest in a series of acts that have stepped up international tension with Pyongyang. Observers in other countries have been expecting such tests since North Korea last month ordered domestic vessels out of several zones in the Sea of Japan where it said it would conduct military drills through July 10. North Korea possesses about 600 short-range missiles and 300 medium-range missiles and tests them several times a year. But such tests gained more attention this year because North Korea in April tested a long-range missile for the third time and in May tested a nuclear explosive device for the second time.

North Korea Fires Four Short-range Missiles - John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times. North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles Thursday, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry. The launches came just weeks after the reclusive state warned vessels to avoid its coastline because of projected military maneuvers. The regime sent up what officials said were two anti-ship missiles that flew 60 miles before splashing down in the sea. Two more short-range missiles were fired a few hours later. The latest launches follow a recent nuclear detonation and a flurry of missile tests by North Korea, apparently in response to proposals for tough new United Nations sanctions -- later imposed. "This afternoon at 5:20 and 6 p.m., two short-range missiles were fired from Sinsang-ri," a South Korean Defense Ministry official told The Times. The third missile was launched at 7:50 p.m. and the fourth at 9:50 p.m., said the official, who said he was not authorized to give his name because of the sensitivity of the information. Tension on the Korean peninsula has increased since spring, when North Korea launched a rocket it said carried a communications satellite. Experts said the exercise was a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile.

Could a North Korean Missile Reach Hawaii? - Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor. Could North Korea hit Hawaii with a missile, if it wanted to? In theory, yes. Pyongyang has ballistic missile technology that technically, if it worked to perfection, could throw a small payload across the 7,100 kilometers or so that separate the Korean peninsula from Honolulu, according to a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. But North Korea has tested its most advanced long-range missiles only a few times, and in each instance, something major has gone wrong. The warhead would be so tiny it would do little damage - if it survived the heat of reentry, which is doubtful. (It wouldn't be nuclear. North Korea remains years from developing that kind of capability.) Accuracy would be problematic. The missile would be as likely to hit ocean as land. Bottom line: For the moment, the chance of North Korea endangering Hawaii, or any other US territory, may be quite small.

S. Korea Mobilizes Maritime Squads - Andrew Salmon, Washington Times. On their island base in a tense Yellow Sea, black-clad commando squads armed with automatic weapons surge up ladders onto the deck of a training ship, fast-rope down building exteriors and detonate explosives. The Special Sea Attack Team (SSAT), an elite South Korean Coast Guard unit tasked with countering maritime terrorism, is preparing to respond with tougher policies to North Korean shipping in response to North Korea's missile launches and its second nuclear test in May. North Korea fired four short-range missiles into waters off the east coast Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported. "We have not got word from above yet," said Inspector Joung Ku-so, who was suited in body armor and bristling with weapons. "But we are practicing boarding drills for PSI," he said, referring to the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative that aims to block ships from carrying weapons materials to the North.

Ban Ki-moon Faces Warning Calls on Myanmar Trip - Joe Lauria, Wall Street Journal. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Myanmar on Friday as Western diplomats and human rights activists warned he risks lending legitimacy to the ruling junta if he fails in his quest to get political prisoners released. UN officials say Mr. Ban didn't decide to go until he received assurances from Myanmar authorities that he would meet opposition leaders, whom UN officials say have endorsed his trip. It wasn't clear if Mr. Ban would meet Aung San Suu Kyi, whose trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest was set to resume as Mr. Ban's plane touched down in Yangon. A senior UN official said Mr. Ban believes he will secure the release of lesser-known opposition figures. It wasn't clear how their fate would be monitored once the secretary general leaves the country on Saturday after a two-day stay.

UN Chief to Seek Release of Suu Kyi - Alan Cowell, New York Times. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, arrived in Myanmar on Friday for a journey he has said will be difficult as he seeks the release of the jailed pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, or at least a meeting with her. Shortly after he arrived the Burmese authorities said the current trial of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, would be adjourned for one week until July 10, The Associated Press reported. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi is accused of violating the terms of her current house arrest after an American man swam uninvited across a lake to her home. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has denied the charge, but could be sentenced to five years imprisonment if found guilty. The trial which was to have resumed on Friday, had been delayed for a month while lawyers objected to a court decision to ban three witnesses.

Chinese Fireworks Display - David Brooks, New York Times opinion. On July Fourth, we think about our country and its future. But these days it’s impossible to think about America and its future role in the world without also thinking about China. This was the subject of a combative discussion this week at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The agent provocateur was Niall Ferguson of Harvard. China and the US, he argued, used to have a symbiotic relationship and formed a tightly integrated unit that he calls Chimerica. In this unit, China did the making, and the United States did the buying. China did the saving, while the US did the spending. Between 1995 and 2005, the US savings rate declined from about 5 percent to zero, while the Chinese savings rate rose from 30 percent to nearly 45 percent.

EUROPE

Lose the Cold War Attitude, Obama Tells Putin - Catherine Philp, The Times. President Obama has scolded the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for failing to move on from Cold War dynamics. His remarks come on the eve of a much-anticipated trip to Moscow next week in which he aims to “hit the reset button” on relations with Russia. The Bush Administration’s relationship with Mr Putin started warmly, with George Bush gushing that he could see into the soul of Mr Putin, then Russian President, and could trust him as a man to do business with. If Mr Obama was hoping to avoid that trap he certainly did so, but was more complimentary about Mr Putin’s successor, Dmitri Medvedev, whom he said was aware of the dynamics of the current world order. Mr Obama was asked why he would meet Mr Putin at all on his three-day visit, in which he and Mr Medvedev will issue a joint pledge to cut their nuclear arsenals in half. Mr Obama said that the former President “still has a lot of sway” and needed to hear what he had to say - an acknowledgement of his continued influence, while simultaneously sending Mr Putin a message that he regards him as yesterday’s man. “It’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev, Putin understands that the old Cold War approach to US-Russian relations is outdated; that it’s time to move forward in a different direction,” he said.

