News and Analysis (10/20-1/07)

After years of unethical and ineffective torture interrogations by the CIA against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Al-Qaeda operatives, the FBI is slowly building its own cases against the militants because the CIA’s interrogations would be inadmissible in a US court:

• FBI Working to Bolster Al Qaeda Cases (Los Angeles Times)

The New York Times Magazine takes a look at Gitmo military lawyer and whistleblower Matthew Diaz’s moral and legal troubles for publicly revealing the list of detainees’ names back in 2004:

• Naming Names at Gitmo (New York Times)

Former top Iran nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani resigns from his post allegedly over disputes with President Ahmadinejad and is replaced with a hardline diplomat; however, Larijani will be present at upcoming talks in Rome as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei’s representative:

• Iran’s Larijani Set for EU Talks (BBC News)

• Iran’s Hard-Line Nuclear Reshuffle (BBC News)

“Between 2003, the year I started working for The Post, and the summer of 2006, when I left Baghdad, about 93 journalists were killed; 85 percent of them were Iraqis, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The total number of journalists killed in this war has now reached 119.”—Bassam Sebti, former Iraqi Washington Post correspondent

• What I Risked as an Iraqi Journalist (Washington Post)

In a bid to keep Turkey on the path of EU-inspired reform and away from political obstructionism, the AK party makes another major political throw-down as Turks vote in a national referendum on whether to elect their president directly, or to keep it within the hands of parliament:

• Turks Vote In Referendum on Presidential Reform (Reuters/New York Times)

Bombings of Bhutto convoy in Pakistan “where Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and nuclear weapons are all in play” raise the possibility of a nightmare scenario because of over-reliance on Musharraf’s supposedly American-friendly authoritarianism:

• In Pakistan Quandary, U.S. Reviews Stance (New York Times)

“Far from “draining the swamp” of terrorism, as U.S. architects of the war had hoped, the new Iraq imports suicide terrorists and exports bombing techniques, most notably to Afghanistan, where insurgents are now copying the improvised explosive devices that have proved so devastating to U.S. forces in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle.”—Fawaz Gerges, professor of international affairs at Sarah Lawrence College

• Deadly Embrace (Washington Post)

Alejandro

Alejandro Beutel is program assistant for the Minaret of Freedom Institute with expertise in religious freedom, democratization and security issues.