Intelligence Quarterly

BRUSSELS - The latest in a series of Franco-German meetings to deal with the eurozone crisis saw little in the way of concrete decisions, but Chancellor Angela Merkel took the opportunity to warn Greece there will be no more money unless progress is made on details of the country’s second aid package. Read the rest of this entry »

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday verified that Iran had initiated production of 20 percent-enriched uranium at its underground Qum complex, the New York Times reported (seeGSN, Jan. 9). Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday Syrian President Bashar Al Assad made a public statement at Damascus University.  Read the rest of this entry »

Senior U.S. officials say their talks with the Taliban have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible. Read the rest of this entry »

The MENA region faces another year of political turmoil in the aftermath of the popular uprisings that have resulted in the overthrow of three Arab dictators (soon to be four, assuming Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh steps down as agreed next February) and an ongoing insurrection in Syria. The dominant theme amid the revolutionary ferment has been the desire for democratic rights. Where new political processes have got under way, Islamist political forces have come to the fore, and one of the key issues of the coming period will be to what extent they can turn their popular appeal into effective governance. The political unrest has wrought a heavy toll on the economies of the countries directly involved, and this will aggravate the difficulties facing the newly elected governments. The Gulf Arab states have by and large benefited from the turmoil, as oil prices have risen, but they face their own domestic political challenges and have cause to be anxious about the risk of an oil price crash. Developments in both Iran and Iraq will also have a major bearing on both regional political stability and the oil market. Read the rest of this entry »

Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 9 Issue: 47

In spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Former Pakistani Army Chief General Ziauddin Butt (a.k.a. General Ziauddin Khawaja) revealed at a conference on Pakistani-U.S. relations in October 2011 that according to his knowledge the then former Director-General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004 – 2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah (Retd.), had kept Osama bin Laden in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad. In the same address, he revealed that the ISI had helped the CIA to track him down and kill on May 1. The revelation remained unreported for some time because some intelligence officers had asked journalists to refrain from publishing General Butt’s remarks. [1] No mention of the charges appeared until right-wing columnist Altaf Hassan Qureshi referred to them in an Urdu-language article that appeared on December 8. [2] Read the rest of this entry »

Abu Dhabi: A new global financial crisis is in the making and could unleash its fury as early as 2012, a year when bond rollovers in the US, Asia and Europe worth a combined $6.5 trillion (Dh23.87 trillion) are due, experts warn. Read the rest of this entry »

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 8 Issue: 230

Russian foreign policy under Vladimir Putin is increasingly resorting to gunboat diplomacy (see EDM, December 12). However, another key element in Putin’s agenda has been his aggressive campaign to assert Russian interests in the Arctic. The aggressiveness has been manifested in earlier rhetorical exchanges and the resumption of Russian military flights over and from the Arctic, as well as pronounced efforts to rebuild Russia’s military in addition to its economic presence there. The purpose, along with the ongoing Russian scientific expeditions in the Arctic is to gather the materials needed to substantiate Moscow’s claims to major portions of the disputed Arctic territory when it presents its case to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2012 (Interfax-AVN, November 25). Read the rest of this entry »