Preparing for Trip to Russia, Obama Praises Putin’s Protégé, at Putin’s Expense - Peter Baker, New York Times. President Obama said Thursday that Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia still had “one foot” in the cold war and needed to move on, a provocative assessment for an American leader just days before traveling here for the first time since taking office. Mr. Obama distinguished Mr. Putin from President Dmitri A. Medvedev, his hand-picked successor, who was elected last year and is the object of much speculation, given the unusual power-sharing arrangement here. Unlike Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama said, Mr. Medvedev recognizes that it is time for the two cold war antagonists to put the past behind them. “It’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old cold war approaches to US-Russian relations is outdated - that it’s time to move forward in a different direction,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Russia’s Neighbors Resist Wooing and Bullying - Ellen Barry, New York Times. This was supposed to be Russia’s round in the battle over its backyard. All year, despite its own economic spasms, Moscow has earmarked great chunks of cash for its impoverished post-Soviet neighbors, seeking to lock in their loyalty over the long term and curtail Western influence in the region. But the neighbors seem to have other ideas. Belarus - which was promised $2 billion in Russian aid - is in open rebellion against the Kremlin, flaunting its preference for Europe while also collecting money from the International Monetary Fund. Uzbekistan joined Belarus in refusing to sign an agreement on the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces, an idea Moscow sees as an eventual counterweight to NATO. There are other examples, like Turkmenistan’s May signing of a gas exploration deal with a German company, and Armenia’s awarding of a major national honor to Moscow’s nemesis, President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia. But the biggest came last week when Kyrgyzstan — set to receive $2.15 billion in Russian aid - reversed a decision that had been seen as a coup for Moscow, last winter’s order terminating the American military’s use of the Manas Air Base there.

Stavridis Becomes First Admiral to Head NATO Military Operations - American Forces Press Service. Navy Adm. James Stavridis today became NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, assuming command of allied command operations from retiring Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock. The change of command, presided over by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, marks the first time in NATO history that a navy admiral assumed the post, which originated in 1951 with Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stavridis is the 16th American officer to hold the post. “Today I am lucky enough to find myself standing on the bridge, ready to take the watch, but I know I am not taking the watch alone,” Stavridis said after assuming command. “With me are over 70,000 shipmates- military and civilian- in three continents from the populated plains and coasts of Europe to the bright blue of the Mediterranean Sea, from the high mountain passes of Afghanistan to the distant Arctic Circle,” Stavridis said. “You stand in a long line of heroes who stood and delivered across this continent for decades in both war and peace,” the admiral continued. “I honor your service, I pledge my support and loyalty to each of you, and I will continue to strengthen the pillars of our transatlantic bridge as we build new ones. That is my mission, and I will do my best."

Underworld Figures are Freed to Run for Parliament in Bulgaria - David Charter, The Times. Underworld figures facing charges of racketeering, embezzlement and worse have found a novel way to escape jail in Europe’s most corrupt country: they are running for parliament. Some of Bulgaria’s best-known alleged mobsters have been let out of custody to campaign in the general election on Sunday under a legal loophole that gives immunity from prosecution to MPs and candidates. Those in the running include the Galev brothers- two reputed gangsters accused of running a southwestern town for years through their police and judicial contacts- as well as Ivan Ivanov, one of nine defendants in a fraud case involving €7.5 million (£6.5 million) of farm aid from the EU. The case was supposed to be a showpiece trial to prove that judicial reforms were working in a country that was allowed into the EU in 2007, despite deep concerns about judicial independence and its backlog of more than a hundred unsolved contract killings. Instead, it has allowed Bulgaria’s critics to insist that the country was let in before it had been forced to change. President Parvanov has called on Bulgarians not to vote for any of the freed suspects, so as not to worsen the country’s image at a time when the EU is assessing whether to release the full €11 billion in aid it has promised over the next seven years. “If we now allow people burdened with heavy sins [to enter parliament] this would not only blacken Bulgaria’s image, but would also hurt our perception about democracy profoundly,” he said. “That is why every voter must use their conscience.”

MIDDLE EAST

Activists Held by Israel for Trying to Break Gaza Blockade - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. Nineteen foreign activists of the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza Movement were being held in Israel awaiting deportation on Thursday, two days after the Israeli Navy seized control of their boat off Gaza. A former United States Representative, Cynthia McKinney, and an Irish peace activist and Nobel laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, were among those being held. Two additional Israeli activists were released without being charged on Wednesday, according to the group. The Free Gaza Movement and other campaigners have sailed several boats to Gaza in the last year, saying they wanted to bring humanitarian aid and challenging the Israeli blockade. Israel has let some boats reach the coastal strip and forced others to turn back at sea.

SOUTH ASIA

Tamil Refugees May End Up in Permanent Camps, Say Aid Workers - Hannah Roberts, The Times. Sri Lankan authorities appear to be building permanent camps to house many of the 300,000 refugees from the last phase of the war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, despite promising to resettle 80 per cent of them by the end of the year. Aid workers have told The Times that permanent buildings are being erected at the Manik Farm site where the UN says that 230,000 of the refugees are being held after the Tigers’ defeat in May. The aid workers said that they were able to do humanitarian work in four of six zones at Manik Farm but were barred from two others, including the mysteriously named Zone Zero. “We’re not allowed to work in these areas,” said Rajinda Jayasinghe, the head of Relief International in Sri Lanka. “But you can see from the outside proper brick-walled buildings going up.” Some aid workers said that the site was fast becoming Sri Lanka’s second biggest city after the capital, Colombo, with schools, clinics and banks, where refugees have deposited more than a billion rupees.

