Center for a New American Security

A story has been rumbling on in Pakistan for a couple of weeks now that just plain refuses to go away. 

The daily newspaper, the Nation, published an article on Nov 5 claiming US journalist Matthew Rosenberg, South Asia Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, was spying in Pakistan. Rosenberg left the country and the WSJ responded with an open letter signed by a bunch of US, British and French outlets along with Al Jazeera.

I often do not agree with my friend Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, but he is certainly one of the more talented journalists I know and surely one of the bravest as well. I was having dinner at his house in Beirut one evening about a year ago, and as the night wore on and more wine was imbibed, a journalist visiting from London started in on me for having served as a solider in Iraq. Ghaith, who was himself severely wounded in a U.S.

Hey, look, everybody, Seymour Hersh has another article for the New Yorker. In this one, people told him a bunch of stuff, and him not wanting to make people feel bad, he went ahead and printed all of it. I have no idea what percentage of this article is true and what percentage is just some stuff people made up.

Hahaha, I'm starting to get media requests via my CNAS email account for Londonstani, which is hilarious if understandable given the quality of his dispatches. I know you guys are enjoying them as much as I am -- and more than what's usually on offer here. For what it's worth, I have been trying to pressure Londonstani to pull an Abu Muqawama and reveal himself, if only so we can start getting serious about shifting this blog's focus away from just counterinsurgency and more toward Middle Eastern and Central Asian security issues in general.

Few things annoy me more than journalists reporting on themselves. But I am making two exceptions right now. First, I am reading a great book in The Bang-Bang Club, a memoir of two South African photojournalists in the last days of apartheid.

Currently watching President Obama speak to the UN General Assembly. Of note to readers of this blog, he reiterated his stance about not allowing al-Qaeda the use of any safe havens from which they can plot attacks. "We will permit no safe-haven," the president said, "for al Qaeda to launch attacks from Afghanistan or any other nation."

Hahahaha, Lt. Col. W. Thomas Smith, Jr... This guy never fails to amuse me. He's still cranky some journalists in Beirut outed him as a fabulist, ending his gig with the National Review:

Wow. Tunku Varadarajan asks some really good questions about the rescue of Stephen Farrell:

So early this morning, a New York Times reporter taken captive in Afghanistan was freed by ISAF commandos. (His interpreter, Sultan Munadi, was killed in the rescue attempt, as was what was likely a member of the 22 SAS.

I just participated in the most asinine interview ever on The Takeaway, so if you were unfortunate enough to have been listening, I apologize. (The very intelligent) Paul Hughes of USIP made a number of good points, but the show ended with the following exchange:

"So, Andrew, the takeaway is that Obama is fighting a war in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, right?"

"Well, yes, but political boundaries matter. From the perspective of Islamabad ---"

"Okay, that's all the time we have, thanks!" [Cut.]