IRAN  
Iran is undetterred
Washington Post- July 21, 2011
There has been no change in Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons or in its aggressive efforts to drive the United States out of the Middle East.

Do we have an Iran policy?
Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post- Jul 19, 2011
The Obama administration is consumed with the debt ceiling debate and with preventing a meltdown in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Meanwhile, the greatest threat to our national security in decades, the potential for a nuclear-armed Islamic revolutionary state in Tehran, still looms.

PAKISTAN
Musharraf says no complicity on bin Laden
AFP- July 21, 2011
Former president Pervez Musharraf insisted Thursday that Pakistan did not provide assistance to Osama bin Laden as he renewed criticism of the US raid that killed the world’s most wanted man.

US congressional panel rejects proposal to cut off aid to Pakistan
Telegraph- July 22, 2011
The House Foreign Affairs Committee easily blocked an amendment to a spending bill that would have banned any assistance to Pakistan in the wake of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden near the country’s main military academy.

AFGHANISTAN
Doubt clouds NATO handover in Afghanistan
Aymeric Vincenot, AFP- July 22, 2011
Grave doubts over the ability of Afghanistan’s fledgling security forces to beat back the Taliban are weighing on a transition from NATO control taking place in seven parts of the country this week.

NORTH KOREA
Asian nations moce to calm tensions: US commends
Matthew Lee and Robin McDowell, Associated Press- July 22, 2011
On the sidelines of a Southeast Asian regional security conference in Bali, Indonesia, China and its neighbors reached a draft agreement to peacefully resolve competing territorial claims in the strategic South China Sea while North and South Korea agreed to resume talks.

North and South Korea hold ‘constructive’ disarmament talks
Matthew Lee, Globe and Mail- July 22, 2011
Top nuclear envoys from North and South Korea emerged smiling from a face-to-face meeting Friday, saying they were ready to work together to resume stalled disarmament talks.

NORWAY
Norway: Blast near prime minister’s office in Oslo
BBC- July 22, 2011
A large explosion has hit near government headquarters in the Norwegian capital Oslo.

GUANTANAMO BAY
Send suspected terrorists to Guantanamo- not New York
Joseph I. Lieberman and Kelly Ayotte, Washington Post- July 21, 2011
The United States has a first-rate, professionally run facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that is designed for terrorist detentions, interrogations and military trials.

IRAN   Iran cautiously welcomes Russian proposal for bringing Tehran back to nuclear talks Associated Press- July 21, 2011 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has cautiously welcomed a Russian proposal for bringing Iran back to talks over its nu…

IRAN

Lawmaker: Iran Shot Down Unmanned US Spy Plane
AP – July 20, 2011
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that was trying to gather information on an underground uranium enrichment site, a state-owned news site said Wednesday. Lawmaker Ali Aghazadeh Dafsari said the drone was flying over the Fordo uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom in central Iran, the state TV-run Youth Journalists Club said.

Sanctions spark Iran currency fluctuations
Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times – July 20, 2011
International sanctions imposed because of Iran’s nuclear programme are causing fluctuations in the local currency market as a shortage of foreign exchange bites, economists say. One US dollar bought IR11,640 on Wednesday on the open market, down from IR12,000 a month ago, although this was higher than the IR10,700 at the beginning of the year.

France condemns Iran nuclear move
Anna Fifield, Financial Times – July 20, 2011
Iran has claimed it is installing new high-tech uranium enrichment centrifuges to hasten progress in its nuclear programme, a move that France has condemned as a “clear provocation” as the Islamic republic continues to defy international sanctions. Tehran’s claim on Tuesday that it had installed “new centrifuges with better quality and speed” will inflame fears in the west that Iran was making good on its promise to build new secret enrichment facilities to make weapons-grade uranium.

Iran’s central bank launches poll on changing name of national currency
Associated Press – July 16, 2011
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s central bank is asking citizens their opinions on new names for the country’s currency. Visitors to the bank’s website can choose from several names, including rial — the current name — toman, parsi and derik. In the online survey, the bank also asks respondents how many zeros should be removed from the currency. The government has proposed lopping off four zeros.

NORTH KOREA
S. Korea seeks ARF statement on N. Korea’s uranium program
Yonhap – July 20, 2011
SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) — South Korea is trying to convince Asia’s biggest security gathering this week to adopt a statement expressing concern about North Korea’s uranium enrichment program and prodding the North to prove by action its denuclearization commitment, officials said Wednesday. Top diplomats of 27 Asia-Pacific nations are scheduled to meet in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday for an annual meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) that brings together North Korea and all other key players on security issues.

China, North Korea: Unlikely friends
Sunny Lee, Asia Times – July 21, 2011
BEIJING – An estranged couple in the middle of a divorce who smile and hold hands to keep up appearances for the cameras was how pundits used to describe the alliance between the United States and South Korea during the George W Bush and Roo Moo-hyun administrations and their opposing approaches to North Korea. A similar description serves well to characterize ties between China and North Korea, which just celebrated the 50th anniversary of their “Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance”.

AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan: Taliban Deny Reports of Leader’s Death, Citing Hacking
Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times – July 20, 2011
Taliban spokesmen denied reports sent through their e-mail and in text messages early Wednesday that their movement’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, was dead, saying that their Web sites and telephones had been hacked.

Afghanistan’s Last Locavores
Patricia McArdle, New York Times – July 19, 2011
MANY urban Americans idealize “green living” and “slow food.” But few realize that one of the most promising models for sustainable living is not to be found on organic farms in the United States, but in Afghanistan. A majority of its 30 million citizens still grow and process most of the food they consume. They are the ultimate locavores. During the 12 months I spent as a State Department political adviser in northern Afghanistan, I was dismayed to see that instead of building on Afghanistan’s traditional, labor-intensive agricultural and construction practices, the United States is using many of its aid dollars to transform this fragile agrarian society into a consumer-oriented, mechanized, fossil-fuel-based economy.

