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Like Pakistan, like Turkey. If the university massacre outside the old North West Frontier city of Peshawar was a further sign that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is still far from “conquering terrorism”, it is a portent of things to come for Turkey’s far more arrogant President, Recep Tayip Erdogan. For after allowing its borders to be used as a conduit for foreign fighters and smugglers into Syria – just as Pakistan did into Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion of 1979 – Turkey is now experiencing almost as many violent attacks on its people as Pakistan.

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Erdogan’s government has increasingly emphasised its Islamic credentials, just as President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq did in Pakistan in the 1970s. And Turkey now finds that the Isis “caliphate” with which it was prepared to treat – allowing it to control part of Syria’s border with Turkey, facilitating Western Muslims wishing to cross in the opposite direction, permitting oil smugglers to bring their produce from Isis-held territory – is assaulting Ankara and Istanbul.

The powerful Pakistani intelligence forces – the infamous Inter-Services Intelligence – sent weapons to the anti-Soviet mujahedin and afterwards co-operated with the Taliban. Indeed, the Taliban managed to infiltrate the Pakistani military and intelligence institutions; and Isis now appears to have some infiltrators within the Turkish state apparatus. In Pakistan’s case, its war with the Taliban is even more complicated, since its own Islamist enemies appear to have several faces. Thus while one “Taliban” group claimed the mass murder at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, another condemned the attacks as “un-Islamic”.

But like the assault on the school for Pakistani army officers’ children in Peshawar in 2014, which killed more than 140, the slaughter at Charsadda was a massacre of the innocents. It is easy to explain such bloodbaths as a response to the secular education which Islamist groups despise. But in Pakistan’s case, it was almost certainly a response to further military operations against the Taliban. The Bacha Khan University was named after Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the “frontier Ghandi”, and its Sufi-inspired Islam and Ghandian non-violence made it an obvious target for the Taliban.   

David Gosling, who was headmaster of Edwardes College in Peshawar, says that the attacks on education targets “drive a coach and horses” through Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan’s conviction that the government must negotiate with the Taliban. Pakistan’s dilemma, Gosling says, is “aggravated by its legacy of an earlier commitment to the extended cold war and the likelihood of future Taliban gains in Afghanistan”.

Nawaz Sharif is left repeating his old mantra – that Pakistan is united in the battle to destroy “the menace of terrorism”. As for Turkey, it is now involved in its own “cold war” between Russia and America over Syria and is playing with the same dangerous cards as Pakistan. The Turks have the Kurds as joker in the pack – and claim that their “menace” of terrorism includes both Isis and the Kurds. It’s a rash decision to take on two armed groups at the same time. But it’s the same cold war inheritance.

Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper.  He is the author of many books on the region, including The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. 

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Days ahead of President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba, the oldest son of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara has expressed mixed feelings about the historic visit.

He will be the first sitting president to visit the island nation in nearly nine decades.

Camilo Guevara spoke to the Guardian about the implications of the trip, which begins Sunday, and expressed some optimism, calling it “historic and very important.” He also said that Obama “appears intelligent and sensitive towards the major problems of humanity.”

But he qualified by noting that Obama “was supported by corporate America.”

He also said that his father “felt that we could also transmit ourselves outwards … Maybe we can influence the U.S. in a positive way,” he said.

“But the U.S. is an empire,” he added. “Their nature is not to set the table and invite you for a feast. History shows us that every time they set a table, you have to accept you might be poisoned or stabbed in the back. But let’s see.”

As the New York Times reported earlier this month:

Talks on the trip have been unfolding for months, after the two presidents first discussed it during a September meeting in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, their second meeting after announcing the policy shift in December 2014. Mr. Obama told Mr. Castro that he would like to visit Cuba before the end of his term, but that he would be willing to make the trip only if he could justify it by pointing to concrete progress in the normalization process. He instructed senior White House aides to begin working toward that goal.

The LA Times reported Friday that “Obama is expected to sharply criticize his hosts for human rights abuses, and plans to meet with political dissidents the White House has chosen.”

But he should rethink such criticism, argues law professor Marjorie Cohn, writing at Common Dreams Friday that “a comparison of Cuba’s human rights record with that of the United States shows that the U.S. should be taking lessons from Cuba.”

“The U.S. government criticizes civil and political rights in Cuba while disregarding Cubans’ superior access to universal housing, health care, education, and its guarantee of paid maternity leave and equal pay rates,” she wrote.

