Internal Pentagon documents show that the inspector general tasked with investigating what led to the Army's abuse of prisoners in Iraq is at least planning to conduct a thorough and wide-ranging investigation. His bottom-up inquiry is not stuck at the bottom with...
US and France Begin a Great Game in Africa
PARIS - France and the United States have begun a new race to compete for favors with undemocratic regimes in Africa. The competition is growing particularly in the oil-rich North and West Africa. The French government announced last month that it is due to sign a...
Mehdi Uprising Widens Amid Rumors of US War Crimes
U.S. tanks crept closer to one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam on Monday as Marines and Army cavalry units backed by aircraft tightened their grip on the center of Najaf, reportedly shelling neighborhoods very heavily and using the main civilian hospital as a...
Hands Off Najaf
Our country's military now declares preparations to attack the Shrine of Ali in the city of Najaf in Iraq. Our country stands on the precipice of declaring war on Islam. An attack on the Shrine of Ali is an attack on the heart of Islam and must be nonviolently...
Bush’s CIA Pick: ‘Business as Usual’
After endorsing an appeal from the bipartisan 9/11 Commission to drastically overhaul the U.S. intelligence community, President George W. Bush on Tuesday nominated as his next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the longtime chair of a congressional...
US Silent on Torture of Children
Just as the U.S.-led forces refused to release thousands of adult prisoners after the June 28 handover of partial sovereignty to Iraq, U.S. and UK authorities continue to incarcerate children. The Pentagon says around 60 teens, "primarily aged 16 and 17,"...
Dog Days
I am so preoccupied with reading Imperial Hubris, written by an "anonymous" current employee of the CIA, that I've suppressed my urge to write another one of those "I told you so" columns. I can't say I'm happy John Kerry lived up (or down) to my worst expectations,...
Venezuela: Polls Point to Likely Chávez Victory
CARACAS - For the past two and a half years, political polls in Venezuela showed that a majority of respondents were opposed to President Hugo Chávez. But that has now changed. Most of the latest polls have indicated that he is likely to win next Sunday's recall...
US Blinded by Love for Saakashvili
Can the Caucasus ever escape from the cycle of coups and violence that have beset the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union? Not if the rhetoric of Georgia's new 36-year-old President Mikheil Saakashvili is anything to go by. Before setting out on a visit to...
Amnesty Demands End to Free-Speech Abuses in Sudan
Amnesty International is calling on the Sudanese government to immediately release all those it has arrested or detained in Darfur for communicating their opinions with foreign visitors about their plight. In a communiqué released Monday night, the London-based...


