As the news came in of the death of Bin Laden, print and television media around the world rushed to report the story, millions of people sent each other text messages as others took the news globally on Twitter — setting a new record for sustained use of the service — and in many cities, from New York to Boise, Idaho, to Athens, Georgia, people took to the streets in spontaneous celebration. Political leaders from different nations quickly issued statements expressing their relief, satisfaction, and approval that he was brought to justice.

In response to this, and to temper public enthusiasms, policy experts have taken pains to make clear that that because Al Qaeda is now decentralized, his death won’t have a major impact in our fight against them.| MORE ›

This analysis is brought to you by Stratfor.com: the best online intelligence community.

Obama’s Plan and the Key Battleground
By George Friedman

U.S. President Barack Obama announced the broad structure of his Afghanistan strategy in a speech at West Point on Tuesday evening. The strategy had three core elements.| MORE ›

The Pakistan army continues to take on the Taliban in the Swat Valley. Where it first had to push the extremist organization back to its strongholds after its forces came close to the nation’s capital, the army now attacks the strongholds themselves.| MORE ›

The Pakistani army says it has killed more than 1,000 Taliban in the Swat Valley already.| MORE ›

The Pakistani army continued its offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley (or tribal region) on Friday:

Pakistan’s army, which launched its assault last month, said Thursday that its troops had advanced to within four miles (six kilometers) of Mingora and urged people to flee.| MORE ›

Earlier this week, Islamabad finally declared an all out war on the Taliban, which had taken over the North Western part of Pakistan. The situation has become so bad that Islamabad is currently preparing for a humanitarian crisis: hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the country’s tribal (Swat Valley) region  have fled or are expected to flee any moment now.| MORE ›

Good news from Pakistan; after the Pakistani army captured the hometown of the Taliban’s chief in that country, the group has fallen into disarray, with many deserting its ranks.

The battle for Kotkai town was symbolically key because it is the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and one of his top deputies, Qari Hussain.| MORE ›

The offensive the Pakistani army launched against the Taliban last week seems to be going rather well. The army says that it has killed scores of militants, and that it is slowly taking control of regions it lost to the extremist organization earlier this year.| MORE ›

In an interview with Newsweek, President Barack Obama said that the hardest decision he had to make thus far was to send 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in order to crush the Taliban which still controls a significant part of that country.

He added that he is considering sending even more troops. However, he cannot yet say if and if so when and how many troops will be deployed.| MORE ›

Fox News reports that US special forces are standing by to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and facilities if the Taliban come too close:| MORE ›

The Taliban continued their war on Pakistan’s civilian government last weekend by beheading to Pakistani officials in the Swat Valley, Reuters reports.

The two men were killed in retaliation for the killing of two Taliban commanders by Pakistani security forces.

Swat is the area the Taliban control.| MORE ›