Pirates operate undeterred in the high seas

by Rohan Mathes

Sea piracy is as old as the sea itself. Piracy on the high seas could be traced back to the era when the Viking pirates prowled the seas in search of treasures. Later, the sea -roving plunderers operated in the Horn of Africa, including the Somali waters, the Gulf of Aden, South East Asia, including Indonesian waters, the Malacca Straits, the South China Seas, South Asian waters as far west past Japan, the Bay of Bengal, the Niger Delta in West Africa and the Persian Gulf waters . Nevertheless, in no time in the known history of maritime piracy, has this menace reached such exponential proportions and impacted on the international marine industry, as now.

TEDGlobal: The business of terrorism

Terrorism is extremely expensive, and economist and journalist Loretta Napoleoni found unexpected ways that it drives the world economy

Loretta Napoleoni at TEDGlobal 2009 Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson

Like the fall of the Roman Empire, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism brought about surge in the shadow economy, what economist and journalist Loretta Napoleoni calls the rogue economics of terror and criminal networks.

Former civilian senior Intelligence/Policy adviser to Iraq’s Ministry of Interior, detainee screen/interrogator, talks about former Iraqi regime and terrorism

(Moderator note: comments for www.regimeofterror.com are now activated at the end of each post)

During a series of email and telephone exchanges Matthew Degn relayed to www.regimeofterror.com his vast array of experiences working with intelligence issues relating to the current and former situation in Iraq. Among his responsibilities during his years in Iraq Degn worked as a civilian interrogator attached to the U.S. Army in Iraq before working as a Senior Policy/Intelligence Adviser to Deputy General Kamal and other top intelligence officials with theIraq’s Ministry of Interior. Degn, currently working on a book about his experiences in Iraq (personal website here), continues to argue against those that feel there was no link between terrorism and Saddam Hussein’s regime based on his involvement with hundreds of interrogations in Iraq and his involvement with many of the Iraqi Intelligence officials with the Ministry of Interior. Degn says that much of the public perception about Saddam Hussein’s regime and terrorism are incorrect.

China: Claves del conflicto de Xinjiang

Entendiendo los orígenes, el desarrollo y la situación actual de la zona

Por Nicolás de Pedro, 15 de Julio de 2009

More talks about talks?

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

By Dr Maleeha Lodhi

The writer is a former envoy to the US and the UK, and a former editor of The News.

The Sharm el-Sheikh meeting between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India marked a new thaw in relations and promised an improvement in the political climate between the estranged neighbours.

But no resumption was announced of the broader peace talks that go by the name of composite dialogue. What was agreed in this meeting was to resume the diplomatic engagement between the two countries halted by Delhi after the Mumbai terrorist attack. No concrete timetable, however, was laid out for this purpose.

The UK and China

Kerry Brown

THE British Government released its “The UK and China: A Framework for Engagement” document with considerable fanfare earlier this year, just before Premier Wen Jiabao came to the UK. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband proudly put their signatures under bold-sounding statements about the UK extracting maximum benefit from its unique relationship with China. Brown’s leadership over the response to the banking crisis in late 2008 had won plaudits in China, as had the very fact that the UK had chosen China over all other countries to issue such a document about in the first place.

Water Disputes Between India and Pakistan – A Potential Casus Belli

Editor of Leading Pakistani Paper: ‘If, in Order to Resolve Our Water Problems, We Have to Wage Nuclear War with India, We Will’ – Water Disputes Between India and Pakistan – A Potential Casus Belli

By: Tufail Ahmad *

Urdu-Pashtu Media Project|#536| July 20, 2009

Introduction

Concern is growing in Pakistan that India is pursuing policies in an attempt to strangulate Pakistan by exercising control over the water flow of Pakistan’s rivers. The concern is most related to Pakistan’s agricultural sector, which would be greatly affected by the building of dams and by the external control of the waters of several rivers that flow into Pakistan.(1) The issue has a layered complexity, as three of the rivers flow into Pakistan through the Indian portion of Jammu & Kashmir, the territory over which the two countries have waged multiple wars.(2)

Pakistani columnists, religious leaders, and policymakers are increasingly articulating their concern over the water dispute in terms of a traditional rivalry against India and in terms of anti-Israel sentiment that has been fostered by the country’s establishment over the years. In one such recent case, Ayaz Amir, a renowned Pakistani columnist, warned: “Insisting on our water rights with regard to India must be one of the cornerstones of our foreign policy. The disputes of the future will be about water.”(3) Hamid Gul, former chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), charged: “India has stopped our water.”