BOOKS

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.

--Washington Post

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

US Launches South Afghan Offensive - Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. The US military launched a major operation in southern Afghanistan, an early test of the Obama administration's new strategy for beating back the resurgent Taliban and stabilizing the country in advance of this summer's presidential elections. Operation Khanjar, or "strike of the sword," began shortly after 1 a.m. local time when close to 4,000 Marines, backed by about 700 Afghan security personnel, moved by air and ground into villages in the Helmand River Valley, a major opium-producing region and Taliban stronghold. US commanders said the forces would build an array of small patrol bases designed to forge closer ties with local people and better protect them from militants, borrowing an approach used in Iraq that is central to the administration's new counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan. The troops hope to root out pockets of Taliban fighters and find and destroy insurgent weapons caches, a US officer in Kabul said. The troops will also seek to interdict opium shipments and persuade local farmers to plant alternative crops, such as wheat, he said.

US Marines Try to Retake Afghan Valley From Taliban - Richard A. Oppel, Jr., New York Times. Almost 4,000 United States Marines, backed by helicopter gunships, pushed into the volatile Helmand River valley in southwestern Afghanistan early Thursday morning to try to take back the region from Taliban fighters whose control of poppy harvests and opium smuggling in Helmand provides major financing for the Afghan insurgency. The Marine Expeditionary Brigade leading the operation represents a large number of the 21,000 additional troops that President Obama ordered to Afghanistan earlier this year amid rising violence and the Taliban’s increasing domination in much of the country. The operation is described as the first major push in southern Afghanistan by the newly bolstered American force. Helmand is one of the deadliest provinces in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have practiced sleek, hit-and-run guerrilla warfare against the British forces based there.

US Marines Launch Major Operation in Afghanistan - Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post. Thousands of US Marines descended upon the volatile Helmand River valley in helicopters and armored convoys early Thursday morning, mounting an operation that represents the first large-scale test of the US military's new counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. The operation will involve about 4,000 troops from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which was dispatched to Afghanistan earlier this year by President Obama to combat a growing Taliban insurgency in Helmand and other southern provinces. The Marines, along with an Army brigade that is scheduled to arrive later this summer, plan to push into pockets of the country where NATO forces have not had a presence. In many of those areas, the Taliban have evicted local police and government officials, and taken power. Once Marine units arrive in their designated towns and villages, they have been instructed to build and live in small outposts among the local population. The brigade's commander, Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, said his Marines will focus their efforts on protecting civilians from the Taliban, and on restoring Afghan government services, instead of a series of hunt-and-kill missions against the insurgents.

US Launches Major Offensive Against Taliban - The Times. Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed into an Afghan river valley by helicopter and land early today, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency with an assault deep into Taliban territory. Operation Khanjar, which the Marines call simply "the decisive op", is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region. In swiftly seizing the valley, commanders hope to accomplish within hours what NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and by doing so turn the tide of a stale-mated war in time for an Afghan presidential election on August 20. "Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan said in a statement.

On the Afghanistan Frontier, Change May Be at Hand - Laura King, Los Angeles Times. In the enveloping darkness of a starless summer night, the sizzle-thump of incoming Taliban rockets is swiftly answered by the percussive boom of outgoing US artillery. But the American troops manning this base in eastern Afghanistan know that their elusive nighttime foe can slip away to sanctuary in Pakistan, just 20 miles away. The militants firing rockets at this installation, informally known as Camp Salerno, in all likelihood traveled here from Pakistan's tribal areas, home turf of several major Taliban commanders and their militias. The flow of fighters and arms into Afghanistan from Pakistan - and the tribal belt's use as a fighter haven - has long been a key concern of US and other Western officials. During a visit to the region last week, US national security advisor James L. Jones Jr. urged Pakistan to press ahead with a long-delayed army offensive against Taliban fighters who had become entrenched in the country's northwest. So far, though, the Pakistani military campaign has been centered on the Swat Valley, far from the border zone, and the tribal areas remain a wellspring of insurgent activity: suicide attacks, roadside explosive devices, vehicle bombs.

US-Afghan Push Targets Taliban Haven - Jason Straziuso, Associated Press. Thousands of US Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops poured into Taliban-infested villages of southern Afghanistan with armor and helicopters Thursday in the first major operation under President Obama's strategy to stabilize the country. The offensive in the once-forgotten war was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the world's largest opium-poppy-producing area. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested region before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election. Officials described the operation, dubbed Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase, involving nearly 4,000 of the newly arrived Marines and 650 Afghan forces. British forces last week led similar, but smaller, missions to clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar provinces.

No Limit in Place for Pending Request on Troops in Afghanistan - Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post. The nation's top military officer said yesterday that no limits have been placed on the number or types of troops the new US commander in Afghanistan can request as he seeks to carry out a counterinsurgency strategy there. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal is conducting a 60-day assessment of the Afghanistan campaign and has been advised to tell Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President Obama, "Here's what I need." "There are no preconditions associated with that," Mullen said. "He's . . . been told, 'In this assessment, you come back and ask for what you need.' There are certainly no intended limits with respect to that kind of request."

In Refugee Aid, Pakistan’s War Has New Front - Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah, New York Times. Islamist charities and the United States are competing for the allegiance of the two million people displaced by the fight against the Taliban in Swat and other parts of Pakistan - and so far, the Islamists are in the lead. Although the United States is the largest contributor to a United Nations relief effort, Pakistani authorities have refused to allow American officials or planes to deliver the aid in the camps for displaced people. The Pakistanis do not want to be associated with their unpopular ally. Meanwhile, in the absence of effective aid from the government, hard-line Islamist charities are using the refugee crisis to push their anti-Western agenda and to sour public opinion against the war and the United States.