And of course there’s the issue of the U.S.’s notorious offshore prison on Cuban soil.

“Guantanamo Bay is an international symbol of the breakdown of the rule of law and systemic abuse,” said Human Rights First’s Daphne Eviatar in a media statement Friday. “President Obama will likely raise Cuba’s human rights record when he meets with officials; the continued operation of Guantanamo will make it more difficult for him to have moral leadership on the issue,” she said.

While Politico reported that the trip marks “a symbolic next chapter in his attempts to normalize relations with the country,” Alexander Main, senior associate on international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said Thursday, “Obama’s trip to Cuba is being spun as a great advance in U.S.-Latin American relations, but the reality is that the administration is doubling down on its support for the right in the region and its ongoing efforts to isolate left-wing governments like Venezuela’s, against whom the Obama administration just renewed sanctions.”

Just 10 of the scores killed by US drones in Pakistan last year have so far been identified, according to data collected by the Bureau’s Naming the Dead project.

The names for all 10 came from either terrorist propaganda or the US government, with officials from Pakistan’s government, military and intelligence services declining to provide any names of those killed by the CIA for the first time since strikes started in 2004.

Only a minority of those killed are ever identified, but the number of those named in 2015 was particularly low. In total, according to Bureau research, of the minimum 2,494 people killed by US drones since 2004, only 729 have been named. At least 1,765 victims remain nameless.

The Bureau’s Naming the Dead project is an attempt to identify more of these victims to better ensure accountability for the drone strikes. The CIA continues to carry out signature strikes in Pakistan – attacks on people it claims are terrorists from extensive surveillance and data analysis operations – but the targets’ names are often not known.

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In 2015, at least 60 people were killed by 13 strikes.

Of the 10 victims named, two were civilians: westerners Giovanni Lo Porto and Warren Weinstein, who were both aid workers taken hostage by al Qaeda when they were killed in a calamitous drone strike on January 15.

Five more were from al Qaeda and the remaining three were part of the Pakistan Taliban (TTP).

Of the 10, four names were provided by the US after weeks of CIA investigations, while the other six emerged from al Qaeda and TTP propaganda.

Name Nationality Group affiliation or job Source Giovanni Lo Porto Italian Aid worker The White House Warren Weinstein US Aid worker The White House Ahmed Farouq US Al Qaeda The White House Adam Gadahn US Al Qaeda The White House Qari Ubaidullah Pakistani Al Qaeda Al Qaeda propaganda Mohammad Ashraf Dar Indian Al Qaeda Al Qaeda propaganda Talwar Shaheed Pakistani Pakistan Taliban Pakistan Taliban propaganda Umar Shaheed Pakistani Pakistan Taliban Pakistan Taliban propaganda Kharey Mehsud Pakistani Pakistan Taliban Pakistan Taliban propaganda Burak Karlier Turkish Al Qaeda Al Qaeda propaganda

 

Little or nothing is publicly known about the remaining 50 people. Most were described as “militants” of varying nationalities by intelligence and government officials, and military officers who were quoted anonymously in Pakistani and international media.

In six of the 13 strikes in 2015, the unnamed sources labelled some if not all the people killed as “Uzbeks”.

In four more strikes, the dead were described by their affiliation to an armed group, such as a TTP faction under a specific commander.

Although Pakistani officials were happy to brief journalists throughout last year on the nature of the drone strikes and the nationalities or terrorist affiliations of those killed, it was the first time since 2004 they did not help in the identification process.

They have previously leaked the names of those killed.

Why so few named in 2015?

It is unclear why 2015 was different. It could be that the identities of those killed were not known before Hellfire missiles struck and unless friends, relatives or comrades come forward their names might never be known.

Alternatively, victims’ names could have been caught in the information lock down put in place in the tribal areas by ISPR – the Pakistani military’s propaganda wing.

The Pakistani military has been fighting terrorists and other non-state armed groups in Waziristan since June 2014. Since then there has been a tight control on information released to the press about the campaign.

CIA drone strikes may be subject to the same strict information control.

Spies, officials and terrorist propaganda: How we get the names

It is not unusual for the those carrying out drone strikes – nor for communities on the receiving end – to give out the names of the dead, though they have never been the only sources of names.

Terrorist propaganda has been a rich seam for identities and background information. Similarly, intelligence service and government officials in Washington have also quietly revealed to reporters the names and potted histories of some of the senior terrorists killed in the strikes.

Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the ISI, may know the identities of many if not all of the dead. It is believed to have kept a record of the names of the people killed in the tribal areas, by drones and other means. Its officers have been sources of names of the dead in strikes from 2004 to 2014.

Why this stopped in 2015 is all the more confusing considering unnamed “Pakistani security officials” told the Express Tribune the first and so far only CIA strike of 2016 killed senior Taliban commander Maulana Noor Saeed, along with four others, on January 9.

Although the ISI enjoys a reputation for omniscience it is still possible even its officials do not know who died.

The same officials, intelligence officers and soldiers in Pakistan, however, told journalists the names of TTP and al Qaeda terrorists killed in US strikes across the border in eastern and southern Afghan provinces.

The Pakistani army has slowly worked its way across the tribal areas that run along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, driving the various armed groups deeper in to the mountains that run across the boundary separating the two countries.

Many of these fighters appear to have been forced across the border.

Afghan officials in Kabul and the provincial capitals also identified people killed in strikes in Afghanistan. The Bureau has recorded more than 100 names from over 700 people reported killed last year in Afghanistan.

The true death toll is higher. The Bureau’s tally of people killed relates to 187 US strikes in Afghanistan last year for which there are media or other open source reports. The US says it carried out 411 air and drone strikes in total. The US will not provide individual details on each of these attacks and most of them go unreported – leaving a considerable gap in public understanding of the ongoing US war in Afghanistan.

This story is part of the Bureau’s Naming the Dead project, which is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

Cast members from HBO’s Game of Thrones visited a Syrian refugee camp this week and urged European Union leaders to do more for the 57,000 currently stranded in Greece.

Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), and Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) took a break from Westeros intrigue to tour International Rescue Committee programs in Greece, and met with refugees impacted by March’s EU-Turkey deal.

“These smart, hardworking people want to go home,” Headey said. “They want to return to their communities and to their neighborhoods. They want their children to continue their education. They want to continue their university and they are stuck. They’re stuck. And they’re unbelievably sad. Understandably. We can do better for them. We must do better for them.”

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Added Williams: “For me it is about the children … children with so much potential, so many hopes and dreams. Where is the humanity that makes it acceptable for them to languish in refugee camps—in Europe?”

The EU-Turkey agreement allowed Greece (an EU member) to send Syrian asylum seekers to Turkey (considered “a safe third” country) and thus attempt to stem illegal immigration into Europe. Amnesty International and others have slammed the effort as having many inhumane consequences (details).

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Chrissy Teigen is madly in love with her 4-month-old daughter Luna Simone, but that doesn’t mean she can understand her. The 30-year-old model took to Snapchat on Monday to share an adorable video of Luna’s baby babble, and she asked fans to help her figure out what it means.

“Anyone wanna translate this,” Teigen captioned an adorable snap, where she’s sitting next to Luna using a butterfly halo filter. The new mom looks rosy-cheeked in a black off-the-shoulder top and high-waist jeans, while her little one is too cute in a pink floral onesie.

Chrissy Teigen/Instagram

Chrissy Teigen/Instagram

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The star didn’t stop there, also posting a sweet family photo on the same plaid couch, with her baby in her left arm and her mom to her right. 

Chrissy Teigen/Instagram

Teigen has been exceptionally gratuitous with her Luna snaps this week, as she celebrated her little girl’s 4-month birthday on Sunday with husband John Legend. The couple shared an adorable new portrait and video of the toddler with their fans.

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We can’t get enough of this sweet young family.

Here’s another reason why Ansel Elgort is going to have you swooning: The Fault in Our Stars heartthrob just announced on Instagram with a smoldering headshot that he’s adding another big gig to his growing resume. The multihyphenate star who also moonlights as an EDM DJ when he’s not in front of the cameras, is the face of Prada’s new men’s fragrance, L’Homme Prada.

Although this is the 22-year-old’s first foot in the beauty industry, it confirms his status as a permanent member of Prada’s fashionable squad. Elgort was featured in the brand’s fall 2015 menswear ad campaign alongside his Divergent co-star Miles Teller wearing an impeccably tailored suit and casually cutting an orange with a knife as sharp as cheek bones.

Elgort’s own style mantra makes him a perfect match for fronting Prada’s quintessentially quirky twist on beauty and fashion classics. “Being stylish isn’t about wearing a suit every day,” he previously told InStyle during the 2015 InStyle Awards. “You don’t have to look like you’re out of Mad Men to be stylish. I think it’s just about being yourself and being comfortable wearing anything. You could dress me in a Big Bird costume and I would still feel confident.”

