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...Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, National Security Council officials on the Iran file under the Bush Administration (who later publicly broke with and denounced its policies) argue on Politico.com that "the shock of the 'Iran experts' [in the U.S.] over Friday's [election] results is entirely self-generated, based on their preferred assumptions and wishful thinking." They remind readers that Ahmadinejad was generally agreed to have a commanding lead in the polls two weeks before voting and that his combative performance in the televised debates had boosted his standing and demoralized the opposition. They sketch the sociology...
...contributed to Pakistan's slide into chaos over recent years more than Baitullah Mehsud. From his base in the wilds of South Waziristan, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban has overseen the killing of more than 1,200 civilians and several hundred soldiers through brutal means, including suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. He has been accused of masterminding the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in late December 2007. In late March, Washington announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, describing Mehsud as a "key al-Qaeda facilitator." And over the past week alone...
...pathological networks of patronage" - and ones that Moscow knows how to navigate. That close working relationship has been on full display recently in Kyrgyzstan: spurred by a Russian promise of $2 billion in aid, the Kyrgyz government signaled its intent to shut down the U.S.'s pivotal Manas air base there in January, and reaffirmed that pledge this week despite recent overtures from the Obama administration...
...With the anticipated loss of Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan, the U.S. has again turned to Karimov's Uzbekistan for logistical assistance. Central Asia watchers in the U.S. say that part of the difficulty Washington now faces in the region stems from its own short-sightedness in engaging governments there. "The U.S. approach was one-dimensional," says Mankoff of the Council on Foreign Relations. "A lot of attention has been paid to cooperating with military and security forces at the expense of a broader relationship." The Obama administration has no dedicated Central Asia envoy nor is it willing to pursue...
Those charging election fraud base their claim on several main arguments. They say the results were released too quickly and were given out as a single number rather than broken down by province, as in previous elections. They also charge that some numbers simply don't make sense, such as Ahmadinejad's higher count in Mousavi's hometown of Tabriz and the other moderate challenger Mehdi Karroubi's less than 1% vote count, despite his relative popularity among ethnic Lors, Kurds and Sufis, as well as women's and students' rights activists...