Taliban Buying Children for Suicide Bombers - Sara A. Carter, Washington Times. Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers in the growing spate of attacks against Pakistani, Afghan and US targets, US Defense Department and Pakistani officials say. A Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said the going price for child bombers was $7,000 to $14,000 - huge sums in Pakistan, where per-capita income is about $2,600 a year. "[Mehsud] has turned suicide bombing into a production output, not unlike [the way] Toyota outputs cars," a US Defense Department official told reporters recently. He spoke on the condition that he not be named because of ongoing intelligence efforts to catch Mehsud, a prime target for a US and Pakistani anti-Taliban campaign.

Pakistan Fights, Congress Sleeps - Wall Street Journal editorial. More now than ever, Pakistan is acting as if it is committed to fighting the Taliban. The military in recent days has expanded a high-stakes offensive along the Afghan border, while the government enjoys wide public support, even as casualties and refugees mount. So naturally, the US Congress is finding a way not to help. An aid package has hit repeated hurdles on Capitol Hill, while US allies shortchange Pakistan on humanitarian assistance for the people displaced by the fighting. This is myopic and dangerous. If Pakistan fails to defeat the Islamist insurgency, the consequences will resonate far and wide, in the worst case with al Qaeda getting Pakistan's nuclear stockpile. Earlier this year, the Obama Administration prodded, pleaded and shamed Pakistan to fight. Passive acceptance of Taliban gains turned into the current counteroffensive. The military has since taken back the Swat Valley and shifted its sights to such tribal regions as Waziristan. Count that a tentative success for Pakistan and the Obama foreign policy team.

IRAQ

Insurgents Hail Pullout of Troops From Cities - Campbell Robertson, New York Times. A day after Iraqis celebrated the formal withdrawal of American combat troops from towns and cities, leaders of some of the most high-profile insurgent and opposition groups had their say on Wednesday. Statements were released by a former senior ally of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni clerical association that has sanctioned armed resistance and Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric, all of which hailed the withdrawal as a victory for the resistance and compared it to the beginning of the revolt against the British occupation in 1920. Iraqi opposition and insurgent leaders consider themselves to have as much legitimacy as, or more than, Iraqi government officials, and formal statements on such a symbolic occasion are expected. The statements all commanded Iraqis to continue fighting the American military until it had left the country completely; nearly 130,000 troops remain. The statements also insisted, in unusually clear language, that Iraqis not turn their violence on one another.

June Death Toll of Iraqis Highest in 11 Months - Liz Sly, Los Angeles Times. Offering a possible harbinger of what is to come now that US troops have withdrawn from Iraq's cities, the death toll in June among Iraqis was the highest in 11 months, the nation's Health Ministry reported Wednesday. A total of 438 Iraqis died in June in shootings, bombings and assassinations, 68 of them members of the security forces. That's the highest number since July 2008, when 465 Iraqis died violently, and includes the tolls from a series of deadly bombings such as the one near Kirkuk last week that killed more than 70 people. It's also 2 2/3 times the figure for May, when 165 people died, the lowest monthly toll of the war. Iraqis have this week been celebrating the departure of US troops from their cities, but in fact the withdrawal has been taking place for months. By June, most American military personnel had vacated the bases they had been designated to leave.

Hussein Pointed to Iranian Threat - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews released yesterday. The former Iraqi president also denounced Osama bin Laden as "a zealot" and said he had no dealings with al-Qaeda. Hussein, in fact, said he felt so vulnerable to the perceived threat from "fanatic" leaders in Tehran that he would have been prepared to seek a "security agreement with the United States to protect [Iraq] from threats in the region." Former president George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq six years ago on the grounds that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to international security. Administration officials at the time also strongly suggested Iraq had significant links to al-Qaeda, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Senators Question US Role in Hostage Deal - Sara A. Carter and Eli Lake, Washington Times. Two senior Republican senators sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday expressing concern over reports that the administration negotiated "directly or indirectly" with terrorists for the release of British hostages in Iraq. In a letter made available to The Washington Times, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said that the US release last month of Laith al-Khazali, a member of a militant Shi'ite group called Asaib al-Haq, may have been part of a deal to gain freedom for three British hostages held since 2007. On June 21, the group sent the bodies of two British hostages to the British Embassy in Baghdad. The other three are still being held. The White House has denied negotiating with terrorists and repeated that denial Wednesday.

The US in Iraq: An Economics Lesson - Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz, Los Angeles Times opinion. Tuesday, the US "stood down" in Iraq, finalizing the pullout of 140,000 troops from Iraqi cities and towns - the first step on the long path home. After more than six years, most Americans are war-weary, even though a smaller percentage of us have been involved in the actual fighting than in any major conflict in US history. We have relegated the car and suicide bombings to the inside pages of newspapers, accepting at face value that the "surge" has calmed things down enough so we can finally leave the whole sorry Iraq adventure behind us. But not so fast. The conflict that began in 2003 is far from over for us, and the next chapter - confronting a Taliban that reasserted itself in Afghanistan while the US was sidetracked in Iraq - will be expensive and bloody. The death toll for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan reached 5,000 in June. An additional 80,000 Americans have been wounded or injured since the war in Iraq began. More than 300,000 of our troops have required medical treatment, and Army statistics show that more than 17% of our returning soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Meanwhile, in Iraq, even though most of the population has long told pollsters they can't wait for US forces to leave, US officials have said we are likely to station 50,000 troops at military bases in the country for the foreseeable future. This is because the situation in Iraq is highly precarious.

