The shifting alliances of Pakistan and Afghanistan’s militants (Reuters)
The Jihadica website has just posted an item about an apparent rift between al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban in the so-called Quetta shura led by Mullah Omar.
Iraq: Open for Business (NY Times)
A milestone in the war in Iraq passed this week largely unnoticed here in a capital consumed more recently by Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, not to mention the economy or health care. Hundreds of Iraqi officials — said to be the largest delegation from Iraq ever to visit the United States — gathered in a hotel near Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss neither security nor American troop levels. Rather they came to promote something that was once, and might still be, more of a hope than a reality: investment
Pricey new U.S. Embassy in Iraq has multiple’ flaws (McClatchy)
The $736 million new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which American diplomats have occupied for 18 months, contains “multiple significant construction deficiencies,” and the U.S. government should try to recover more than $130 million from the contractor that built it, according to a report released Thursday.
