Allegations that Islamabad organized the Karzai assassination attempt seem to be taken at face value here. A voice commenting on the likelihood of such a scenario would have broadened the story. The reporting is otherwise straightforward and the retrospective on the April parade is good. The reporters clearly have a grasp of what the accusation means in the larger picture of relations between the neighboring countries.

This article seems very newsworthy at first glance, because rising tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan could further destabilize the Middle East and southeast Asia and could directly affect U.S. troop involvement over there. But this article focuses primarily on allegations from Afghanistan based on evidence they discovered; the reporter tried to get info from Pakistan's ISI and the Foreign Ministry, but neither one commented. There are not many viewpoints described in the article, so the piece becomes part of the "war of words" between spokespeople for each side. The Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship is very complex and could do with much more thorough analysis of all players involved: from the government officials to the ... More »

A decent report on a developing story. Good context.

The story is typically well written for the Times, but the politics of this region are too tangled for me to have a serious opinion. Karzai's government has no purchase outside Kabul, and it would not surprise me if the ISI were trying to kill him, but I for one would not know how to judge the truth of Karzai's accusation.