IRAN

Iran Unrest Shifts Power Dynamics - Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post. The large-scale protests in Iran since its hotly disputed June 12 presidential election have shaken the Islamic republic's long-standing balance of political power. For decades, hard-line members of Iran's cleric-led government controlled the judiciary, military, intelligence and state media. But reformists also had wide public support and room to push for more moderate social and political policies. That delicate balance worked for both sides, providing an outlet for people who chafed at the Islamic regime's austerity and isolationism, while ensuring that the core system, created after the 1979 revolution, would not be seriously challenged. The reformists did not advocate a revolutionary overhaul. The general view was that Iranians did not want another revolution.

Iran Opposition Leaders Speak Amid Crackdown - Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal. Iranian opposition figures re-emerged to accuse the government of a virtual coup against its people and plan a new political party, even as the regime hardened its crackdown on opponents and accused them of endangering national security. The tensions within Iran reignited just as Tehran's diplomatic conflict with the European Union heated up, with the government threatening to cut off relations with EU countries unless they apologize for considering pulling their ambassadors out of Iran. Increasingly, the government has been seeking to cast its opponents as outlaws. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has been blamed for the blood spilled during the clashes between protestors and security forces over the outcome of the presidential election, in which the government says he came in a distant second to the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran Leader's Foes to Continue Disputing Election - Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. Opponents of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on the offensive Wednesday, proclaiming his government "illegitimate." They vowed to continue disputing his reelection despite a violent crackdown on their protests and dire warnings against challenging the vote. Hours earlier, in a potentially sharp escalation of the rift within the Iranian establishment, the pro-government Basiji militia asked prosecutors to investigate opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi on numerous allegations, including "disturbing the nation's security," according to a report by the Fars news agency. After two weeks of street clashes, Tehran has remained calm for several days. Signaling a return to normality, cellphone text-messaging services, cut off the night before the June 12 election, were restored.

Defiant Opposition Leaders Refuse to Accept Ahmadinejad Government - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Three opposition leaders, including a former president, openly defied Iran's top political and religious authorities Wednesday, vowing to resist a government they have deemed illegitimate after official certification of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection. Their defiance in the face of harsh official denunciations and threats of arrest and prosecution appeared to dash the government's hopes of pressuring the opposition into accepting the disputed June 12 election. Rather than dropping his complaints of extensive vote-rigging, leading opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi took his fight to a new level Wednesday, risking arrest by urging followers to continue their protests. After formal certification of the election results Monday night by the Guardian Council, a top supervisory body of Shiite Muslim clerics and jurists, Iranian authorities warned that no further protests would be tolerated.

Opposition Leaders Court Arrest by Defying 'Unlawful Iranian Regime' - Martin Fletcher, The Times. Three of Iran’s most prominent opposition leaders flagrantly courted arrest yesterday by denouncing President Ahmadinejad’s Government as illegitimate, one day after the regime said that it would tolerate no more challenges to the election result. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime Minister who lost the election, said that the suppression of dissent was tantamount to a coup. “It’s not yet too late,” he declared on his website. “It is our historical responsibility to continue our protests to defend the rights of the people . . . and prevent the blood spilt by hundreds of thousands of martyrs from leading to a police state.” Ayatollah Mohammed Khatami, 65, a popular former President, accused the regime of mounting a “velvet revolution against the people and democracy” and called the security crackdown “poisonous”.

Europe Weighs Pulling Envoys From Tehran - Alan Cowell and Stephen Castle, New York Times. Iran risked diplomatic isolation from the European Union, as European officials discussed whether to withdraw the ambassadors of all 27 member nations in a dispute over the detention of the British Embassy’s Iranian personnel. European diplomats said Wednesday that they had made no formal decision to order their envoys home, but that the measure was an option as the European Union- Iran’s biggest trading partner- tried to work out how to defuse the dispute in a way that would shield other embassies in Tehran from similar action. Withdrawing all 27 ambassadors would be a rare and unusually forceful display of European anger at Iran’s crackdown on dissent after the June 12 presidential election, and several diplomats said the European Union would prefer to avoid such a move.

Time for an Israeli Strike? - John R. Bolton, Washington Post opinion. With Iran's hard-line mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unmistakably back in control, Israel's decision of whether to use military force against Tehran's nuclear weapons program is more urgent than ever. Iran's nuclear threat was never in doubt during its presidential campaign, but the post-election resistance raised the possibility of some sort of regime change. That prospect seems lost for the near future or for at least as long as it will take Iran to finalize a deliverable nuclear weapons capability. Accordingly, with no other timely option, the already compelling logic for an Israeli strike is nearly inexorable. Israel is undoubtedly ratcheting forward its decision-making process. President Obama is almost certainly not. He still wants "engagement" (a particularly evocative term now) with Iran's current regime. Last Thursday, the State Department confirmed that Secretary Hillary Clinton spoke to her Russian and Chinese counterparts about "getting Iran back to negotiating on some of these concerns that the international community has."

THE LONG WAR

ACLU Says Government Used False Confessions - Del Quentin Wilber, Washington Post. The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the confinement of a detainee it represents at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ACLU is asking a federal judge to throw out those statements and others made by Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who may have been as young as 12 when he was captured. His attorney argued that Jawad was abused in US custody, threatened and subjected to intense sleep deprivation. "The government's continued reliance on evidence gained by torture and other abuse violates centuries of US law and suggests the current administration is not really serious about breaking with the past," said ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing Jawad in a lawsuit challenging his detention.

