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Thursday, March 11, 2010 17:35 GMT

Stories by Gareth Porter

Gareth Porter is an historian with a PhD in South-east Asian studies from Cornell University in New York state. He was Saigon Bureau Chief for Dispatch News Service in 1970 and 1971. Porter has taught international studies at City College of New York and American University and has written several books on Vietnam, the most recent being "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War", published by the University of California Press in 2005. He has also written on war and diplomacy in Cambodia, Korea and the Philippines. Porter has been a news analyst for IPS focusing on U.S. policy and developments in Iraq and Iran since September 2005.

POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War
by Gareth Porter*
For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a &com;city of 80,000 people&com; 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.

POLITICS: Defying U.S., Pakistan Keeps Custody of Baradar
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
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.

AFGHANISTAN: Marja Offensive Aimed to Shape U.S. Opinion on War
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
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.

POLITICS: Jailed Taliban Leader Still a Pakistani Asset
by Gareth Porter*
Contrary to initial U.S. suggestions that it signals reduced Pakistani support for the Taliban, the detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the operational leader of the Afghan Taliban, represents a shift by Pakistan to more open support for the Taliban in preparation for a peace settlement and U.S. withdrawal.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on anti-U.S. Terror
by Gareth Porter*
Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States.

POLITICS: Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators' Plan
by Gareth Porter*
If peace talks do ultimately begin between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leadership, they may well follow a &com;road map&com; to a political settlement drawn up by a group of ex-Taliban officials who have been serving as intermediaries between the two sides.

POLITICS: US, Karzai Clash on Unconditional Talks with Taliban
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
On the surface, it would seem unlikely that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who presides over a politically feeble government and is highly dependent on the U.S. military presence and economic assistance, would defy the United States on the issue of peace negotiations with the leadership of the Taliban insurgency.

POLITICS: Behind Cautious Signal, a Decision for Afghan Peace Talks
by Gareth Porter*
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's very cautiously-worded support for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban leadership in an interview published Monday is only the first public signal of a policy decision by the Barack Obama administration to support a political settlement between the Hamid Karzai regime and the Taliban, an official of McChrystal's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) command has revealed in an interview with IPS.

POLITICS: Iran Uses Fear of Covert Nuclear Sites to Deter Attack
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Iran had &com;quietly hidden an increasingly large part of its atomic complex&com; in a vast network of tunnels and bunkers buried in mountainsides.

IRAN: New Revelations Tear Holes in Nuclear Trigger Story
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
New revelations about two documents leaked to The Times of London to show that Iran is working on a &com;nuclear trigger&com; mechanism have further undermined the credibility of the document the newspaper had presented as evidence of a continuing Iranian nuclear weapons programme.

More North American News

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HAITI: U.S. Acts Quickly on Debt Relief Ahead of Preval Visit

RIGHTS: This Eerie Economic Calm

U.S.: ACLU Ad Challenges Military Commissions

POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War

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