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Word’s out on whether L’Homme Prada has any orange notes infused in its scent or yellow feathers have a role in the campaign, but what we do know is when Elgort’s first campaign images are revealed, they’re going to get our hearts being faster. 

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Who can forget that arguably iconic 2002 scene of MTV’s Cribs in which Mariah Carey welcomes cameras into her home and shows off her enormous bathtub while bathing? Sure, it’s been well over a decade since that Mariah gleamed, but not too much has changed since.

On Monday, the 46-year-old R&B diva once more took to Instagram, as she regularly does, to show us just how glamorous her life truly is. In one of her most epic shots to date, the beauty offers a scintillating glimpse at her toned legs as she steps off of what could be a private jet and lands in another one of her dreamy locales.

“Friggin world traveler,” she captioned the image, in which she sports a sexy hardware-adorned black miniskirt with a black top, fishnets, and peep-toe booties. She carries a black leather jacket in one hand and makes it all look like a stunning photo shoot.

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Just last week, Carey, who’s preparing to let us learn more about her with a new show, Mariah’s World, on E!, hit the shores of Italy and spent a luxurious afternoon aboard a yacht.

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Looks like Carey is a pro at enjoying la dolce vita.

The viral Ice Bucket Challenge, which swept the internet two years ago while raising money and awareness for the ALS Association, has helped fund what the association is calling a “significant gene discovery.”

The “challenge,” in which people dumped cold buckets of water onto their heads and posted the results to Facebook, attracted participants ranging from LeBron James to Bill Gates. The effort collected more than $115 million for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, during an eight-week period in 2014, of which $77 million was devoted to research.

Using that funding, researchers with Project MinE’s global gene sequencing effort have identified a new ALS gene, NEK1, that is connected to the disease. The discovery will give researchers a potential target as they seek to develop a therapy for the disease, the ALS Association said in a press release Monday. The study that helped fund the gene discovery was the largest-ever study of inherited ALS.

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Though most cases of ALS aren’t a result of family history of the disease, the association says “it’s very likely that genetics contribute, directly or indirectly, to a much larger percentage of ALS cases.”

Funding for the project was announced in October of 2014, as the brainchild of Bernard Muller, an entrepreneur who is living with ALS.

“The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled us to secure funding from new sources in new parts of the world,” Muller said in the ALS Association press release.

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Now, the ALS Association hopes to raise awareness and money for the disease again with a new campaign dubbed “Every Drop Adds Up.”

A reunion of the stylish girls of The City was bound to happen at New York Fashion Week, eventually. Many of the reality show’s stars have made their foray into the fashion world, with Olivia Palermo making an appearance at almost every major fashion week show so far. Tuesday night, she attended Lan Yu’s debut NYFW show, and ran into her former cast member—and frenemy—Whitney Port.

The gorgeous ladies posed together for the camera, making The City fans everywhere go nuts. Palermo wore a flowy white top with pleated bell sleeves and a pair of loose black cropped pants, both from Lan Yu, and patent leather platform sneakers.

Port also went colorless, opting for a cold-shoulder style black leather dress from Rebecca Vallance paired with lace-up heels. She wore her blonde hair in a tight topknot and accessorized with an elaborate choker.

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We definitely haven’t seen the last of these two as NYFW continues, and who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky enough to witness another reunion soon!

Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron was spotted in Los Angeles Monday wearing an uncharacteristically pared-down outfit. The 41-year-old fashion maven traded in her red carpet-ready looks for a comfortable gray scoop-neck dress, denim jacket with a popped collar, and a pair of white flip-flops.

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The mother-of-two hid her bare face under a pair of oversize sunglasses, and wore her short blonde hair loose underneath a “California Love” trucker hat. Theron accessorized the minimal look with a black woven purse.

Although Theron’s laid-back look is undeniably low-maintenance, the Mad Max actress dressed it up with what appears to be a fresh cherry-red manicure and a pale pink pedicure.

Bruce/FAMEFLYNET PICTURES

The South African activist is currently celebrating the success of her latest film, animated release Kubo and the Two Strings, to which she lent her voice talent. She’s also been enjoying time with her “boys,” taking to Instagram to share a snap of her adorable dogs.

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California casual style never looked better.