BOGOTA - Shrouded in silence in Colombia, the Plan Patriot has begun to emerge as the most ambitious military offensive to date against the leftist guerrillas, in which the U.S. military is providing tactical and logistical support. Taking part in the operation, which...
The Revolving Door Spins Away
Hundreds of U.S. military and government officials routinely leave their posts for jobs with private contractors who deal with the government, a process that has eroded the lines between government and the private sector, according to a report released by a watchdog...
Supreme Court: Foreign Victims of Abuse May Sue in US
In a new rebuff to the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, a 6-3 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 215-year-old anti-piracy law can continue to be used by foreign victims of serious human rights abuses access to U.S. courts for redress....
The Curse of Oil
The Bush Administration has made much of Iraq's oil reserves. It wants to use the proceeds from the sale of petroleum to pay off the country's debts, cover the costs of reconstruction and government expenses. It has been hectoring European governments and the Russian...
Negotiations Now!
It's summer vacation time! Yeah, one whole weekend of it. Oh well, it's better than nothing. I was going to write about how the Green Party's vice presidential candidate isn't even sure she's going to vote for herself, but, suddenly, a wave of ennui swept over me, and...
Three Steps to Sanity
June 28, the day in 2004 that the Americans transferred sovereignty to Iraqis and proconsul Paul Bremer hastily departed Baghdad, is a day freighted with historic significance. On June 28, 1914, 90 years before, Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that...
A Preview of Kerry Foreign Policy
An influential Washington think tank with close ties to the Kerry presidential campaign is calling for Washington to send 25,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq, even as the U.S. supposedly gives the Iraqis more authority. In a 12-page report released as the Bush...
Leaving Iraq
From Dahr's weblogAbu Talat picks me up at my hotel and we're off through the uncharacteristically empty streets of central Baghdad en route to the airport. It's early enough that we drive with the windows down rather than running the air conditioner, and the warm...
Don’t Call it a Wall
A year ago, I urged readers to forget about President Bush's "Road Map to Peace" on which so much attention was wasted at the time, by now a dead letter and concentrate on the real map of Palestine, radically changed by the construction of Israel's...
Did CPA Take the Money and Run?
Billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money have gone unaccounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), according to a new report released Monday. The British charity Christian Aid says that at least $20 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds intended to...


