An institutional climate of "Islamophobia" and wariness among many U.S. Arabs and Muslims of the federal government are proving to be substantial barriers to recruiting Arabic speakers into the United States' counterterrorism agencies, observers say....
Which War Is This Again?
Throughout much of the Cold War, people feared above all else a global hot war, the third great one in a century of devastating world wars; and we crept up to it more than once most desperately, there can be no doubt, at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in...
Torture and Oppression of Kurds in Syria
The Syrian government must put an immediate end to human rights abuses against Syrian Kurds, Amnesty International said in a report published Thursday on the eve of the anniversary of the Qamishli clashes. More than 30 Kurds were killed in clashes that spread from a...
‘Bring My Son Home,’ Pleads Guantanamo Bay Detainee’s Father
CANBERRA, Mar 10 (IPS) The father of the only Australian prisoner held in the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba has renewed his plea that his son be brought home to face any charges following the return by the U.S. government of three French men to Paris this week....
Lebanon and the Avaricious Superpower
Many years ago, I read a book called The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Its central character is a high-minded, naive young American operative in Vietnam. He has no idea about the complexities of that country but is determined to right its wrongs and create order....
The Haradinaj Affair
Kosovo "Prime Minister" Indicted Three months after he was appointed "prime minister" in the "provisional government" of the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj has stepped down and surrendered to the Hague Inquisition. He did so after receiving a...
The Specter of Fascism
A specter is haunting post-9/11 America the specter of fascism. Lew Rockwell calls it "red-state fascism," former Treasury official and conservative economist Paul Craig Roberts refers to "the brownshirting of the conservative movement," and Scott McConnell,...
When Is a Militia Not a Militia?
One of the classic signs of ideology at work is the redefinition of words to empty them of their meaning. An article by Greg Jaffe in the Feb. 16 Wall Street Journal, "New Factor in Iraq: Irregular Brigades Fill Security Void," describes the rapid spread of militias...
The International Highway to Hell
Who hasn't heard soldier after American soldier burble on about how freeing Iraqis inspires him? Or, if injured, this archetypal GI will often say how eager he is to get back to his "buddies," those he considers his real family. (Come now, Objectivists: How do you...
The War Path of Unity
"I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force if necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."...