Secret CIA Jails an Issue in Terror Case - Benjamin Weiser, New York Times. Lawyers for a former Guantánamo detainee who was ordered by President Obama to face trial in a civilian court have told a judge in Manhattan that they want to visit the “black sites” run overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency where their client was held for about two years after he was captured in 2004. The defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, has been charged with participating in a conspiracy that included the 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks organized by Al Qaeda that killed 224 people and injured thousands. Mr. Ghailani, a Tanzanian who is believed to be in his mid-30s, became a fugitive after the attacks, and later worked as a bodyguard and cook for Osama bin Laden, military authorities have said.

Secrecy v. Sunshine - Washington Post editorial. It is impossible to perfectly balance the need to protect national security with the transparency required in a democracy. But a DC federal judge has fashioned a wise compromise in the cases of detainees challenging their captivity at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that respects both imperatives. Last month, Senior Judge Thomas F. Hogan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia rebuffed an administration request to put under a protective order - and keep from public view - all evidence used to justify the government's detention of Guantanamo prisoners. Judge Hogan concluded that such an action was overly broad and unnecessary to protect against disclosure of sensitive national security information. He also concluded that the government's action "attempts to usurp the Court's discretion to seal judicial records" by eliminating the judge's ability to make a determination on individual cases. Lawyers for the detainees had opposed the government's move, as had USA Today, the New York Times and the Associated Press. Judge Hogan ordered the Justice Department to file unclassified or declassified versions of the evidence by July 29.

Judging John Yoo - Los Angeles Times editorial. In their notorious August 2002 "torture memo," Justice Department officials Jay S. Bybee and John C. Yoo defined torture narrowly as pain associated with "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." It was a strained and selective reading of the law, and it was rescinded in 2004 by Jack Goldsmith, Bybee's successor as head of the Office of Legal Counsel. But can Yoo, now a professor at UC Berkeley, be held responsible for the actions of others who relied on his legal reasoning? A federal judge in San Francisco seems to think so, but we have our doubts. As much as we were outraged by Yoo's opinions, we worry that equating legal analysis with the acts of policymakers would set a poisonous precedent. Only if Yoo exceeded his role as a lawyer, which he may well have done, should he be subject to civil recriminations for his work.

CYBER WARFARE

US Takes Aim at Cyberwarfare - Shaun Waterman, Washington Times. The Pentagon's decision last week to establish a unified cybercommand to defend the military's computer networks and attack those of US enemies raises at least as many questions as it answers, analysts and experts in the field say. "How does it fit into the strategic goals of defending our economy and our way of life?" asked Marcus Sachs, who helped set up the US military's first cyberwarfare unit in 1998. "How will it relate to other government agencies?" asked Mr. Sachs, who is now director of the Internet Storm Center, a volunteer warning and analysis service that works with Internet service providers to counter such threats as computer viruses. In a memo to military leaders last week, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered US Strategic Command - the military entity in charge of US nuclear and space weapons - to set up the new cybercommand by October this year and to have it fully functioning by October 2010.

Defend America, One Laptop at a Time - Jack Goldsmith, New York Times opinion. Our economy, energy supply, means of transportation and military defenses are dependent on vast, interconnected computer and telecommunications networks. These networks are poorly defended and vulnerable to theft, disruption or destruction by foreign states, criminal organizations, individual hackers and, potentially, terrorists. In the last few months it has been reported that Chinese network operations have found their way into American electricity grids, and computer spies have broken into the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter project. Acknowledging such threats, President Obama recently declared that digital infrastructure is a “strategic national asset,” the protection of which is a national security priority. One of many hurdles to meeting this goal is that the private sector owns and controls most of the networks the government must protect. In addition to banks, energy suppliers and telecommunication companies, military and intelligence agencies use these private networks. This is a dangerous state of affairs, because the firms that build and run computer and communications networks focus on increasing profits, not protecting national security.

AMERICAS

Ousted Honduran President Plans Return But Future Is Unclear - Scott Wilson, Washington Post. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is preparing to return to his country, days after the military pushed him from office and into exile. But recent Latin American and Caribbean history shows that presidents who do manage to return to their homes after a coup are rarely the leaders they had been - complicating the Obama administration's diplomatic calculations. Zelaya is hoping to land in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, within days. If he does, he will likely be flanked by human shields, led by the secretary general of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, to prevent the immediate arrest that his unelected successor has promised. The Obama administration has said it favors Zelaya's return.

Honduras Targets Protesters With Emergency Decree - William Booth and Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post. The new Honduran government clamped down on street protests and news organizations Wednesday as lawmakers passed an emergency decree that limits public gatherings following the military-led coup that removed President Manuel Zelaya from office. The decree also allows for suspects to be detained for 24 hours and continues a nighttime curfew. Media outlets complained that the government was ordering them not to report any news or opinion that could "incite" the public. A dozen former ministers from the Zelaya government remain in hiding, some hunkered down in foreign embassies, fearing arrest. News organizations here remain polarized. Journalists working for small independent media - or for those loyal to Zelaya - have reported being harassed by officials.

Compromise Is Sought to Honduras Standoff - Marc Lacey and Ginger Thompson, New York Times. As the public standoff between Honduras and the rest of the world hardened, quiet negotiations got under way on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for a possible return of the nation’s ousted president, Manuel Zelaya. After a marathon session that stretched close to dawn, the Organization of American States “vehemently” condemned the removal of Mr. Zelaya over the weekend and issued an ultimatum to Honduras’s new government: Unless Mr. Zelaya is returned to power within 72 hours, the nation will be suspended from the group. Diplomats said they had rarely seen the hemisphere’s leaders unite so solidly behind a common cause. The new Honduran government was equally resolute, warning that there was no chance Mr. Zelaya would be restored to office and that the nation would defend itself by force.

