Global briefing: Week in review

Hamas warn Fatah that it risks facing an "uprising" in the West Bank. After the US alleges Pakistani involvement in Kabul bombing, expectations grow for US intervention in the tribal territories. A new book alleges that before the US invasion, Bush already knew there were no WMD in Iraq. China claims the Olympics face terrorist threat after Uighur separatists attack military police.

Following a bombing in Gaza on July 25 there was the worst flare up of tensions in Palestinian society since Hamas took control of Gaza last summer. Writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, Khaled Amayreh said that the victims of the bombing: "included prominent figures in Hamas's military wing, the Ezzeddin Al-Qassam Brigades, including the son-in-law of Khalil Al-Hayya, a key Hamas leader. Hamas held 'the treasonous trend' within Fatah - an allusion to the US-backed group led by the former Gaza strongman Mohamed Dahlan - responsible for the bombing, vowing to capture the perpetrators and punish them severely. "Dahlan and his forces fled Gaza last year after Hamas carried out a pre-emptive coup to foil a planned US-backed coup by Fatah security forces that Hamas says was aimed at eradicating the legitimate Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. "Fatah, which initially displayed signs of satisfaction, denied any involvement in the incident. But in a clear provocation to Hamas, Fatah as well as the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) suggested that the bombing was an internal Hamas matter, which independent Palestinian observers dismiss as a remote possibility." On Tuesday, a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told The Associated Press that Fatah should expect "an uprising" against them in the West Bank if they continued a crackdown against Hamas there. "As the conflict has intensified, Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank have rounded up dozens of political opponents and there have been growing reports of beatings and mistreatment of detainees by both sides." An editorial in Lebanon's Daily Star said: "Achievement of the Palestinian cause requires that all factions maintain a semblance of orderliness and keep their eyes on the price of independent statehood. In this both Fatah and Hamas have been miserable failures. Both have put partisan interests ahead of national ones and therefore have failed to maintain anything like a united Palestinian front. Even the mediation attempts of Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia have not been enough to curb the political infighting and internecine bloodshed that have served to further threaten the Palestinians' very right to existence."

"The turbulent prospect of direct US intervention against al Qa'eda and Taliban jihadi bases in Pakistani territory adjoining Afghanistan appears to have moved closer following last week's visit to Washington by Pakistan's new prime minister, Yousef Raza Gilani," Simon Tisdall wrote in The Guardian. "Far from reassuring his hosts that Islamabad is on top of the situation in the so-called tribal areas, Gilani's uncertain performance seems to have convinced US officials of the need to move quickly. A sub-text to this dangerously fast-moving drama is George Bush's desire to catch or kill his 9/11 nemesis, Osama bin Laden, before he leaves office in January." On Friday, The New York Times reported: "American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan's powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials. "The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region. "The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas." Although the Pakistani government initially vigorously denied the allegations, the Pakistani information minister Sherry Rehman, who is close to Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani and accompanied him on an official visit to Washington last week, said: "There are probably still individuals within the ISI who are ideologically sympathetic to the Taliban, and act on their own in ways that are not in convergence with the policies and interests of the government of Pakistan.... We need to identify these people and weed them out," the Los Angeles Times reported.

"President Bush committed an impeachable offense by ordering the CIA to manufacture a false pretense for the Iraq war in the form of a backdated, handwritten document linking Saddam Hussein and al Qa'eda, an explosive new book claims," MSNBC reported on Tuesday. "The charge is made in 'The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism' by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, released [on Tuesday]. "Suskind says he spoke on the record with US intelligence officials who stated that Bush was informed unequivocally in January 2003 that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. Nonetheless, his book relates, Bush decided to invade Iraq three months later - with the forged letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam bolstering the US rationale to go into war." Meanwhile, The Times said: "A secret deal between Britain and the notorious al Mahdi militia prevented British Forces from coming to the aid of their US and Iraqi allies for nearly a week during the battle for Basra this year... "Four thousand British troops - including elements of the SAS and an entire mechanised brigade - watched from the sidelines for six days because of an 'accommodation' with the Iranian-backed group, according to American and Iraqi officers who took part in the assault. "US Marines and soldiers had to be rushed in to fill the void, fighting bitter street battles and facing mortar fire, rockets and roadside bombs with their Iraqi counterparts." In a commentary for The Times, Michael Evans wrote: "General David Petraeus, the US Commander of the multinational force in Iraq, made it clear after the withdrawal of the 500 British troops from Basra palace last September that he had given his blessing to the pullout. Hinting at the deal with the militia, he acknowledged the wisdom of the British approach to counter-insurgency - that 'you reconcile with your enemies, not with your friends'. "However, the accommodation with the militia meant that even the SAS was unable to operate inside Basra for fear of breaching the deal. Despite the diplomatic tact shown by General Petraeus, US commanders lower down the chain of command became disillusioned with the way that the British were operating in the south." In a new development, The Wall Street Journal reported that Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr intends to disarm his Mahdi Army militia and turn it into a non-violent social services organisation. "The transformation would represent a significant turnabout for a group that, as recently as earlier this year, was seen as one of the most destabilising anti-American forces in Iraq. For much of the past several years, the Mahdi Army, headed by Mr Sadr, a Shiite cleric, controlled sizable chunks of Baghdad and other cities. Its brand of pro-Shiite activism had the side effect of pitting Iraqis against each other, helping to stir worries of civil war. "Recently, however, the group has been hit by a largely successful Iraqi military crackdown against militia members operating as criminal gangs. At the same time, Mr Sadr's popular support is dwindling: Residents who once viewed the Mahdi Army as champions of the poor became alienated by what they saw as its thuggish behavior. "A new brochure, obtained by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by Mr Sadr's chief spokesman, Sheik Salah al Obeidi, states that the Mahdi Army will now be guided by Shiite spirituality instead of anti-American militancy. The group will focus on education, religion and social justice, according to the brochure, which is aimed at Mr Sadr's followers. The brochure also states that it 'is not allowed to use arms at all'."