PAKISTAN
Pakistan’s Military Plotted to Tilt U.S. Policy, F.B.I. Says
Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt, New York Times – July 19, 2011
WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s military, including its powerful spy agency, has spent $4 million over two decades in a covert attempt to tilt American policy against India’s control of much of Kashmir — including funneling campaign donations to members of Congress and presidential candidates, the F.B.I. claimed in court papers unsealed Tuesday. The allegations of a long-running plan to influence American elections and foreign policy come at a time of deep tensions between the United States and Pakistan

IRAN
Iran Claims It Is Installing New Centrifuges
Associated Press – July 19, 2011
Iran said Tuesday that it was installing new and efficient centrifuges aimed at speeding up its nuclear enrichment amid fears Tehran is moving toward weapon-grade enriched uranium. The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, said International Atomic Energy Agency is monitoring the work but did not elaborate on the specifications of the machines. The move comes despite four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions over Tehran’s refusal to halt enrichment.

Herman Cain to Iran: ‘If you mess with Israel you’re messing with the USA’
Los Angeles Times – July 18, 2011
Herman Cain loves deep dish pizza, but he may love Israel more. How do I know? I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t go to war with a man who stole a  pepperoni slice; but if he were president and if a country, even one with a huge army like Iran’s, caused problems with an ally like Israel, there’d be trouble. “If you mess with Israel you’re messing with the United States of America,” the Georgia businessman laid out plainly in his “Cain Doctrine.”

Iran may deploy warships in Atlantic
AFP – July 19, 2011
TEHRAN — The Iranian navy plans on deploying warships to the Atlantic Ocean as part of a programme to ply international waters, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari said in statements published Tuesday. But the commander of the navy, quoted by Kayhan newspaper, said he was waiting for “final approval” before launching the operation.

NORTH KOREA
Ruling party leader sees little progress in resumption of inter-Korean talks
Yonhap – July 19, 2011
SEOUL, July 19 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s efforts to break the deadlock in relations with North Korea are unlikely to see progress any time soon as Pyongyang is believed to have purged dozens of senior officials handling ties with Seoul, the chairman of the South’s ruling Grand National Party (GNP) said Tuesday.

Clinton with no plans to meet N. Korean FM in Bali: State Dept.
Lee Chi-dong, Yonhap – July 19, 2011
WASHINGTON, July 18 (Yonhap) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no plans to meet her North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of an annual security forum in Bali later this week, a Washington official said Monday.

Seoul working on details of ‘unification tax’: sources
Kim Young-jin, Korea Times – July 18, 2011
South Korea is speeding up efforts to introduce a special tax in preparation for the possible reunification with North Korea, according to officials at the Ministry of Unification. The move for the unification tax in the South has brought about protest from North Korea, claiming Seoul has been seeking the tax in its bid to absorb its northern neighbor.

LIBYA
Libya Rebels Get Formal Backing, and $30 Billion
Sebnem Arsu and Steven Erlanger, New York Times – July 15, 2011
ISTANBUL — The United States formally recognized the rebel leadership in Libya as the country’s legitimate government on Friday, allowing the rebel government access to $30 billion in Libyan assets held in the United States. It is not yet clear how and when the money would be released. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at an international gathering held to discuss the Libyan conflict that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government no longer had any legitimacy, and that the United States would join more than 30 countries in extending diplomatic recognition to the main opposition group, known as the Transitional National Council.

AFGHANISTAN
As Generals Change in Afghan War, Violence Flares
Jack Healy, New York Times – July 18, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — Gen. David H. Petraeus handed over command of the Afghan war on Monday, leaving behind a country racked by deep political instability whose fledgling security forces are fighting a weakened but deadly insurgency that kills coalition troops and Afghan civilians and officials nearly every day. His successor, Gen. John R. Allen, will confront those challenges — and many more — as he guides NATO-led forces through the handoff of security control to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 — a process that is still in its earliest stages.

PAKISTAN
House bill to limit aid to Pakistan, Palestinians
Donna Cassata, Associated Press – July 19, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel unveiled a bill Monday that would block U.S. aid to Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority unless the Obama administration reassures Congress that they are cooperating in the worldwide fight against terrorism. The legislation is a direct challenge to President Barack Obama and his foreign policy authority, and comes as the House is looking at significant cuts in the annual budget for the State Department and foreign assistance.

Pakistani president to visit Afghanistan for security talks
David Ariosto, CNN – July 19, 2011
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is visiting Afghanistan to participate in bilateral talks on “the current security situation in the region,” including the fight against terrorism and cooperation between the two countries, his spokesman said Tuesday.Zardari is also expected to offer condolences to the Afghan president over the recent assassination of Karzai’s half-brother, Ahmed Wali Kazai, once an influential power-broker in the country’s restive south.

INDIA
”Fully” committed to nuke deal but ratify CSC; says US
IBNlive -July 19, 2011
New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) The US today said it was “fully” committed to the civil nuclear pact with India but asked it to ratify the UN convention on nuclear damages and bring its domestic liability regime in line with international norms. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the second round of Indo-US Strategic Dialogue with her counterpart S M Krishna, made it very clear that there were “issues” which required to be resolved by the two sides in the civil nuclear field.

Council for a Livable World Board Member, Matthew Hoh, will be discussing the United States’ 10-year involvement in Afghanistan at the City Club in Cleveland, Ohio. If you are in the area, we highly recommend you attend this event on Friday, August 26,…