Iraq Index Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq
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Somalia's Insurgents Embrace Twitter As a Weapon
Nxxx,2011-12-15,A,010,Bs-BW,E1 A10 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2011 Somalia’s Insurgents EmbraceTHURSDAY, Twitter DECEMBER 15, 2011 as a Weapon By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN NAIROBI, Kenya — Think of it as the Battle of the Tweets. Somalia’s powerful Islamist in- surgents, the Shabab, best known for chopping off hands and starv- ing their own people, just opened a Twitter account, and in the past week they have been writing up a storm, bragging about recent at- tacks and taunting their enemies. “Your inexperienced boys flee from confrontation & flinch in the face of death,” the Shabab wrote in a post to the Kenyan Army. It is an odd, almost downright hypocritical move from brutal militants in one of world’s most broken-down countries, where millions of people do not have enough food to eat, let alone a laptop. The Shabab have vehe- mently rejected Western prac- tices — banning Western music, movies, haircuts and bras, and even blocking Western aid for famine victims, all in the name of their brand of puritanical Islam — only to embrace Twitter, one of the icons of a modern, networked society. On top of that, the Shabab MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR/ASSOCIATED PRESS clearly have their hands full right The Shabab’s fighters are waging a war against Somalia’s interim government and peacekeepers. now, facing thousands of African Union peacekeepers, the Kenyan bab wrote. “Sure your comments lost only 10. African Union offi- statements. He added that the military, the Ethiopian military will invite derision but try to cials later conceded that the Sha- carefully composed e-mails and and the occasional American muster (or feign) courage at bab had been correct. -
Iraq Index Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq
Iraq Index Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq http://www.brookings.edu/iraqindex March 31, 2011 Foreign Policy at Brookings Tracks Security and Reconstruction in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan Afghanistan Index » http://www.brookings.edu/afghanistanindex Iraq Index » http://www.brookings.edu/iraqindex Pakistan Index » http://www.brookings.edu/pakistanindex Michael E. O’Hanlon Ian Livingston For more information please contact Ian Livingston at [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS Tracking the Aftermath of the Surge Page Estimated Number of Iraqi Civilian Fatalities by Month, May 2003-Present…….…...…………………………..…….....….. UPDATED 3.31.11….……3 Detailed Explanation of Iraqi Civilian Fatality Estimates by Time Period……………. UPDATED 3.31.11…..…….……..……………………………….4 Enemy-Initiated Attacks Against the Coalition and Its Partners, by Week..…………..… …...……...……………………………………....…………….....5 Iraqi Military and Police Killed Monthly…………..……………………………….....… . UPDATED 3.31.11....………….……………….....………...……5 Weapons Caches Found and Cleared in Iraq, January 2004-Present……………………...………..……………………………………………………….....6 Number of Roadside and Car Bombs in Kirkuk, 2007-2010………………NEW 2.25.11….….………………………………………………………………6 Multiple Fatality Bombings in Iraq………………… . UPDATED 2.25.11…………....…...………..….……..…………………………………..………..…..7 Killed and Wounded in Multiple Fatality Bombings…….……………....... UPDATED 2.25.11.……...…...………..………..…………..….……..………...7 Number of Multiple Fatality Bombings Targeting Civilians by Sectarian Group and Month…… -
Living Under Drones Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan
Fall 08 September 2012 Living Under Drones Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic Stanford Law School Global Justice Clinic http://livingunderdrones.org/ NYU School of Law Cover Photo: Roof of the home of Faheem Qureshi, a then 14-year old victim of a January 23, 2009 drone strike (the first during President Obama’s administration), in Zeraki, North Waziristan, Pakistan. Photo supplied by Faheem Qureshi to our research team. Suggested Citation: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION CLINIC (STANFORD LAW SCHOOL) AND GLOBAL JUSTICE CLINIC (NYU SCHOOL OF LAW), LIVING UNDER DRONES: DEATH, INJURY, AND TRAUMA TO CIVILIANS FROM US DRONE PRACTICES IN PAKISTAN (September, 2012) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I ABOUT THE AUTHORS III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS V INTRODUCTION 1 METHODOLOGY 2 CHALLENGES 4 CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT 7 DRONES: AN OVERVIEW 8 DRONES AND TARGETED KILLING AS A RESPONSE TO 9/11 10 PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ESCALATION OF THE DRONE PROGRAM 12 “PERSONALITY STRIKES” AND SO-CALLED “SIGNATURE STRIKES” 12 WHO MAKES THE CALL? 13 PAKISTAN’S DIVIDED ROLE 15 CONFLICT, ARMED NON-STATE GROUPS, AND MILITARY FORCES IN NORTHWEST PAKISTAN 17 UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET: FATA IN CONTEXT 20 PASHTUN CULTURE AND SOCIAL NORMS 22 GOVERNANCE 23 ECONOMY AND HOUSEHOLDS 25 ACCESSING FATA 26 CHAPTER 2: NUMBERS 29 TERMINOLOGY 30 UNDERREPORTING OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES BY US GOVERNMENT SOURCES 32 CONFLICTING MEDIA REPORTS 35 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS -
Countering Terrorism in East Africa: the U.S
