By Asif Akhtar

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about talking to the Taliban, and talking to the Taliban about talking to the Taliban. I wonder what high-level policy think tank came up with this harebrained scheme; after nearly a decade of violence, someone sitting in a conference room must have snapped their fingers and said, “I’ve got it! Why don’t we ‘talk’ to the Taliban?”

By Laurie Penny

Radical politics, like romance, inevitably disappoints. It has become a cliché that liberal infighting gets in the way of liberal action, but this week has been a flashpoint for the British left, struggling to organise itself in the face of an upcoming election which may well bring greater gains for its enemies on the right and the far-right than the country has seen for a generation.

By David Cronin

Arms dealers do not only manufacture instruments of death. They are also adept at manufacturing a political consensus.

By Dr Nafeez Ahmed

Former assistant director of FBI’s counter-terrorism division Dale Watson; former Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf; current Pakistani President Asif Zardari; Afghan President Hamid Karzai; the late Benazir Bhutto; Israeli intelligence sources; Pakistani and Afghan sources, including Taliban leaders – all have reported Osama bin Laden to be “probably dead” since December 2001.