Gareth Porter

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.

Marjah Offensive Aimed to Shape US Opinion on War

Senior military officials decided to launch the current U.S.-British military campaign to seize Marjah in large part to influence domestic U.S. opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported Monday. The Post report, by Greg Jaffe and Craig Whitlock, both of whom cover military affairs, said the town of Marjah would not have … Continue reading “Marjah Offensive Aimed to Shape US Opinion on War”

Jailed Taliban Leader Still a Pakistani Asset

Contrary to initial U.S. suggestions that it signals reduced Pakistani support for the Taliban, the detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the operational leader of the Afghan Taliban, represents a shift by Pakistan to more open support for the Taliban in preparation for a peace settlement and U.S. withdrawal. Statements by Pakistani officials to journalists … Continue reading “Jailed Taliban Leader Still a Pakistani Asset”

Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on Anti-US Terror

Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States. The evidence contradicts the claims by top officials of the Barack … Continue reading “Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on Anti-US Terror”

Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators’ Plan

KABUL – If peace talks do ultimately begin between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leadership, they may well follow a “road map” to a political settlement drawn up by a group of ex-Taliban officials who have been serving as intermediaries between the two sides. The four Taliban mediators have been encouraging both Karzai … Continue reading “Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators’ Plan”

US, Karzai Clash on Unconditional Talks With Taliban

KABUL – On the surface, it would seem unlikely that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who presides over a politically feeble government and is highly dependent on the U.S. military presence and economic assistance, would defy the United States on the issue of peace negotiations with the leadership of the Taliban insurgency. But a long-simmering conflict … Continue reading “US, Karzai Clash on Unconditional Talks With Taliban”

Behind Cautious Signal, a Decision for Afghan Peace Talks

KABUL – Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s very cautiously-worded support for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban leadership in an interview published Monday is only the first public signal of a policy decision by the Barack Obama administration to support a political settlement between the Hamid Karzai regime and the Taliban, an official of McChrystal’s International … Continue reading “Behind Cautious Signal, a Decision for Afghan Peace Talks”

Iran Uses Fear of Covert Nuclear Sites to Deter Attack

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Iran had "quietly hidden an increasingly large part of its atomic complex" in a vast network of tunnels and bunkers buried in mountainsides. The story continued a narrative begun last September, when a second Iranian uranium enrichment facility near Qom was reported to have been discovered by U.S. … Continue reading “Iran Uses Fear of Covert Nuclear Sites to Deter Attack”

New Revelations Tear Holes in Nuclear Trigger Story

New revelations about two documents leaked to the Times of London to show that Iran is working on a "nuclear trigger" mechanism have further undermined the credibility of the document the newspaper had presented as evidence of a continuing Iranian nuclear weapons program. A columnist for the Times has acknowledged that the two-page Persian language … Continue reading “New Revelations Tear Holes in Nuclear Trigger Story”

Giraldi: US Intel Found Iran Nuke Document Was Forged

U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence Agency official. Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official … Continue reading “Giraldi: US Intel Found Iran Nuke Document Was Forged”

IAEA Applying a Nuclear Double-Standard

In 2004, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed that a member state had violated its Safeguards Agreement by carrying out covert uranium conversion and enrichment activities and plutonium experiments for more than two decades. The nature of certain of those enrichment activities, moreover, raised legitimate suspicions of interest in a nuclear weapons program. The … Continue reading “IAEA Applying a Nuclear Double-Standard”