Countering Terrorism in East Africa: The U.S. Response Lauren Ploch Analyst in African Affairs November 3, 2010 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R41473 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Countering Terrorism in East Africa: The U.S. Response Summary The United States government has implemented a range of programs to counter violent extremist threats in East Africa in response to Al Qaeda’s bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 and subsequent transnational terrorist activity in the region. These programs include regional and bilateral efforts, both military and civilian. The programs seek to build regional intelligence, military, law enforcement, and judicial capacities; strengthen aviation, port, and border security; stem the flow of terrorist financing; and counter the spread of extremist ideologies. Current U.S.-led regional counterterrorism efforts include the State Department’s East Africa Regional Strategic Initiative (EARSI) and the U.S. military’s Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), part of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The United States has also provided significant assistance in support of the African Union’s (AU) peace operations in Somalia, where the country’s nascent security forces and AU peacekeepers face a complex insurgency waged by, among others, Al Shabaab, a local group linked to Al Qaeda that often resorts to terrorist tactics. The State Department reports that both Al Qaeda and Al Shabaab pose serious terrorist threats to the United States and U.S. interests in the region. Evidence of linkages between Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen, highlight another regional dimension of the threat posed by violent extremists in the area. -
Wanting, Not Waiting
WINNERSdateline OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB AWARDS 2011 Wanting, Not Waiting 2012 Another Year of Uprisings SPECIAL EDITION dateline 2012 1 letter from the president ne year ago, at our last OPC Awards gala, paying tribute to two of our most courageous fallen heroes, I hardly imagined that I would be standing in the same position again with the identical burden. While last year, we faced the sad task of recognizing the lives and careers of two Oincomparable photographers, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, this year our attention turns to two writers — The New York Times’ Anthony Shadid and Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times of London. While our focus then was on the horrors of Gadhafi’s Libya, it is now the Syria of Bashar al- Assad. All four of these giants of our profession gave their lives in the service of an ideal and a mission that we consider so vital to our way of life — a full, complete and objective understanding of a world that is so all too often contemptuous or ignorant of these values. Theirs are the same talents and accomplishments to which we pay tribute in each of our awards tonight — and that the Overseas Press Club represents every day throughout the year. For our mission, like theirs, does not stop as we file from this room. The OPC has moved resolutely into the digital age but our winners and their skills remain grounded in the most fundamental tenets expressed through words and pictures — unwavering objectivity, unceasing curiosity, vivid story- telling, thought-provoking commentary. -
Law and Military Operations in Kosovo: 1999-2001, Lessons Learned For
LAW AND MILITARY OPERATIONS IN KOSOVO: 1999-2001 LESSONS LEARNED FOR JUDGE ADVOCATES Center for Law and Military Operations (CLAMO) The Judge Advocate General’s School United States Army Charlottesville, Virginia CENTER FOR LAW AND MILITARY OPERATIONS (CLAMO) Director COL David E. Graham Deputy Director LTC Stuart W. Risch Director, Domestic Operational Law (vacant) Director, Training & Support CPT Alton L. (Larry) Gwaltney, III Marine Representative Maj Cody M. Weston, USMC Advanced Operational Law Studies Fellows MAJ Keith E. Puls MAJ Daniel G. Jordan Automation Technician Mr. Ben R. Morgan Training Centers LTC Richard M. Whitaker Battle Command Training Program LTC James W. Herring Battle Command Training Program MAJ Phillip W. Jussell Battle Command Training Program CPT Michael L. Roberts Combat Maneuver Training Center MAJ Michael P. Ryan Joint Readiness Training Center CPT Peter R. Hayden Joint Readiness Training Center CPT Mark D. Matthews Joint Readiness Training Center SFC Michael A. Pascua Joint Readiness Training Center CPT Jonathan Howard National Training Center CPT Charles J. Kovats National Training Center Contact the Center The Center’s mission is to examine legal issues that arise during all phases of military operations and to devise training and resource strategies for addressing those issues. It seeks to fulfill this mission in five ways. First, it is the central repository within The Judge Advocate General's Corps for all-source data, information, memoranda, after-action materials and lessons learned pertaining to legal support to operations, foreign and domestic. Second, it supports judge advocates by analyzing all data and information, developing lessons learned across all military legal disciplines, and by disseminating these lessons learned and other operational information to the Army, Marine Corps, and Joint communities through publications, instruction, training, and databases accessible to operational forces, world-wide. -
