Month: June 2004

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 according to press reports involves 17,000 soldiers deployed in southern Colombia, are … Continue reading “US Increases Colombian Involvement”

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 group on Tuesday. “There is a revolving door between the government and large … Continue reading “The Revolving Door Spins Away”

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. Although the majority decided that the abduction of a … Continue reading “Supreme Court: Foreign Victims of Abuse May Sue in US”

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 government to write off much of the debt that Iraq owes … Continue reading “The Curse of Oil”

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 I decided that vacationing would be the … Continue reading “Negotiations Now!”

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 killed the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and led, five weeks later, to World … Continue reading “Three Steps to Sanity”

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 administration formally transferred limited sovereignty to the interim government, the Center for … Continue reading “A Preview of Kerry Foreign Policy”

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 breeze carries the sounds of shop owners sweeping the sidewalks … Continue reading “Leaving Iraq”

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 Apartheid Wall, which was virtually ignored by the … Continue reading “Don’t Call it a Wall”

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 rebuild the country have disappeared from banks administered by the CPA. … Continue reading “Did CPA Take the Money and Run?”