"A day after two men attacked a military police unit in the country's far northwest, killing 16 and wounding 16 others, the Chinese authorities sought to portray the ambush as an act of terrorism and said the men were members of an outlawed organization they contend has links to al Qa'eda," The New York Times reported. "The men, Muslims belonging to China's ethnic Uighur minority, attacked the brigade early Monday morning as the officers lined up for calisthenics outside their barracks in central Kashgar. The attackers rammed the police with a dump truck and then lobbed homemade grenades. The authorities said the two arrested men had spent a month planning the attack as part of an effort by homegrown Islamic terrorists to disrupt the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. " 'We can see clearly that these forces are trying to wage a psychological and violent battle against the Olympics,' Shi Dagang, the Communist Party secretary of Kashgar, said at a news conference on Tuesday. 'They want to turn the year 2008 into a year of mourning for China.' "Days before the start of the opening ceremonies, the attack rattled security officials in Beijing, who have long warned that the greatest threat to the Games comes from members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group that the authorities have blamed for a recent string of attacks in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Some Western analysts have cast doubt on whether the group is strong enough to pose a serious threat." McClatchy Newspapers said: "As tens of thousands of foreign journalists arrive to test China's pledges to respect media freedom during the Olympic Games, the nation on Tuesday offered apologies for the beatings police gave two Japanese journalists covering a deadly assault by Muslim separatists. "Paramilitary police kicked and beat the two journalists, throwing one to the ground and putting boots to his head and body, and damaging his photo gear. "In a separate incident, police entered the hotel room of an Agence France Presse photographer and forced him to delete photos of the attack scene, the French agency said." In The New York Times, Jere Longman wrote: "the question looming as China prepares for the opening ceremonies is whether the committee made the right bet or took too lightly the possibility that protests or unforeseen events could divide rather than unite the nations whose athletes are gathering in Beijing. "Seven years ago, the prevailing attitude within the International Olympic Committee was that the world's most populous nation deserved to host the world's largest sporting event. China, after all, had acted with restraint after losing by two votes to Sydney, Australia, to host the 2000 Summer Games, even when the deciding votes turned out to have essentially been bought. "Speaking in 2001 about the political question, Francois Carrard, then the IOC's director general, said: 'We are totally aware there is one issue on the table, and that is human rights. Either you say because of some serious human rights issues, we close the door, deliver a vote that is regarded as a sanction and hope things evolve better. The other way is to bet on openness. We are taking the bet that we will see many changes.' " Edward Wong reported in The New York Times: "Until recently, the sight of a Japanese warship steaming toward Chinese shores or of a Chinese aircraft swooping low over Taiwan would have provoked alarm across Asia. "But when Japan's navy made its first Chinese port call since World War II and a Chinese charter plane ferried mainland tourists to neighboring Taiwan this summer, they were symbols not of China's dangerous rivalries, but of the diplomacy that President Hu Jintao has used to defuse them. "After two years of intensive and often secretive overtures, Taiwan and Japan, two neighbours long viewed as the most likely to face a military threat from a rising China have been drawn closer into its orbit. "Improved relations have not only reduced the chances of a flare-up that could disrupt China's turn as an Olympic host, but also helped showcase China's frequent claims to be a new kind of global power that intends to rise on the world stage without engaging in military conflict."