Transnational Issues

The White House's list of about 50 metrics to evaluate progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which it assembled to calm rising fears in Congress and the public about the Obama administration's increasingly embattled war strategy, is up on ForeignPolicy.com (with a more legible version here). The draft list, dated Sept. 16, 2009 and delivered to a closed congressional

"I think it is a security issue," said bin Laden biographer Peter Bergen, noting that tracking bin Ladens messages back to their source would be a good way ... and more »

"It's proof of life and that his organization is still viable," said Bin Laden biographer Peter Bergen. Bin Laden's latest tape renewed his offer of a ... and more »

Eight years after September 11, the "war on terror" has gone the way of the dodo. And President Obama talks instead about a war against al Qaeda and its allies.

What, then, of al Qaeda's enigmatic leader, Osama bin Laden, who has vanished like a wisp of smoke? And does he even matter now?

If the southern Afghan province of Helmand were a country it would be the world's leading producer of opium and its derivative, heroin. More than half the world's heroin originates here--much of it destined for the veins of junkies living in Europe.

In June 2005, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials and Afghan police raided the office of Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, the governor of Helmand, and found nine tons of opium in his office. He is no longer the governor.

I recall Peter Bergen, who knows as much about al-Qaeda as any US analyst, predicting that it would cease to exist within the next five years. ...

Joining Cooper are Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent; CNN's national security analyst Peter Bergen; and CNN correspondent Michael Ware. ...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview Friday that just-released CIA documents demonstrate the effectiveness of coercive interrogation techniques.

"My sort of overwhelming view is that the enhanced interrogation techniques were absolutely essential in saving American lives and preventing attacks on the Unites States," Cheney told FOX News Sunday. "I think they were directly responsible for the fact that for eight years we had no further direct attacks on the United States."