Honduras Given Deadline to Reinstate Ousted President - Ken Ellingwood and Alex Renderos, Los Angeles Times. Ramping up pressure on Honduras' interim rulers, the Organization of American States threatened Wednesday to suspend the nation's membership if ousted President Manuel Zelaya was not returned to power within 72 hours. The move prompted Zelaya to announce he would delay plans to return to Honduras until the weekend. Zelaya, deposed by the Honduran army Sunday in a coup that has drawn broad international condemnation, had said earlier he would go back today, accompanied by other regional leaders. The OAS resolution, issued in the early morning hours after an emergency session in Washington, condemned the coup and said the group would only recognize Zelaya and his representatives as the legitimate government of Honduras.

OAS Sets Deadline to Suspend Honduras - Nichlas Casey and Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal. Tensions between a defiant Honduras and the international community rose on Wednesday as the Organization of American States threatened to suspend the country within three days if it didn't reinstate President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup Sunday. As the clock began to tick, the US government said it was hopeful for a diplomatic solution, even as the Pentagon suspended military relations between Washington and Tegucigalpa. Two senior US officials met late Tuesday with Mr. Zelaya, a leftist and frequent critic of US policies, and told him Washington was committed to seeing him back in power, according to American officials briefed on the diplomacy. As a gesture of his willingness to negotiate, Mr. Zelaya put off plans to return to Honduras Thursday - a trip that was shaping up as a showdown - until the weekend. He has pledged he won't seek re-election when his term ends in January. Honduras's military launched the coup amid concerns that Mr. Zelaya was seeking to amend the Honduran Constitution to extend his rule indefinitely.

Honduras's Coup Is President Zelaya's Fault - Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Washington Post opinion. Any time a bunch of soldiers break into a presidential palace, pick up the president and put him on a flight to exile, as happened in Honduras last Sunday, you have a "coup." But, unlike most coup targets in Latin America's tortuous republican history, Honduras's deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, bears the biggest responsibility for his overthrow. A member of the rancid oligarchy he now decries, Zelaya took office in 2006 as the leader of one of the two center-right parties that have dominated Honduran politics for decades. His general platform, his support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and his alliances with business organizations gave no inkling of the fact that halfway into his term he would become a political cross-dresser. Suddenly, in 2007, he declared himself a socialist and began to establish close ties with Venezuela. In December of that year, he incorporated Honduras into Petrocaribe, a mechanism set up by Hugo Chávez for lavishing oil subsidies on Latin American and Caribbean countries in exchange for political subservience. Then his government joined the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA), Venezuela's answer to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, ostensibly a commercial alliance but in practice a political conspiracy that seeks to expand populist dictatorship to the rest of Latin America.

Ally's Ouster Gives Venezuela's Chávez a Stage, an Opportunity - Juan Forero, Washington Post. An ally was in trouble, toppled in a military coup. And the television cameras were rolling. The ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya could not have been better scripted for another Latin American leader who has taken center stage: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. The populist firebrand has been Zelaya's most forceful advocate and could win international accolades if the Honduran eventually succeeds in regaining power. Ever since Zelaya was hustled into exile Sunday by the military, Chávez has been a whirlwind of activity. Using Venezuela's oil-fueled influence to organize summits at which he has been the central speaker, he is spreading his vision of Latin America and calling for Hondurans to rise up against those who deposed Zelaya.

Argentines Question Vote During Outbreak - Alexei Barrionuevo and Donald G. McNeil, Jr., New York Times. As Argentina struggled Wednesday to control a fast-spreading outbreak of swine flu, some health officials criticized the government’s decision to go ahead with national congressional elections last weekend. The officials said they had wanted to declare a state of emergency last week and delay the elections as part of a move to stop public gatherings and to shift the country’s attention to the epidemic. Several of the officials, including some who advised the government on the outbreak, said publicly that the country’s former health minister, Graciela Ocaña, who resigned on Monday, had recommended postponing the vote. With at least 43 fatalities, Argentina surged into third place in the world for swine flu deaths this week, passing Canada and now trailing only the United States and Mexico.

ASIA-PACIFIC

US Issues Sanctions To Press North Korea - Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration sanctioned two North Korea-linked firms it said have facilitated weapons proliferation, while US officials said a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying arms to Myanmar's military regime has changed course. The sanctions initiate a new phase of what the administration intends to be broad financial pressure, from Washington and through the United Nations, on Pyongyang's arms industry, following recent North Korean nuclear and missile tests. In related efforts, US naval vessels have closely tracked the cargo vessel for nearly two weeks on the suspicion it was violating UN Security Council resolutions. The episode has been viewed as a test for US sanctions adopted in June that call for intercepting ships and aircraft believed to be trafficking North Korean arms or nuclear materials.

US 'Ready' for N. Korean Missile - Bill Gertz, Washington Times. US missile defenses are prepared to try to knock down the last stage of a Taepodong-2 missile that North Korea is expected soon to launch if sensors detect the weapon threatens US territory, the commander of the US Northern Command told The Washington Times. "The nation has a very, very credible ballistic-missile defense capability. Our ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, I'm very comfortable, give me a capability that if we really are threatened by a long-range ICBM that I've got high confidence that I could interdict that flight before it caused huge damage to any US territory," said Air Force Gen. Victor E. "Gene" Renuart, Northcom commander. The general said the United States won't activate its missile defenses if the North Korean missile appears it will fall safely into the water as the country's last test missile did.

