On the heels of reports that the Barack Obama administration altered a new manual on military commission rules to accommodate an illegal drone program, a senior United Nations official is expected to call on the U.S. this week to stop Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda.The UN challenge …
Continue reading “US Drone Strikes Draw International Scrutiny”
JERUSALEM – What exactly happened on the high seas off the Gaza-Israel coast remains in murky waters.Already though, the implications of Israel’s assault on the peace flotilla of civilian vessels headed with humanitarian relief supplies for the besieged Palestinian territory are becoming starkly clear. Despite the unexpected loss of lives the killings might just remain …
Continue reading “Killings Could Boomerang on Israel”
WASHINGTON – It is all too clear why we can’t seem to protest our way out of this war. And as a result, the war itself may never end. In fact, Gen. Stanley McChrystal recently suggested that “Operation Enduring Freedom” in Afghanistan may be just that – “enduring” – for a very, very long time. …
Continue reading “Reflections on Rolling Thunder”
On May 27, President Obama released his first National Security Strategy (NSS), the congressionally mandated statement of America’s overarching vision of national security and how to achieve it. You didn’t know? Don’t feel bad. Hardly anyone else was paying attention either. In fact, the president himself held a press conference on the morning that the …
Continue reading “Obama Ignores His Own Security Strategy”
For six days in late May 2010, Emergency, an Italian NGO providing surgery and basic health care in Afghanistan since 1999, welcomed us to visit facilities they operate in the capital city of Kabul and in Panjshir, a neighboring province. We lived with their hospital staff at both places and accompanied them in their weekly …
Continue reading “Unarmed and Courageous: Emergency Workers in Afghanistan”
At least nine Iraqis were killed and 29 more were wounded in the latest violence. Meanwhile, U.S. troops held Memorial Day observations at a former Saddam palace located at Camp Victory. Also, thousands of Iraqis, at the behest of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, protested the Israeli attack on a Gaza-aid flotilla and used the demonstration to chant against the United States as well.
Rahm Emanuel is, so it seems, the American most hated by the leaders of Israel. He is considered the most dangerous opponent of the Netanyahu government in the White House. Behind closed doors, they shower him – if one is to believe the media – with anti-Semitic epithets. “Jewboy” is one of them. In Zionist …
Continue reading “Will Obama Be Blackmailed?”
Sunday’s New York Times, gearing up for Memorial Day, carries a leading front-page story direct from the Afghan front, complete with photos. Does it tell of the 1,000 Americans who have perished there in America’s longest war, or the unknown number of innocent Afghans to fall, or the many more on both sides gruesomely injured, …
Continue reading “Servile Journalism for Memorial Day”
While most Americans were sitting out on their decks barbecuing over the Memorial Day weekend, our leaders were planning to barbecue a few Pakistanis, as the Washington Post reported: “The U.S. military is reviewing options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan in the event that a successful attack on American soil is traced to the …
Continue reading “A Lullaby of Lies”
Kandahar’s central slammer got slammed while Canada slept. Recently, two Canadian soldiers have been killed: Col. Geoff Parker of the Royal Canadian Regiment in Kabul and Trooper Larry Rudd of the Royal Canadian Dragoons in Panjwaii, the former by a suicide bomber and the latter by a road mine. An indeterminate number of Canadians have …
Continue reading “Why All the Secrecy?” 
