The Dark Side - IPS's coverage of terrorism / IPS Inter Press Service

IPS Correspondent Gareth Porter talks to Real News.

The U.S. military establishment believed they could easily pressure President Obama to back down on his pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. Having found Obama unconvinced by their argument, they have now launched a campaign in Washington to blame Obama's withdrawal policy for any future instability in Iraq.

POLITICS: Sahel Leaders Meet on al Qaeda Threat
By Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON - Representatives from seven North African and Sahelian states convened in Algiers on Tuesday to discuss the growing threat of al Qaeda's North African affiliate in the region.
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POLITICS: Afghanistan Spy Contract Goes Sour for Pentagon - Part 1
By Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON - Mike Furlong, a top Pentagon official, is alleged to have run a covert network of contractors to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the U.S. government.
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POLITICS: Policy Battle over Afghan Peace Talks Intensifies
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - The struggle within the Barack Obama administration over Afghanistan policy entered a new phase when the president suggested at a meeting of his "war cabinet" Friday that it might be time to start negotiations with the Taliban, according to a report in the New York Times Saturday.
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SOMALIA: U.S. Should Accept Islamist Authority, Report Says
By Charles Fromm and Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON - The United States should accept an "Islamist authority" in Somalia as part of a "constructive disengagement" strategy for the war-torn country, according to a new report released here by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on Wednesday.
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U.S.: ACLU Ad Challenges Military Commissions
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Civil libertarians hit back hard Sunday at reports indicating that the Barack Obama administration is about to cave in to pressure from Congress and local groups in New York City and is not only considering transferring the cases of suspected terrorists to another federal court, but even moving them to the military commission system.
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POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand.
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RIGHTS-US: Senate Debates Indefinite Detentions
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Civil liberties advocates and U.S. constitutional law scholars lost no time in condemning proposed legislation introduced in the Senate Thursday that would hand the government the power to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects without charge and to conduct trials through military commissions only.
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US-AFGHANISTAN: Habeas Challenges for Bagram Prisoners
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Four men who have been imprisoned for over a year – some for almost two years – are going to U.S. federal court to challenge their detention at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
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POLITICS: Defying U.S., Pakistan Keeps Custody of Baradar
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - The refusal of Pakistani intelligence to turn over Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and as many as six other top Taliban figures to the United States or the Afghan government has dealt a serious blow to the Barack Obama administration's hopes for Pakistani cooperation in weakening the Taliban.
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U.S.: Senate Torture Probe Uncovers Missing Emails
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - The Justice Department investigation into whether the authors of the George W. Bush-era "torture memos" were guilty of professional misconduct did not have full access to the emails used by those lawyers and by other key figures in the investigation, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former counsel to the Vice President David Addington.
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U.S.: DynCorp Oversight in Afghanistan Faulted
By Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON - Afghan police are widely considered corrupt, unable to shoot straight, and die at twice the rate of Afghan soldiers and NATO troops. After seven billion dollars spent on training and salaries in the last eight years, several U.S. government investigations are asking why.
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AFGHANISTAN: Marja Offensive Aimed to Shape U.S. Opinion on War
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - Senior military officials decided to launch the current U.S.-British military campaign to seize Marja in large part to influence domestic U.S. opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported Monday.
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U.S.: CIA Briefed Congress on Renditions
By Willim Fisher
NEW YORK - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) briefed members of Congress from both political parties numerous times about the agency's interrogation and detention programmes, several prominent human rights groups said Monday.
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Terrorism, and the fight against it, has become all too common in today's news agenda. Reporting news often involves skimming facts from a minefield of propaganda generated on both sides. To find out the facts and reasons behind terrorism, its consequences and the reactions it generates from all over the world, read IPS's global coverage of terrorism.