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Saint Paul University The Making of Torturers: The Case of Abu Ghraib – An Exploration of Individual Psychological Factors, Group Factors, and Mimetic Structures of Violence By Nadine Olafsson A THESIS SUBMITTED to the FACULTY of GRADUATE STUDIES in PARTIAL FULFILLMENT of the REQUIREMENTS for the DEGREE of MASTER of ARTS in CONFLICT STUDIES © Nadine Olafsson, Ottawa, Canada, 2017 Abstract The exposure of the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib in 2004 deeply shocked the American conscience and triggered a widespread public debate surrounding both the legitimacy of the use of torture and American values. With the election of president Trump this discussion has once more moved into the limelight of public discussion. While much attention has been devoted to the morality of torture, little has been paid to the perpetrators of torture themselves. This thesis explores the theoretical framework of Grodin and Annas (2007) to assess individual and group psychological factors in combination with Redekop’s (2002) mimetic structures of violence to assess how ordinary people turned into torturers at Abu Ghraib in 2004. The data analysed stems from the Central Investigative Departments investigation into the torture scandal, as well as the Taguba Report, the Fay Report, the Schlesinger Report, the Red Cross Report and Errol Morris award winning documentary Standard Operating Procedure. The study finds that individual and group psychological factors, in conjuncture with mimetic structures of violence appeared to have played a role in the making of torturers -
Interrogation, Detention, and Torture DEBORAH N
Finding Effective Constraints on Executive Power: Interrogation, Detention, and Torture DEBORAH N. PEARLSTEIN* INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1255 I. EXECUTIVE POLICY AND PRACTICE: COERCIVE INTERROGATION AND T O RTU RE ....................................................................................................1257 A. Vague or Unlawful Guidance................................................................ 1259 B. Inaction .................................................................................................1268 C. Resources, Training, and a Plan........................................................... 1271 II. ExECuTrVE LIMITs: FINDING CONSTRAINTS THAT WORK ...........................1273 A. The ProfessionalM ilitary...................................................................... 1274 B. The Public Oversight Organizationsof Civil Society ............................1279 C. Activist Federal Courts .........................................................................1288 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................1295 INTRODUCTION While the courts continue to debate the limits of inherent executive power under the Federal Constitution, the past several years have taught us important lessons about how and to what extent constitutional and sub-constitutional constraints may effectively check the broadest assertions of executive power. Following the publication -
Old Habits, New Consequences Old Habits, New Khalid Homayun Consequences Nadiri Pakistan’S Posture Toward Afghanistan Since 2001
Old Habits, New Consequences Old Habits, New Khalid Homayun Consequences Nadiri Pakistan’s Posture toward Afghanistan since 2001 Since the terrorist at- tacks of September 11, 2001, Pakistan has pursued a seemingly incongruous course of action in Afghanistan. It has participated in the U.S. and interna- tional intervention in Afghanistan both by allying itself with the military cam- paign against the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida and by serving as the primary transit route for international military forces and matériel into Afghanistan.1 At the same time, the Pakistani security establishment has permitted much of the Afghan Taliban’s political leadership and many of its military command- ers to visit or reside in Pakistani urban centers. Why has Pakistan adopted this posture of Afghan Taliban accommodation despite its nominal participa- tion in the Afghanistan intervention and its public commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan?2 This incongruence is all the more puzzling in light of the expansion of insurgent violence directed against Islamabad by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a coalition of militant organizations that are independent of the Afghan Taliban but that nonetheless possess social and po- litical links with Afghan cadres of the Taliban movement. With violence against Pakistan growing increasingly indiscriminate and costly, it remains un- clear why Islamabad has opted to accommodate the Afghan Taliban through- out the post-2001 period. Despite a considerable body of academic and journalistic literature on Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan since 2001, the subject of Pakistani accommodation of the Afghan Taliban remains largely unaddressed. Much of the existing literature identiªes Pakistan’s security competition with India as the exclusive or predominant driver of Pakistani policy vis-à-vis the Afghan Khalid Homayun Nadiri is a Ph.D. -
Conflicted: the New York Times and the Bias Question Epilogue CSJ-10
