Asia Times Online - Central Asia News

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src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/books_logo.gif" width="111" border="0"></a></div> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #003366" color="white">Central Asia </font> </div> <div align="center"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #003366" color="white"> Specials<br>   </font> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/Osama.html"><img hspace="0" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/Osama-logo-small-4.gif" border="0"></a></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top"> <table width="100%" height="31" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td align="middle" valign="top" background="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/top_bg.gif"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr align="middle" valign="top"> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/archive.asp"><img height="18" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/archive.gif" width="110" border="0"></a></div> </td> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/about.html"><img height="18" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/about.gif" width="110" border="0"></a></div> </td> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/contact.html"><img height="18" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/contact.gif" width="110" border="0"></a></div> </td> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/advertise.html"><img height="18" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/advertise.gif" width="110" border="0"></a></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="510"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="64%" valign="top"><font class="subhead"><strong class="head">Central Asia</strong></font></td> <td width="36%"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td height="51" align="middle" valign="center"> <div align="right"><font class="time"><strong> <script language="javascript"> function showDate(){ var monthArray=["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"] var days=["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"] var d=new Date(); var month=d.getMonth() var day=d.getDate() var year=d.getYear() // document.write("Today is " + days[d.getDay()] + "<BR>") document.write(monthArray[month]) document.write(" ") document.write(day) document.write(", ") if(d.getYear()<2000){document.write(year+1900)} if(d.getYear()>2000){document.write(year)} } </script> <script language="javascript">showDate()</script> </strong></font> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="65%" valign="top"> <table width="100%" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="81%" valign="top"> <table width="308" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="308"> <p><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><font size="2"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EH01Ag01.html"><strong>Rough road to Russian-Tajik cooperation</strong></a><br> Russian and Tajik troops are participating in war games this week as Moscow slowly moves to back up its commitment to security in the Central Asia region. But relations between the two former Soviet states are not always smooth, marred by immigration issues and rampant drug-running. - <b> Sergei Blagov <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 31, '03)</font><br> </b><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG30Ag01.html "><strong>Why the US needs the Taliban</strong></a><br>It may sound unbelievable, but the United States is prepared to permit the return to rule in Afghanistan of its erstwhile arch-enemies, the Taliban. The reason, <b>Ramtanu Maitra</b> explains, is that Washington needs Pakistan as a friend more than it needs the Taliban as an enemy. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 29, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EG29Df01.html "><strong>Indian defense policy in major transition</strong></a><br>India, tied to Russia for major arms purchases for decades, may be about to switch to Western suppliers, a break with Moscow's arms salesmen that would transform global defense relationships. <b>- Stephen Blank</b> <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 28, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG26Ag01.html"><strong>Mission impossible for the Afghan army</strong></a> <br>Ill-trained, poorly paid and with suspect loyalties, the new Afghan army has been launched into an offensive against Taliban/al-Qaeda resistance that to date has defied the best that US forces can throw at it. Casualties are expected to be heavy, but the big loser will be Afghanistan. - <b>Hooman Peimani</b> <br><font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 25, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG26Ag02.html "><strong>Caspian: Agreeing not to agree</strong></a> <br>The long dispute over which countries own how much of the oil-rich Caspian seabed is going to simmer some more following three days of meetings in Moscow this week. <b>-  Sergei Blagov</b> <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 25, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG24Ag01.html "><strong>Ex-Soviet states reject all things Russian</strong></a><br> The new republics formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union are following up their fight for independence with resistance to the Russian language - and Moscow isn't taking the news lying down. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 23, '03)</font> <br> <br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG23Ag02.html"><strong>The ghost of Greater Afghanistan</strong></a><br> The Durand Line created by the British Empire in 1893 haunts Afghanistan to this day, as evidenced by the recent violence toward the Pakistani Embassy, which gave a glimpse into the simmering tensions between the neighbors over political borders. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 22, '03)</font> <br> <br>   <img src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/images/arrow.gif" border="0"><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG23Ag01.html ">Coup anniversary remembered</a><br><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG22Ag01.html "><strong>Moscow turns up heat on radicals</strong></a><br>In what is seen as a bid to bolster its interests in Central Asia through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Russian law enforcement agencies are cooperating with their regional counterparts in a crackdown on Islamist groups. - </font><strong><font color="#000000">Sergei Blagov <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 21, '03)</font></font><br><br>DANCES WITH BEARS</strong></font> <br> <a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG17Ag01.html"><strong>When oligarchs are beaten at Go</strong></a> <br> If one views the battle between oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Russian oil giant Yukos and the Kremlin as a game of Go - the ancient Chinese game refined by the Japanese and used as a source of inspiration by the Viet Cong - Khodorkovsky has made a strategic blunder of immense proportions by appealing for the intervention of the US. - </font><strong><font color="#000000">John Helmer <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 16, '03)</font></font><br><br>COMMENTARY</strong></font><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG15Ag01.html"><strong>Washington's Afghan plan unravels</strong></a><br>As tension rises between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the United States, caught in the middle, can only watch as its carefully-laid plans start to go horribly wrong. - <b>Ramtanu Maitra <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 14, '03)</font></b><br><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EG12Df04.html"><strong>Pakistan fights back <br></strong></a>Mosque killings and bombs in Pakistan and anti-Pakistan demonstrations in Afghanistan have the leaders in Islamabad crying for vengeance, and they have roped in the erstwhile religious opposition parties to help them fight against a common enemy across the border. -<b>Syed Saleem Shahzad</b> <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 11, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG12Ag01.html "><strong>Uzbekistan and US: Strange bedfellows</strong></a><br> Despite the fact that Uzbek President Islam Karimov has been blasted for human rights abuses, the United States has been allied with the regime since September 11, 2001, because of the Central Asia nation's strategic importance to the "war on terrorism", which some say doesn't bode well for US fortunes in the region. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 11, '03)</font> </font></font></font></font> </font></font> </font></font> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td width="19%" valign="top"> <table width="184" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td height="51" align="middle" valign="center"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/search.asp" target="_blank"><img hspace="0" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/search-2.gif" border="0"></a><br> <img height="5" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/1pix.gif" width="1"><br> <a href="/web/20030802052909/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/kabul_diary.html"><img height="79" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/kabul_banner.gif" width="184" border="0"></a> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td><img height="5" src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/1pix.gif" width="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table class="" id="table1" style="WIDTH: 187px; HEIGHT: 136px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" width="187" border="3"> <tr> <td class="" valign="top" bordercolor="darkorange" align="left" bgcolor="gainsboro" height="0"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #dcdcdc" color="crimson"><strong>'PIPELINEISTAN'<br></strong><font color="#000000">By </font><font color="#000000"><strong>Pepe Escobar<br></strong></font><font color="#999999" size="1"><font color="#000000" size="2"> </font><strong>(Jul  '02)</strong> </font><br><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030802052909/http://atimes.com/c-asia/DA25Ag01.html"><img src="/web/20030802052909im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/images/arrow.gif" border="0"><font size="2">Part 1: The rules of the game</font> </a><br><img 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