Month: July 2005

Dear President Bush, I am writing to help you out. You have painted yourself into a bit of a corner in Iraq. But not to worry. I looked back to a speech you gave on April 10, 2003. In that speech, you promised the Iraqi people that the United States had come to their country … Continue reading “Mr. President, Please Give This Speech”

That an innocent Brazilian was shot dead on the London Underground is tragic; but the near-justification of that killing by the police is frightening. The police have now openly declared a shoot-to-kill policy, and declared that they can shoot to kill just on suspicion. And that suspicion arising not from reliable intelligence or anything like … Continue reading “Police Response More Frightening Than the Killing”

One of the first stories I covered as the Business Times correspondent in Washington in the early 1990s was the post-Cold War transformation of the relationship between the United States and India. India was beginning to shed the vestiges of its earlier policies of socialism at home and nonalignment abroad. The collapse of the Soviet … Continue reading “Multipolar’s the Way to Go for US”

Growing pessimism about averting civil war in Iraq, as well as mounting concerns that the U.S. military presence there may itself be fueling the insurgency and Islamist extremism worldwide, has spurred a spate of new calls for the United States to withdraw its 140,000 troops sooner rather than later. Although resolutions to establish at least … Continue reading “Civil War Specter Spurs New Iraq Exit Plans”

The following interview with Iraq’s minister of civil society activities, Ala’a al-Safi, was conducted July 20, 2005, after Iraqi Premier Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s historic visit to Iran. In the interview, al-Safi explains how the Iraqi government is endeavoring to warm relations with its neighbors and push the Bush administration into setting a timeline for U.S. withdrawal. … Continue reading “Iraqi Official Demands Timetable for Withdrawal”

As the Pentagon appointed a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to head the defense team representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it took steps to throw a roadblock into the release of a new batch of photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The ACLU charged that the government was attempting … Continue reading “Legal Battle Erupts Over New Abu Ghraib Photos”

KARACHI – Spiraling conflict between the Pakistan army and Islamist militants along the Afghan border, straddled by pro-Taliban, Pashtun tribes, has led security analysts to talk of a full-fledged insurgency that poses a graver threat to the country than admitted by authorities. "Frequent, bloody gunbattles, heavy casualties, ambushes, attacks on military outposts, and killing of … Continue reading “Pakistan Hit by Islamist Backlash”

http://www.independent.org/tii/antiwar/e050726.html

Congress passed legislation last week that reauthorizes the PATRIOT Act for another 10 years, although the bill faced far more opposition than the original Act four years ago. I’m heartened that more members of Congress are listening to their constituents, who remain deeply skeptical about the PATRIOT Act and expansions of federal police power in … Continue reading “Our Rights Suspended for 10 More Years”

Midway through this month, the Karl Rove scandal was dominating the national news – until the sudden announcement of a Supreme Court nominee interrupted the accelerating momentum of the Rove story. Since then, some anti-Bush groups and progressive pundits have complained that the White House manipulated the media agenda. But when it comes to deploying … Continue reading “Wagging the Puppy”