CSJ‐ 10‐ 0034.2 PO Conflicted: The New York Times and the Bias Question Epilogue New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller’s rebuttal ran adjacent to Ombudsman Clark Hoyt’s column on the Times’ website on February 6, 2010. Neither Hoyt’s column nor Keller’s response ran in the paper. Keller opened by offering a quick and forceful endorsement of the Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner. Then Keller argued that the decision to keep Bronner in Jerusalem was made out of respect for open‐minded readers who, he said, Hoyt improperly implied were not capable of distinguishing reality from appearances. He noted that the paper’s rulebook properly gave editors wide latitude to act in conflict of interest cases. Indeed, he continued, a journalist’s personal connections to a subject could contribute depth and texture to their reporting. As examples, he cited C.J. Chivers, Anthony Shadid, and Nazila Fathi. However, he chose not to go into detail about their biographies. Nor did he write about columnist Thomas Friedman and the instances in which he was touched by the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict. Instead, Keller observed that, as a reader, he could discern nothing in these journalists’ reporting that betrayed their personal feeling about the issues they covered. Finally, he closed with the argument that the paper had to be careful not to capitulate to partisans on either side of a conflict. To submit to their demands would rob the paper of experienced journalists like Bronner, whereas in fact the partisans were incapable of fairly evaluating him. This did not mean, he said, that he was denying the significance of Bronner’s family connections to Israel. -
Developing Countries in World Politics
IR 344: Developing Countries in World Politics Fall 2010 WPH B28 School of International Relations University of Southern California Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:50AM Instructor: Dr. Eric Blanchard SOS 268 [email protected] (213) 740-2554 Office Hours: Wednesday 5-6PM, Thursday 11AM-1PM, and by appointment I. Course Description, Objectives and Requirements: “Developing Countries in World Politics” is a course that blends history and theory to help students (as future policymakers, scholars or informed citizens) better understand the politics of the developing world and the role of the United States in these politics. In other words, students will become familiar with the impact of U.S. involvement in the developing world, and the role this involvement played in constituting the American ascendency. We will engage in a historically grounded survey of the politics of developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East, developing an understanding of the particular issues faced in these countries such as underdevelopment, poverty, debt, religious and ethnic conflict, and climate change. In addition, we will pay close attention to the successes and failures of attempts on the part of Third World to organize outside of the Cold War system dominated by the most powerful states. Along the way, we will also consider the strengths and weaknesses of theories of International Relations, political science and sociology for understanding the developing world or global “South” and its relations with the advanced -
Afghanistan in Poetry, Literature, and Nonfiction Texts
Afghanistan in Poetry, Literature, and Nonfiction Texts Elisabeth Raab School of the Future Overview Rationale Objectives Strategies Classroom Activities Annotated Bibliography/Resources Appendix A: PA State Standards for English Appendix B: List of Key Terms for Activity 1 Appendix C: Discussion Questions for Afghan Star Appendix D: Breakdown and Discussion Questions for The Forever War Overview This unit is intended for high school students, particularly 9th graders, to be implemented in English 1 class. It is meant to build reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, the content being linked by a common subject: the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, its effects in Afghanistan itself, and the similarities and differences that exist between American and Afghan culture. The unit begins with some background building, using reference materials to illuminate basic facts about Afghanistan, its culture, and the history of the conflict there. Following are some classroom activities that will engage students in exploring the differences of perspective between Afghans and Americans. Students will participate in a screening of, Afghan Star, a very intriguing documentary about a popular American-Idol style television show in Afghanistan. Following the film, they will read poems by Afghan and American poets about Afghanistan, to build poetry reading skills and explore contrasting points of view. The last two activities in the unit relate to reading and understanding narrative texts about Afghanistan, both nonfiction and fiction. Students will read sections of the first chapter of Dexter Filkins’ book The Forever War and participate in activities related to Kite Runner, the bestselling 2003 novel by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner activities can provide closure to the unit because they enable students to display the full body of knowledge they have acquired over the course of the unit.