BAGHDAD - The national unity government led by Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has failed to deliver its promises to improve life for Iraqis. Five months after the government took over, the country still faces a rising tide of sectarian violence and inadequate...
What to Do About Iranian Nukes
In June, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China offered to provide goodies if Iran ended its nuclear program and threatened economic sanctions if it did not. Negotiations would not start until Iran suspended its enrichment of uranium. Although...
US Resorting to ‘Collective Punishment,’ Iraqis Say
With Ali al-Fadhily RAMADI - U.S. forces are resorting to collective punishment of civilians in several cities across the al-Anbar province west of Baghdad, residents and officials say. "Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, is still living with the daily...
Iraqi Journalists Caught in Crossfire
With Salam Talib The U.S. released three Iraqi journalists from prison over the weekend. The three were arrested together in a single sweep by U.S. troops last Wednesday. Among them, was Fadel al-Badrani, a reporter for the BBC and Reuters news agency who has reported...
Outrageous and Dishonest
Last year our intelligence community produced – at the request of Congress – a National Intelligence Estimate, which, inter alia, addressed Iran's nuclear programs. Although that 2005 NIE was highly classified, Dafna Linzer reported, "A major U.S....
The Torturer Tries to
Save His Own Hide
President George Bush, betrayed by the neoconservatives whom he elevated to power and by his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, who gave him wrong legal advice, is locked in a desperate struggle with the Republican Congress to save himself from war crimes charges at...
In Defense of Pope Benedict
What is an erudite and perhaps overly scholarly pope to do in the face of a news media that insists on cherry-picking his pronouncements – buried amidst references to obscure Byzantine emperors and abstruse theological constructs – and making of them blazing...
New Leaders, Similar Story at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib
Fresh allegations of brutality are being reported from inside the walls of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which was transferred from U.S. military to Iraqi government control on September 1st. Sa'dik al-Hasnawi, who heads up Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's offices in the...
‘NO USA’: Korean Farmers Continue to Protest US Base Expansion
Dozens of South Koreans took to the streets of Washington, DC Thursday in support of small farmers forced to relocate to make way for a massive new U.S. military base in their country. President George W. Bush was meeting with his South Korean counterpart just steps...
Going Far, Far Beyond the NPT
Last week, the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency formally protested "outrageous and dishonest" accusations made by members of the Cheney Cabal about Iran’s Safeguarded nuclear programs. Interestingly, the "radioactive fallout" from a previous...