China is the Key to North Korea - Los Angeles Times editorial. President Obama says he'd like to break the cycle in which North Korea provokes an international crisis to extract aid and concessions from global powers that are trying to sanction Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear ambitions. The key to ending this brinkmanship, however, lies not with Kim but with Beijing. China is North Korea's main Communist ally and trading partner, and although it would like to see an end to Pyongyang's nuclear program, it has so far demonstrated greater concern about the prospect of regime collapse that would likely create an economic crisis in the region. China's patience seems to be wearing thin, as it did sign on to the June 12 UN resolution. Obama's coordinator on the resolution, Ambassador Philip Goldberg, is in China this week and must work to convince the government that further steps are needed. A credible threat from Beijing to cut off trade could persuade Pyongyang to give up on nuclear weapons. As with Iran, Obama should make clear to Kim that Washington seeks nuclear disarmament, not regime change. At the same time, he should make clear to China that if the North Korean regime were to collapse, the United States and its allies would help share the economic burden.

Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy March Draws Thousands - Keith Bradsher, New York Times. Thousands of people joined a pro-democracy march here on Wednesday, although the turnout fell short of a candlelight vigil held nearly four weeks ago to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing. An enormous crowd for the annual June 4 candlelight vigil, the largest since 1990, had raised the hopes of Hong Kong democracy advocates that the same enthusiasm might carry over to their movement. The movement has been struggling after several small successes from 2003 to 2005, including winning support for blocking the government’s planned introduction of stringent internal security legislation. The immediacy of democracy demands here has faded somewhat as Beijing officials have ruled out direct elections for the chief executive until 2017 and the legislature until 2020.

EUROPE

US Hardens Its Stance Ahead of Summit With Russia - Jonathan Weisman, Gregory L. White and Alan Cullison, Wall Street Journal. The Obama White House on Wednesday adopted a hard line against negotiating away missile-defense sites in Eastern Europe and limiting NATO expansion in the former Soviet Union, just days ahead of a summit meeting in Moscow. The hardened posture made it clear the Kremlin wouldn't make headway on two of its top priorities for the summit. "We shouldn't have excessive hopes" for the meeting, said a senior Russian diplomat in Moscow. "Despite all this constructive atmosphere, the deeper you get into details, the more difficulties you find." In the past few weeks, the Russians have recognized the controversial re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, forced peacekeepers out of Georgia, and suggested that Mr. Obama can realize his ambitious goals to reduce nuclear weapons only if he pulls back on the US's missile-defense plans.

Russia's Grand Inquisitor - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. As Barack Obama packs for his trip to Russia next week, he should bring along a copy of "The Brothers Karamazov." For the modern Russia of Vladimir Putin is still struggling with the same political riddles that Fyodor Dostoyevsky described 130 years ago. Human beings would happily trade their freedom for food and security, Dostoyevsky wrote in the novel's famous chapter, "The Grand Inquisitor." In place of this anarchic freedom, the Inquisitor offered the people "miracle, mystery and authority. And mankind rejoiced that they were once more led like sheep, and that at last such a terrible gift, which had brought them so much suffering, had been taken from their hearts." There's a palpable sense here that Putin has brought "miracle, mystery and authority" to a Russia that was severely traumatized by the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The country is certainly less free than it was under Boris Yeltsin, but Putin is immensely popular - and nobody wants to return to the crazy, freewheeling time of transition.

Russia Is Back on the Warpath - Cathy Young, Wall Street Journal opinion. With President Barack Obama's trip to Moscow on Monday, you might expect Russia to avoid stirring up any trouble. Yet the Russian media are now abuzz with speculation about a new war in Georgia, and some Western analysts are voicing similar concerns. The idea seems insane. Nonetheless, the risk is real. One danger sign is persistent talk of so-called Georgian aggression against the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia recognized as independent states after the war last August. "Georgia is rattling its weapons . . . and has not given up on attempts to solve its territorial problems by any means," Gen. Nikolai Makarov, who commanded Russian troops in Georgia in 2008, told the Novosti news agency on June 17. Similar warnings have been aired repeatedly by the state-controlled media. Independent Russian commentators, such as columnist Andrei Piontkovsky, note that this has the feel of a propaganda campaign to prepare the public for a second war. Most recently, Moscow has trotted out a Georgian defector, Lt. Alik D. Bzhania, who claims that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "intends to restart the war."

Albanian Election Result in Dispute - Associated Press. The governing Democratic Party claimed on Wednesday that it won weekend parliamentary elections, but the opposition Socialists disputed that, and election officials said it was too early to tell. Near-complete results showed Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democrats were ahead by just over one percentage point, but it was unclear whether Mr. Berisha had secured enough seats in parliament to govern alone. Democratic Party spokeswoman Majlinda Bregu said Mr. Berisha won 71 of the house's 140 seats and could govern without forming a coalition. However, election commission spokesman Leonard Olli declined to confirm the Democrats' claim they had secured 71 seats.

MIDDLE EAST

Israel and Hamas 'Both Guilty of War Crimes' - The Times. Israeli and Palestinian troops both committed war crimes in the recent war in Gaza, Amnesty International has claimed in the first in-depth human rights report on the war. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed by high precision artillery, while others were shot at close range, the report said. It also described rocket fire attacks by Gaza's militant Hamas rulers against Israeli towns as war crimes. The organisation called on Israel publicly to pledge not to use artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas, and urged Hamas to stop its rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Amnesty, which first accused Israel of war crimes shortly after the fighting ended on January 18, said "disturbing questions" remain about why high-precision weapons like tank shells and air-delivered bombs and missiles "killed so many children and other civilians."

Amnesty Details Gaza 'War Crimes' - BBC News. Israel committed war crimes and carried out reckless attacks and acts of wanton destruction in its Gaza offensive, an independent human rights report says. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed using high-precision weapons, while others were shot at close range, the group Amnesty International says. Its report also calls rocket attacks by Palestinian militants war crimes and accuses Hamas of endangering civilians. The Israeli military says its conduct was in line with international law. Israel has attributed some civilian deaths to "professional mistakes", but has dismissed wider criticism that its attacks were indiscriminate and disproportionate.

BOOKS

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.