al-Qaeda

Tehran Times (05/03) quotes Flynt Leverett on UN sanctions and Iran's energy contracts.
Foreign Policy (05/02) features Steve Coll and Peter Bergen discussing Bin Laden.
Russia Profile (04/30) cites Anatol Lieven on the future of US-Russia relations.

U.S.-Iran cooperation? Neo-Taliban? For those of you wanting to go deeper on Afghanistan/Pakistan issues than the campaign soundbytes, here's New America's Nick Schmidle debating Amin Tarzi of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies on Bloggingheads.tv.

The New Yorker (4/21) asks Parag Khanna about the end of autonomy for Western nations.
The Guardian (4/12) quotes Flynt Leverett on Gordon Brown's low U.S. profile.
Congressional Quarterly (4/11) talks with Peter Bergen on the threat from al-Qaeda.
Asharq Alawsat (4/10) listens to a New America delegation to Saudi Arabia talking about Guantanamo Bay.

The term "October surprise" used to refer to an international event that caused a major turn in a U.S. presidential campaign. Steve Coll, New America's president and CEO, thinks that this year's October surprise may be from Osama bin Laden, perhaps at home. Der Spiegel interviews Coll on this and other insights into Osama bin Laden and his large family from his new book, The Bin Ladens.

'Osama bin Laden is Planning Something for the US Election'

Der Spiegel | April 2, 2008

US author Steve Coll spent years looking into Osama bin Laden's family. Now, his new book provides a unique insight into the clan. SPIEGEL spoke with him about where the terrorist might be hiding, how his father got his start, and the unique romantic liasons pursued by one of his brothers.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Coll, Osama bin Laden recently broke a long silence. He threatened Europe and called for the "liberation" of the Gaza Strip. How seriously should we take these missives? Do they tell us anything about him or about where he might be?

Is it possible that Iraq is still sucking up all the best intelligence and counter-insurgency assets of the U.S. Government and leaving only the scraps to deal with the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan? New America Fellow Nick Schmidle, whose New York Times Magazine cover story got him and his wife expelled from Pakistan by the Musharraf government, looks at the state of play in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas in this piece in Sunday's Washington Post. With unmanned Predator strikes killing civilians and senior military advisors trying to replicate Iraq's Anbar Awakening, the answer seems clear.

"A little before noon on February 17, 2003, Abu Omar was headed to his mosque....'Suddenly I was lifted in the air,' he recalled. He was dragged into a white van and beaten, he said...And so began Abu Omar's descent into one of the 21st century's nastier circles of hell..."

The story of the extraordinary rendition of Abu Omar from the streets of Milan and the ongoing Italian criminal proceedings against the 26 alleged CIA employees involved has opened a window into the inner workings of the Bush administration's global war on terror. Published today in Mother Jones, the article is by New America Schwartz Senior Fellow and CNN Terrorism Analyst Peter Bergen, with assistance from New America program associate Katherine Tiedemann.

Click here for the New America Foundation report, "Extraordinary Renditions: A Look at the Data"

Missing in the presidential debate over Pakistan are two critical points, first, it was the U.S. strategy in the war on terror, resulting in the disappearances of more than 500 Pakistani citizens, that triggered the erosion of General Musharraf's support. Second, that neither the Taleban nor the United States are well liked in Pashtun areas. Unless the next U.S. administration takes these two facts to heart, says American Strategy Program Senior Research Fellow Anatol Lieven writing in The National Interest, Pakistan will soon be lost to extremism.

The Bush administration categorizes Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip. President Bush wants an Israeli-Palestinian deal inked by the time he leaves office. Something has to give.

Daniel Levy, director of the New America Foundation's Middle East Policy Initiative, says former Mossad Chief Efraim Halevy's recent interview with Laura Rozen indicates that at least some influential Israelis are willing to start cracking the door to Hamas, starting with popping the myth that the movement is equivalent to al-Qaeda or controlled by Tehran.