Month: October 2006

A U.S. soldier who went AWOL – away without leave – over his opposition to the war in Iraq was incarcerated at the U.S. military’s Mannheim prison in Germany Tuesday, pending an appeal in Washington this November. Augustin Aguayo’s imprisonment comes less than a week after he turned himself in at Fort Irwin in California’s … Continue reading “More Dissension in the Ranks”

Bosnian Elections Redraw Old Battle Lines Citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina went to the polls this Sunday, in a general election for the country’s presidency and entity parliaments. Bosnian Serbs also voted for their republic’s president, while voters in the Muslim-Croat Federation elected cantonal parliaments. Preliminary results indicate a surprise development on the Bosnian political scene. The … Continue reading “Back to the Beginning”

When an administration is in trouble right before an election, it sometimes resorts to an "October surprise" designed to build support. Certainly this administration has trouble on a number of fronts, including the Abramoff scandal, congressional corruption, and a Republican representative who sent sexually oriented instant messages to congressional pages. The mother of all issues, … Continue reading “October Surprise?”

Sometimes, the proximate cause of an unraveling, even an implosion, may catch everyone by surprise. This week the “tipping point” (to borrow a Bush administration phrase from the Iraq War) for the possible unraveling of Republican control of Congress may be the roiling, boiling Mark Foley affair with its sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages … Continue reading “A Libby Pardon for Christmas?”

With Salam Talib Students at Iraq’s universities were to start the new school year this week – no small task given the daily barrage of violence that surrounds them. “Our ministry is the Ministry of Higher Education, so we don’t have a military and we can’t make one,” ministry spokesman Basil al-Khatib explained. He said … Continue reading “Iraq Violence Leading to Academic Brain Drain”

Updated at 11:30 p.m. EDT, Oct. 4, 2006 Violence in Iraq took the lives of at least 68 and injured 202 Wednesday. Four US soldiers were killed by “indirect and small arms fire” in northwestern Baghdad. Earlier, two more American soldiers were reported to have died, one in Baghdad and one near Kirkuk, from small … Continue reading “Wednesday: 68 Killed, 202 Injured Across Iraq”

Updated at 11:30 p.m. EDT, Oct. 4, 2006 Violence in Iraq took the lives of at least 68 and injured 202 Wednesday. Four US soldiers were killed by “indirect and small arms fire” in northwestern Baghdad. Earlier, two more American soldiers were reported to have died, one in Baghdad and one near Kirkuk, from small … Continue reading “Wednesday: 68 Killed, 202 Injured Across Iraq”

Five years after the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was putting the final touches on a brilliant campaign plan to oust the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies from power, Afghanistan is back in the headlines, and the news isn’t good. An unexpectedly fierce and prolonged Taliban offensive that began last spring has U.S. and NATO … Continue reading “War on Terror
Returning to Its Cradle”

The revelation in Bob Woodward’s new book, State of Denial, that Condoleezza Rice (then national security adviser to the president) brushed off CIA chief George Tenet when he came to her a few months before 9/11 with dire warnings of an imminent terrorist attack, is blasting this administration’s credibility out of the water – and … Continue reading “Condi’s Conundrum”

With Ali al-Fadhily RAMADI – Reports of the setting-up of U.S.-backed Sunni militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening chaos within Iraq. Some Sunni leaders from the troubled al-Anbar province west of Baghdad recently met away from their tribes to set up new militias, according to local reports. These new armed groups have received early … Continue reading “US Now Using Militias to Enforce Occupation”