All three terrorist attacks last week in Libya, Afghanistan and Sinai followed the same new al Qaeda modus operandi which uses small, highly-trained special ops units striking their targets in two or three waves with heavy weapons.

After three months of exploring every possible diplomatic channel to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program, Obama enlisted Moscow’s help for getting messages to and from Tehran. But meanwhile his diplomatic network had become a maze in which the Baghdad talks lost their objective.

Iran is satisfied that Washington has made substantial concessions on its nuclear program and more can be squeezed persuaded for the sake of Tehran’s assistance for resolving the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq.

While the Obama administration is pleased with the progress of secret diplomacy with Iran, Supreme Leader Khamenei does not expect practical results despite Iranian concessions on its nuclear program.

Washington seeks a broad give-and-take deal for cooperation with Iran and guarantees of security for US troop units staying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran wants Syria and Bahrain in the package.

A suicide bomber blew up a truck packed with 9,000 kilograms of explosives at the entrance to a NATO Combat Outpost Sayed Abad base in central Afghanistan's Wardak province Saturday, Sept. 10. The attack took place as America marked the 10th anniversary of 9/11and New York and Washington DC were on terror alert for a vehicle-borne strike.

The base targeted serves US Special Forces in Afghanistan. The truck bomb injured at least 89 US servicemen.

Taliban used insider intelligence to down the Chinook and avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden after inflicting a spate of precise hits to sow fear and alarm in the country ahead of the US forces' drawdown.

Russia has threatened to freeze the "reset" ties with the United States, which recently produced valuable cooperation and friendly understandings between the two powers in vital global arenas. debkafile's Moscow sources report the areas most affected are likely to be the Israel-Palestinian dispute, Moscow's effort to broker an end to the Libyan war and the Russian supply route for US forces fighting in Afghanistan.
Moscow's ire was sparked by a US travel ban on officials implicated in the Magnitsky affair.

The theory is gaining ground on both sides of the Atlantic that the phone hacking scandal besetting Rupert Murdoch's London media is really aimed at infecting his mass media in the US and toning down their anti-Obama slant in the coming presidential election. British premier David Cameron takes serious ...

The Pakistani and US intelligence chiefs met in Washington to ease the strains between their governments. Their effort faced a mission impossible in view of the Saudi effort to distance Islamabad from its ties with Washington and strengthen the Taliban as the backbone of a future international Sunni militia.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, America's and NATO's key ally in the war on the Taliban and al Qaeda, turned furiously on the United States in a public outburst Saturday, June 18. He accused Washington of carrying on direct talks with the Taliban behind Kabul's back and contaminating the Afghan environment with the chemical pollutants used in NATO war operations. debkafile: Kabul and Islamabad have begun reorienting their policies on coordination with Saudi Arabia in common cause against Obama policies.

During his London visit, Obama turned down British quid pro quo offer to trade stepped-up US military intervention in the Libya war in return delayed British troop drawdown in Afghanistan. US-British differences on Libya war remained unbridged.

US sources report that Osama bin Laden was buried at sea to avoid creating a shrine for jihadist terrorists to visit.

US sources disclose that Abbottabad, where a squadron of US Seals killed the al Qaeda leader Sunday night, May 2, is a Pakistani garrison town housing a large military base. His walled villa was just 100 meters away from a military academy and 120 kilometers from the capital, Islamabad.

Iran has furnished Taliban with intelligence and cash to keep on torching NATO fuel trucks heading for Afghanistan as retribution against America for Stuxnet. The fuel scarcity could slow down the US-led war effort.

Iran has blocked thousands of fuel trucks from crossing into Afghanistan as its initial reprisal for US fuel sanctions and the reported US-Israeli partnership in activating the Stuxnet virus against its nuclear program, debkafile's sources report. More Iranian retribution is ahead. The fuel shortage and insurgent attacks on fuel convoys coming in from Pakistan are showing their mark on the war effort.

(The coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out next Friday deals with Iranian-Taliban collusion in Afghanistan.  To subscribe, click here) 

The most recent US scenario for ending the Afghanistan War provides for retaining a sphere of American influence in the North based on helping the Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek ethnic groups break away from Taliban-dominated Kabul.

The day after Osama bin Laden warned France to remove its troops from Afghanistan, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced Thursday, Oct. 28 that the withdrawal of French troops would begin in early 2011. Paris then raised its terror alert level to "red" after confirming the authenticity of the Bin Laden audiotape aired Wednesday. debkafile's sources report: Paris takes the threat very seriously, apparently convinced that al Qaeda teams may already be in Paris to back it up.

Bent on averting a hostage crisis, Washington and Tehran papered over the Revolutionary Guards' cross-border abduction of five American personnel in Baluchistan. Hectic efforts to negotiation their release take place ahead of nuclear talks.

The US Apache attack helicopter crashed in flight after refueling during a several-hour firefight against the Taliban in Afghanistan's Zhari district on August 20. The cause of the crash is under investigation. 

It occurred the day after the British contingent pulled out of lethal Sangin in Helmand Province and has made 2010 NATO's deadliest year of the war, raising its war losses to 529 compared with 521 in 2009.

As the US surge in Afghanistan runs aground against the Taliban counter-surge and the impending departure of the British contingent, rumor mills grind out reports that US and Taliban negotiators are close to a deal.