POSTED BY Buzz ON Jan 12, 2012 AT 22:57 IST ,  Edited At: Jan 12, 2012 21:57 IST

Hamilton Nolan reacts to the video of US Marines urinating on three Taliban corpses in Afghanistan, which has been widely condemned across the spectrum in the US establishment, at Gawker:

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POSTED BY Buzz ON Jan 12, 2012 AT 22:57 IST, Edited At: Jan 12, 2012 21:57 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep ON Jul 26, 2010 AT 04:08 IST ,  Edited At: Jul 26, 2010 04:32 IST

The Wikileaks documents, based on which the NYT, the Guardian and Der Spiegel have carried simultaneous but independent reports, are being described as the biggest Intelligence Leak in history. Given the sheer numbers (said to be 92,000 individual reports), it is going to be quite some time before the available documents can be properly analysed, but the NYT report  provides the following that would be of interest to India, even if these details have already been known and discussed widely:

American officials have rarely uncovered definitive evidence of direct ISI involvement in a major attack. But in July 2008, the C.I.A.’s deputy director, Stephen R. Kappes, confronted Pakistani officials with evidence that the ISI helped plan the deadly suicide bombing of India’s Embassy in Kabul.

From the current trove, one report shows that Polish intelligence warned of a complex attack against the Indian Embassy a week before that bombing, though the attackers and their methods differed. The ISI was not named in the report warning of the attack

In other instances, American intelligence learned that the Haqqani network sent bombers at the ISI’s behest to strike Indian officials, development workers and engineers in Afghanistan. Other plots were aimed at the Afghan government.

While the NYT (from which the above has been taken) has blanked out "Some names and details" "to conceal suspects' identities, or because they might put people in danger or reveal key tactical military capabilities", it is possible that the Wikileaks site may have the original documents. Haven't checked there yet.

Read more: Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert

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POSTED BY Sundeep ON Jul 26, 2010 AT 04:08 IST, Edited At: Jul 26, 2010 04:32 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep ON Nov 11, 2009 AT 03:51 IST ,  Edited At: Nov 11, 2009 04:51 IST

K.P. Nayar spells it out as the prime minister, Manmohan Singh prepares to visit Washington:

Notwithstanding New Delhi’s known opposition to bracketing India along with Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are many policy-makers in the Obama administration who believe that the US cannot win the war in Afghanistan unless they also push for a solution to Kashmir and that the problem of a failing state in Pakistan cannot be adequately addressed unless New Delhi and Islamabad are nudged towards a reconciliation...

...there is lack of comprehension now in New Delhi that the Obama administration intends to eventually legitimize the Taliban: what Washington is looking for is a way to put the best front on that eventuality and justify such an about-turn...

Read the full piece at the Telegraph

C. Raja Mohan adds:

...the cynical view of the prime minister’s visit to Washington is that it will be long on rhetoric but short on substance. But the unfolding developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan are too consequential for the national security of both India and the United States for their leaders to waste the opportunity for thinking at the highest levels about political cooperation on stabilising the north-western parts of the Subcontinent.

Read on at the Indian Express

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POSTED BY Sundeep ON Nov 11, 2009 AT 03:51 IST, Edited At: Nov 11, 2009 04:51 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep ON May 07, 2009 AT 00:57 IST ,  Edited At: May 13, 2009 23:49 IST

Golnar Motevalli reports for Reuters: 

Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.

The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.

More here

This is perhaps also an opportunity to put in the joke received on  SMS today: "They said pigs would fly if a black man became President. Well, swine flu."

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POSTED BY Sundeep ON May 07, 2009 AT 00:57 IST, Edited At: May 13, 2009 23:49 IST
     
 
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