Story Archives of 'Pakistan'

President Obama said today that he won’t be rushed into sending more troops to Afghanistan. Last night he told a crowd in Miami that he is serious about shutting down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The question of what to do about the Taliban insurgency and the remaining Gitmo detainees has yet to be answered. America might consider taking a page from Saudi Arabia’s treatment of extremist militants. The home country of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers is not known for its leniency, which makes the Saudi government’s terrorist rehabilitation program even more extraordinary.

The rehab program includes religious re-education, art therapy, buying cars for former extremists, and even helping them find wives. Saudi officials claim they’ve "reformed" more than a thousand terrorists, and that the program has been 95 percent effective. But in January, the Saudi kingdom disclosed that eleven graduates of the program were rearrested for joining militant groups.

Max Fisher at The Atlantic has been tracking the Saudi program, and joins us with more.

The Atlantic: Applying Saudi Counterterrorism To The Afghanistan War

The Atlantic Wire: Seeking Fissures Between Taliban and Al Qaeda

Slate: Jihadis Anonymous

The Christian Science Monitor: How effective are terrorist rehabilitation programs?

(Photo by Mushroom and Rooster via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Iran has just completed a third round of missile tests. This news comes shortly after it was disclosed that the country has been secretly developing an underground uranium enrichment facility. Only a few months have passed since thousands of Iranians flooded the streets to protest what was believed to be a crooked election.

Iran continues to make news for its nuclear ambitions, bitter denouncements of Israel and America by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the country’s backing of militias in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. But look closer and you might see a hidden world – middle-class Muslims going about their daily lives, enjoying the fruits of modernity and hoping for stronger economic and cultural ties with the west. They are scientists, entrepreneurs, bankers, and manufacturers.

In his new book Forces of Fortune, longtime Mideast observer Vali Nasr argues that winning the war against extremist Islam means engaging an emerging Muslim middle class. He’s a professor of international relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a senior adviser to the Obama administration.

Read an excerpt from Forces of Fortune

(Photo by Hamed Saber via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Nicholas Schmidle was a tall, blond, 27-year-old-aspiring journalist when he traveled to Pakistan on a fellowship. Newly married and adventurous, he learned Urdu and set out on a two-year journey.

In his travels, he met radical jihadists and leaders, visited a Taliban camp in the Swat Valley and witnessed a public lashing. He watched a country in transition as President Musharraf's regime grasped for control, and a nation in turmoil after the assasination of Benazir Bhutto.

All this before he was swiftly kicked out for filing stories on the growing power of the Taliban in the Swat Valley and tribal and border regions. These are precisely the areas where the Pakistani military is now six weeks into a campaign against Taliban and Islamic jihadi forces.

Nicholas Schmidle tells his story in a new book, To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan. He joins us from The New America Foundation, where he is an American Strategy Fellow.

(Photo courtesy Al Jazeera English via Flickr/Creative Commons)

A suicide bomber wreaked havoc in Islamabad, Pakistan, this past weekend. A van laden with a ton of explosives destroyed a Marriott hotel, killing at least 53 people and wounding more than 260. The bombing came less than two weeks after the swearing-in of Pakistan’s new president, Asif al Zardari.

The attack highlights the country’s ongoing struggles with terrorism and the confusion and mistrust that many Pakistani’s feel about the so-called “war on terrorism”. The United States has stepped-up attacks on suspected terrorists in Pakistan recently as it tries to stem the tide of violence in neighboring Afghanistan. Meanwhile, domestic terrorism – like Sunday’s bombing – is on the rise in the country. Many pakistani’s distrust the actions of the US, and conspiracy-theories are swirling around who’s truly responsible for the Marriott bombing.

Deborah Dilley joins us on Word of Mouth to help us get a better understanding of popular opinion in Pakistan and other Islamic countries. She’s a writer and editor for Global Voices Online, a website that keeps track of what people are talking about on blogs all over the world.

Stories Discussed in Today's Roundup:
Pakistan Bleeds Again
Pakistan: Another 9/11, We are Burning
Jordan: A Popular Cafe Shut Down in Ramadan Crackdown
Saudi Arabia: Outcry Over Fatwa to Kill Satellite TV Owners

(Photo montage by A§ma using images from the BBC)

Delaware U.S. Senator Joe Biden spoke at a forum at St. Anselm College. He outlined his policy toward Pakistan and took several questions from the moderators.