Rehman Malik: Heading for the Hills?

This past Saturday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters he would resign if the private security company Blackwater (Xe) was found operating in Pakistan. Following the release of Jeremy Scahill’s piece in The Nation, “Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan,” he may have already snatched his toupee off the hat stand and headed for the hills.
Scahill, [...]

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The Political Magician Does it Again

Forbes magazine just released their “World’s Most Powerful People” list, and guess what – Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani, our very own political magician, made the cut. Ranked at #38 (out of 67), one slot behind Osama bin Laden and two behind Indian PM Manmohan Singh, Forbes wrote,

Less powerful than bin Laden—can’t find him in [...]

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Should Pakistan Rock Out Against the Taliban?

Adam Ellick, a fantastic video journalist, has covered a wide range of topics related to Pakistan – from the issue of Swat to the sex toy industry to the issue of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Karachi. Yesterday, the NY Times released another video report entitled, “Tuning Out the Taliban,” in which Ellick discusses why Pakistan’s music [...]

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Look for the “Bear” Necessities…

I am currently in the midst of conceptualizing and writing far deeper posts, but this story was just too ironic to ignore. According to news agencies Tuesday, a bear killed two militants after “discovering them in its den” in Kulgam district, just south of Srinigar in Indian-administered Kashmir. According to the Telegraph, the men, known [...]

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The Opiate of the Masses – Literally.

The United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime came out with an interesting report this week, which found that Afghanistan-grown poppies fuel a $65 billion heroin and opium market that feeds 15 million addicts. The paper, entitled, Addiction, Crime & Insurgency – The Transnational Threat of Afghanistan’s Opium, reported that the country “produces 92 percent [...]

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BREAKING NEWS: Lahore Attacks

On Thursday morning [9:15 am PST], media agencies reported that gunmen dressed in police uniforms targeted three law enforcement agencies in Lahore – the Federal Investigative Agency on Temple Road, the Manawan Police Academy, [the site of a previous militant attack, see related CHUP post], and the Elite Force Training Institute on Bedian Road. According [...]

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NY Times Documentary on Swat: “The War is Far from Over”

Yesterday, the NY Times posted a documentary by journalist Adam Ellick that chronicled the journey of a family who were displaced from their home in Mingora following the military offensive in Swat Valley, [click here to see Part I of the film, "Class Dismissed," released back in February]. The short film, entitled, “A Schoolgirl’s Odyssey,” [...]

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The Art of Saying Nothing At All

I don’t know if you were able to catch Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer yesterday, but the official sat down and discussed U.S.-Pakistan relations with the news anchor, as well as America’s presence in Afghanistan. The interview went as expected, given the party lines/rhetoric that had to be toed, but [...]

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Bombing at United Nations Food Office

On Monday, a suicide bomber detonated eight kilograms of explosives inside the Islamabad office of the United Nations World Food Program. The bombing, the first in Islamabad since June, killed five people – four Pakistanis and one Iraqi national [including two women], and injured six. Adam Motiwalla, an information officer at the UN agency who [...]

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He Said What?!

If you haven’t had a chance to read Dr. AQ Khan’s “Random Thoughts” column in The News today, you are missing out. In the piece, entitled, “Pleasant Memories,” the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb unveils his “special interest” in the Makrani people, an ethnic group of African descent [also known as the Sheedis] who live [...]

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