Analysis: Amid pending launch, N. Korea only shows half its hand

The United States, Japan and South Korea can only wait and see what North Korea has up its sleeve. For almost a month, the reclusive country has been showing only a few of its cards to the world as it intends to — in its words — launch “an experimental communication satellite for peaceful purposes.” However, while the North Koreans are showing just a few cards, as is typical for them, there are no expectations they will show their whole hand — and many believe they are playing their own game

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Why Pakistan Balks at Taking a Tougher Line on the Taliban

The key element in President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan strategy is getting Pakistan to fight the Taliban on its side of the border. But despite the Administration demanding a more concerted effort against militants on Pakistani soil as a condition for further aid to Pakistan’s military — and warnings by Centcom commander General David Petraeus and others that the Taliban threatens to destroy Pakistan as a state — many in Washington and beyond are skeptical that Pakistan will cooperate. U.S.

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India Vindicated by Pakistan Charge

It should come as no surprise that India is feeling vindicated: The United States has finally come around to endorsing India’s view of the nefarious regional role of Pakistan’s intelligence service. Reports in recent days that the CIA has confronted Pakistan with evidence that its spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence , had a hand in last month’s suicide terrorist attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul echo India’s long-held conviction that Pakistan is backing terrorism in the region. Five days after the July 7 bombing that killed nearly 60 people, Indian National Security Adviser M.K

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Protesters, police go online in G20 battle

Social networking Web sites are set to play a crucial role in protests ahead of next week’s G20 meeting of world leaders in London as demonstration organizers and police use Twitter and Facebook as key sources of real-time information and intelligence. Metropolitan Police leaders have warned that the city faces an “unprecedented” wave of protest in the run-up to Thursday’s summit talks on the state of the global economy and are set to deploy huge numbers of officers to maintain public order.

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Warning shot kills Iraqi girl, coalition says

A 12-year-old girl died Monday after she was struck by a warning shot fired as a vehicle accelerated toward an Iraqi police station, said the U.S.-led military coalition. The comments came at the daily White House briefing, during which Gibbs dismissed Cheney’s statement Sunday on CNN that several of President Obama’s policies had left the country less safe.

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In the Waterfront: The U.S. Prison for Iraq’s Worst Prisoners Prepares to Close

A distinct vibe emanates from behind the 15-ft.-high chain fences reinforced with rebar and rimmed by razor wire that encircle the so-called “Waterfront” compound at Camp Bucca. It’s different from the other compounds in this sprawling 100-acre, open-air U.S detention center close to the Kuwaiti border, the largest in Iraq, which houses a little over 10,000 of the 13,832 detainees currently in U.S custody

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The Afghanistan Problem: Can Obama Avoid a Quagmire?

On the Friday after he was inaugurated, Barack Obama held a full-scale National Security Council meeting about the most serious foreign policy crisis he is facing — the deteriorating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “It was a pretty alarming meeting,” said one senior Administration official.

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Commentary: Rush Limbaugh GOP debate is idiotic

The cold winds of March have obviously affected the intelligence and thought processes of people who need to get their thinking straight. (CNN) — The cold winds of March have obviously affected the intelligence and thought processes of people who need to get their thinking straight. The idiotic debate raging in Washington this week around Michael Steele, the newly elected chairman of the nearly defunct Republican Party, and Rush Limbaugh, a conservative icon for the past 35 years, is beyond foolish.

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